Happy Valley Hong Kong Style Cafe 跑馬地冰室（曼城） — Restaurant in Manchester

Went here with a colleague. Seen a lot of Chinese customers enter here. First of all expecting some ‘HK Cafe Style’ decent size and tasty meals. Prices seemed ok. Ordered ‘beef brisket’ and ‘rice’. Meal came out very quick less than 10 mins.

First impressions were shocking. 3-4 pieces of Brisket. I’ve worked in the catering trade for over 20 years. I’ve never seen a plate look so less that a McDonald’s Kids Happy Meal would make this meal look like a snack compared it.

Taste was bland. Sauce was watery not thicken or enough flavour / colour you would expect. The rice looked like a partially filled bowl that had been turned upside down and put on the plate but worst of all 3-4 pieces beef!!! Even all this they charged £14 for this.

My colleagues meal took them near 20mins before arriving can’t say much about that meal. After all this they had the audacity to add a 10% Service charge on to the bill!? For what service? Normal dressed people handing a plate to the table?

This is an insult to authentic foodies looking for a taste the orient. Not to mention in all of my own years knowing food, making food, eating for this is the most embarrassing experience and standard I have experienced. Avoid like the plague.

叫咗牛腩飯。 3-4 塊牛腩！！ 14英鎊。 飯係少少牛腩少少。 等咗我同事餐出嚟，但係食完我嘅，仲等緊佢到。 埋單加咗10 % 服務費！？用嚟做咩服務 😤

(Just to add a reply to the ‘Service Charge’ this is not obligation by U.K. law. In fact you’re suppose to notify the customer that service charge has been added verbally.

Again this is optional and not mandatory. And yes unfortunately for other bills rent etc Service Charge by law goes to the Server not the management or building or expenses ‘all to the server’ if not your breaking the U.K. law on gratuity which your openly admitting.

As for a standard of when this is added as non obligation request, you would expect to see this within a restaurant higher class dinning establishment, which provides a dinning service not people in normal clothes within a local cafe.

As for your second part on why no photo was taken. It’s simple, a written review deemed relevant enough without pictures as I doubt I would ever return after that experience and in all honestly I think I have better things to do than write fake fibs of what I saw. After all like I mentioned I’ve worked in the catering trade for 20+ years and it’s up to the next customer if they decide / want to experience for...

I had a great time at the restaurant—the food was delicious, and the service was excellent. However, an unfortunate incident occurred when I was leaving. My car was parked in the back lot, as the designated parking spaces were very dirty, with lots of trash scattered around. When I returned to my car, the exterior was covered with insects, so I used a tissue to clean it off. Unfortunately, one of the tissues accidentally fell on the ground. I admit it was my mistake, but since the area was so filthy, I didn't want to pick it up.

At that moment, the person shown in the picture approached me, claiming the land belonged to them, although I didn't think that was true. They accused me of littering. Just as I was about to pick up the tissue, they started taking pictures of my car, so I took a picture of them in return. I asked them, "If you're so concerned, why don't you clean up all the trash around here? My car was covered in insects because of the garbage, and I wouldn’t have needed to clean it with tissues if the area were clean." While dropping the tissue was my fault, I didn’t deserve to be spoken to so harshly. I was frightened by their aggressive behavior.

So here’s a word of caution: if you plan on dining at this restaurant and parking nearby, be mindful of...

This is quite a special find. It’s located just on the edge of the city centre (about 15 minutes walk from the Arndale). The food, service and atmosphere were fantastic. We tried the Chicken Steak Rice Noodle Soup (8) and paid £1.50 for hot and sour soup base which was delicious, the chicken was so tender. We also tried the beef tendon brisket with rice (17) the beef melted in your mouth. We finally tried the Singapore Fried Vermicelli Noodles (46) the noodles were a perfect texture, being the right amount of chew to softness. The portion sizes were v. big so we took some home. The meal came to about £50 which is very reasonable for 3 full meals between two plus drinks. For drinks, we had the Hong Kong Style Milk Tea (Cold) because it’s summer - if you’re a fan of strong milky but sweet tea this hits the spot, The food quality was great, the food came out fresh and hot and all within 15 minutes despite it being busy. We had a great moment shared with Ivan (a regular customer) and his partner who both went out of their way to recommend some traditional Hong Kong dishes - forever thankful to them! Highly recommend this cafe to anyone! The food was too good so apologies for...