The Grill in Manchester

Fantastic mixed grill cooked to perfection and the waiting on staff were excellent. This far exceeded my expectations. The best meal of my three day trip to the U.K.

After a lengthy journey from Glasgow to Manchester, I found myself having a late-night meal at the Crowne Plaza Manchester Airport’s “The Grill” restaurant. I decided to enjoy a repast here following the front desk’s statement that the restaurant served up “classic English dishes;” thus, I figured this would be a grand opportunity to partake in some English fish & chips, which is exactly what I ordered. But more on that in a moment. The Crowne Plaza (Manchester Airport) describes The Grill thusly: “Stylish contemporary restaurant offering a wide choice of modern cuisine in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.” I’m not exactly sure what makes this establishment “stylish” or “contemporary.” To my mind it was quite generic, even for a hotel restaurant. It’s basically a large open space adjacent to the lobby. The main restaurant area is lined with small white-topped tables with black chairs. There’s sparse artwork on the walls, but it adds little to the overall atmosphere and environment. Indeed, even the hotel’s propaganda photos on their official website cannot properly hide the lifeless physical space. To The Grill’s credit, their dinner menu actually sounded attractive on paper. As noted above, I settled on their classic English fish & chips. The food came in good time and looked decent enough; however, appearances can be deceiving – as I quickly found out. My piece of fish was impressive in its size, BUT when I bit into said fish, not only did I almost break my teeth, but all I ended up getting was a mouthful of crunchy batter. It turns out that literally HALF the “piece of fish” was nothing more than batter . . . and the fish that was there was paper thin and dry (see photo). To add insult to injury, my steak fries were barely warm. I’d be doing readers a disservice if I failed to mention the service received during dinner. In short, it was ho-hum. I’d first intended to eat a meal at the Hotel Bar (located in the same space as The Grill, but separated by a brown railing enclosure); however, after sitting for about 10-minutes without any form of acknowledgement, I moved down in to the restaurant section. Here, service was rather cold. The server showed up to take my order and then disappeared until I flagged him down to satisfy my bill. For a 4-star hotel, their restaurant staff is pretty mediocre. What saves The Grill from the dreaded 1-star rating is the breakfast buffet I enjoyed the following morning. It was well laid out and easily beats any sort of breakfast buffet you might get in North America. It featured a nice assortment of pastries, jellies, eggs, fresh fruit, yogurt, granola, fruit juices, beans, tomatoes, sausages, breakfast spuds, ham and cold cuts. In short, I was left satisfied just before embarking upon my trans-Atlantic journey. FOOD: 2/5 SERVICE: 1/5 VALUE: 2.5/5 RECOMMENDATION: I’m not sure if I just chose the wrong item, but the fish & chips that were had here was nothing short of abysmal. I can honestly say I’ve had better fish out of the grocer’s freezer. Breakfast, though, was decent. In the unlikely event I attend the Crowne Plaza (Manchester Airport) again, I would likely patronize Sampans Oriental Restaurant because at least their propaganda photos look appealing. PS: If you found this review helpful in any way please consider hitting the "helpful" button!