Grand Pacific — Restaurant in Manchester

Don't be decieved by their interior design and the ambience of this place. The service and food were shockingly poor.

We were a group of 8 booked for their Festive 3-course Set Menu at 7pm. Our table wasn't even set properly. Our cutlery (the basics) were wrong way round! No drink menus on the table either. We asked for jugs of tap water but they ran out of jugs.

The lady manager decided to serve our starters even though we barely warmed our seat; one friend was running late and we haven't even ordered drinks yet because there were no drink menus. Our friend contested this and the response was that "we send the food the moment you are seated so that tables can be turned around." Not quite sure why they were rushing when our booking confirmation email clearly stated that we can have the table until 9:45pm. The starters were served to us at 7:10pm with one starter left cold for the friend yet to arrive.

The food... The starters: Chicken Gyoza - They were the only highlight food-wise. Crispy, hot in temperature, and had the Asian flavours whether it was miso (as advertised) or simply soya sauce, it was tasty / tastier than other dishes served.

Citrus & Honey Cured Salmon - This was appalling. 3 matchstick pieces of raw salmon served with salad that wasn't fresh and without dressing. The salmon was definitely not cured and we're just hoping they're sashimi grade for health and safety.

The mains: Honey Glazed Confit Duck Leg - Couldn't taste honey or hoisin sauce (as advertised) but salt. Very salty indeed. It reminded me of the Chinese preserved duck leg (臘鴨).

Roast Sea Bream - The fish wasn't fresh and it was supposed to be served with bok choy which there was only one strand of it and in tom yum broth which it wasn't a broth to me. Again, tasteless.

The mains were served with roast potatoes which were ok but maple roasted vegetables were not. It seemed like all the forgotten honey and broth input to dishes have been transferred to this vegetable dish. It was sickly sweet as the vegetables were dripping sugar.

The desserts: Honey Roasted Peach & Pineapple - fortunately, it wasn't too sweet or maybe because we just had the overly sweet vegetables. There were hot (in temperature) pieces of peach and pineapple topped with crispy granola but I couldn't taste any cinnamon. Served with a scoop of ice-cream. It was ok. Nothing special.

Chocolate & Cherry Mousse - To me, mousse should be light and airy but this was heavy and fudgy. The mousse had rich chocolate flavour while the cherry flavour came from the sauce not the mousse itself.

Overall, a negative visit. I'm not rushed to return and I'm sure it was the same for the manager who was trying to rush us out from the very...

Take your Instagram picture, have a cocktail and leave. Also, bring something to wipe the menu down 🤦‍♀️!

The food here is shocking, in-fact there was more seasoning in my cocktail than in my main course. Perhaps you would have had more luck if your mixologist was in the kitchen.

I ordered king oyster mushrooms dashi. This dish came in about two minutes after ordering. I was already worried by that; nothing cooked fresh can come out of a kitchen that quickly. They make such a fuss about the broth by pouring it over in a small cast iron teapot which is lovely - only the broth is tasteless; I’m talking tap water tasteless. Although I only managed to taste it after requesting a spoon. Their choice of cutlery for this noodle dish was the worlds largest knife and fork. Combine that with a savagely placed table and chair - to give yourself the worlds most awkward eating experience. So the broth is bland; you go looking for flavour in the dish only to be met with mushrooms that have either been frozen or rehydrated; these are not fresh. As for the Gyoza, I give in. These were also bought in, you can tell, and the bases were not lovely and crispy as they should be. I’ve made them fresh at home. It’s not the most challenging process. Overall I feel as this dish is vegetarian; it’s probably not something they sell as often, so some of the ingredients are not fresh, and it shows. If you don’t sell it, take it off the menu.

After that, I should have left, but I was killing some time, so I ordered dessert. OMG, why? I ordered mango soufflé, and when it got to me, I was initially impressed it had risen well! However, it was 3/4 raw the entire thing deflated when I put my spoon in it, and it turned to a sugary wallpaper paste. *Ah yes - at this point I’d also poured the mango sauce over the ice cream. The sauce is juice literally juice… at the very least this should be mango pulp something thicker with more flavour.

Anyway… naturally I told the waiter that it was raw. He said I could have another. I refused due to the idea that if you can’t cook it, please don’t try again.

No one seemed that apologetic, and when the bill came, it was on there. They were about to charge me for a raw soufflé. I raised it, and he once again said he would have to speak to his manager - they eventually took it off the bill.

I’ve worked in hospitality, and it’s not cute when something goes wrong and stuff does go wrong - I get it. Though how you manage the mistakes is essential. As the manager, I would have come over and apologised and at least shown some care - but that didn’t happen.

P.S Why is all the cutlery so large? It’s giving...

Went here for high tea after my university graduation, I’ll start with the positives first:

Customer service was great and the staff were very attentive

As for the rest of the experience, we were asked if we would like water for the table still or sparking, didn’t realise that we would be charged for this but to our surprise was added to the bill at the end. Very poor way to up the bill in my opinion.

We ordered each the standard high tea (this part is important) 2 cokes and a SINGLE glass of prosecco.. the waiter came over with our drinks and advised that they have added a prosecco ‘on the house’ as it was my graduation which I thought was nice however instead of actually just discounting the prosecco that I asked for and having that for free, they turned up to the table with a glass of prosecco and a 200ml bottle of prosecco and an extra glass.. we realised when the bill came, instead of charging me for a glass of prosecco they had changed my standard high tea to the sparkling high tea (the one that came with the 200ml bottle) which I never asked for. I don’t drink so this was a special occasion and my partner doesn’t drink at all so the prosecco was wasted as I didn’t even finish one glass and I never asked for 2 lots of prosecco, not to mention the sparkling high tea I think was around £39 per person whereas the standard was quite a bit less so we were technically charged for it still.

Then to the food… for the price you pay you really don’t get much food between 2 people- 1 finger sandwich of coronation chicken and 1 finger sandwich of salmon and cream cheese , 1 piece of a sausage roll that had been cut into 1cm thick slices and 1 mini lobser roll.. none of which quantity wise even added up to a whole regular sandwich. The sweets included a macaroon each an eclair each, a trifle each and a chocolate mouse looking biscuit each This was followed up which a scone which was so hard it was difficult to cut with a knife.. all the sandwiches were extremely dry like they had been sat out in the air for some time before being served which just kind of ruined the more up market vibe of the restaurant.

We were shocked when we got the bill to see that it came to around £90 for two people and we both left feeling rather hungry still and quite disappointed.. I never asked for the 200ml bottle of prosecco I was charged for and I don’t expect to pay for water for the table if it is thrust at you the second you sit down or at least make a point of telling the customers to will be charged for water instead of just asking ‘still or sparkling’ and giving no option...