Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay - Manchester — Restaurant in Manchester

Disappointing Lunch at Gordon Ramsay’s Lucky Cat – Overpriced and Underwhelming

Today, I was excited to visit Gordon Ramsay’s Lucky Cat in Manchester for a three-course lunch, priced at approximately £80 for two people. Given Ramsay’s reputation and his well-documented critiques of subpar food on Kitchen Nightmares, I had high expectations. Ironically, the very issues he calls out in failing restaurants—bland food, lack of freshness, and poor value—were exactly what I experienced at Lucky Cat.

Misleading Menu & Poor Substitutions The issues started with the menu. The online lunch menu listed vegetable tempura, typhoon tofu salad, and beef gyoza as starters. Despite the limited options, we were happy to go for the beef gyoza. However, upon arrival, we discovered that the beef gyoza had been removed, leaving only vegetarian options—something that wasn’t reflected online.

When I raised this with our waiter, he seemed caught off guard, sweating under the pressure as if no one had ever pointed out this issue before. He went to check with his manager, and while they tried to accommodate us, the solution was to offer just four beef gyoza to share between two people. For an £80 meal, this felt like a joke. Worse still, the gyoza tasted like they had been pre-cooked and kept warm in a steamer rather than being freshly prepared—far from the high standards I’d expect at a premium restaurant.

They also brought out some salted edamame. While a nice gesture, edamame is one of the cheapest, most basic snacks you can serve. Sprinkling salt on beans does not justify the premium price tag.

Main Course – A Complete Letdown Hoping the main course would redeem the meal, I ordered the teriyaki salmon rice bowl. Unfortunately, this was the biggest disappointment of all. The rice was hard, stale, and utterly lacking in flavor. My partner, who grew up on authentic Asian cuisine, took one bite and was visibly disgusted. I’d challenge Gordon Ramsay himself to eat a rice bowl in Japan, Korea, or even at a small, family-run Asian eatery in Manchester and then tell me, with a straight face, that this was acceptable. It had all the texture and taste of an Uncle Ben’s microwaveable rice pouch.

Dessert – More Style Than Substance For dessert, my partner ordered the fruit plate—expecting something creative or indulgent. Instead, she received a few slices of strawberry and banana on ice. That’s it. Given the cost of this meal, this felt like an insult. How can a high-end restaurant justify serving a few pennies’ worth of fruit as a premium dessert?

The Good Points (Because There Were Some) Despite the disaster that was the food, I’ll give credit where it’s due:

The champagne was lovely. The venue itself is stylish and well-designed. The staff were friendly and professional, doing their best within the constraints of what they had to work with. Final Verdict – Avoid at All Costs I rarely leave complaints, but this was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had—especially for the price. The lunch menu is misleading, the food is poorly executed, and the value for money is abysmal.

If you’re looking for fantastic Asian cuisine in Manchester, there are countless cheaper, better options that serve authentic, flavorful food. Lucky Cat was a massive letdown, and I wouldn’t return—even if someone paid me.

Fortunately, I used a gift voucher my sister gave me, so I didn’t have to bear the full financial loss. But if I had paid out of pocket, I would have been even more frustrated.

Save your money and...

A bonny dinner with the wife this evening, great experience dining at lucky cat, not the grand evening I was expecting, just some really tasty dishes.

The wife and I are reliving our first date with a good meal and walking the same places we visited on our first night, thought to celebrate with something special and settled on lucky cat.

We we running late so I stepped to the restaurant while the car was being parked, polite and funny commentary when greeted and sat comfortably.

Menus were offered and explained, we opted for the signature experience as we really wanted to treat ourselves.

The cocktails were delicious, both Netsu and Chikyuu were very easy to drink and would recommend to try.

With the first course of edamame beans and squid they were lovely picky bits to introduce the meal, it excited us with what more was to come. Super crispy squid and well seasoned beans.

The next course of tuna sushi and tartare, was fantastic, well presented with good colour on the plate. Impressed by the wasabi, I could eat that on toast.

After that was the duck boa buns, that was a real treat. scallops in a beautiful sweetcorn and pepper sauce and these amazing tempura mushrooms, served with the best truffle mayo I've had in a long time. Love to interact with the food and customise your prefect bun. Do feel like if I was offered cutlery at this point I would have taken it, sharing the nibbles would have been easier.

We were both getting pretty full by this point, rich food with great textures.

This was followed was an egg rice, a hearty bowl with lots of flavour packed in, couldn't finish it. The egg was cooked for 45 minutes in a 63 degree bath, the waiter explained that the temperature made the yolk creamy.

We swapped out the ribeye for the pork and wasn't impressed by it, good flavours but didn't wow me.

What did, was the cod in yuzu sauce, bright colours with a sweet tangy flavour. Fish cooked perfectly with a little kimchi maki roll. I'd have that again.

The sweet treat at the end of the night is there to send you off with a good memory, the last thing you do is the first thing they remember I've always said, this dish didn't deliver. Yes it had a nice taste and is a good size when sharing, but the base was too hard and felt like it would fly off the plate if I had to cut it with the edge of the spoon, using our hands to snap the cornflake base.

The bill came to just under £350 with the service included, for that price I want to come away thinking I had a fantastic meal but I didn't.

The guests around me were more casual than expected, couldn't see much from where I was sitting, the waiter was pleasant and well versed with the lines he had to say, noticed the chef having to call service more often than he wanted with the front of house team reluctant to help (having to be signalled over by a waving hand from another team member.)

I enjoyed my evening there, it's an experience to say I dined at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant. On reflection I think my expectations were a little high, but for an average Joe like me to dine here, the value didn't carry as much as the name, I don't feel like it...

I am starting this review, with the often reviled humble vegetable......broccoli, often soggy, uninspiring in flavour and dull, whencooked can be the vegification of the word damp. I can honestly say I have never been so wowed at food as I was with not only depth, joy and multitude of flavours and textures from crunchy to smokey to spicy to creamy of the Lucky Cats Broccoli leaving me questioning what I have been eating all these years. There was so much to it that I was lost for words other than wow. The broccoli for me wasn't even the star of the show, the Tempura mushrooms looked incredible like artwork, they were light, well textured and bursting of flavour, with the most interesting of sweet, slightly spicy dipping sauce. The mushroom dumplings, were a tardis of a dish had the depth of flavour and heartyness of oriental mushroom caserole slow cooked for an era, wrapped up in an elegant little dainty parcel, a meal in a mouthful. The manager brought over our fried rice and prepped it for us making the bold statement 'the best fried rice you'll ever have' He was not wrong. I often swap the chop sticks for the spoon or fork when eating rice for ease, not tonight, my taste buds took over control of my stomach and wouldn't let me, I had to enjoy each morsel savouring each small bite. We also partook in the sushi, which was as good as any 5 star sushi specific restaurants, (we eat alot of sushi on date nights) My favourite dish was however the GFC. My partner is vegitarian so when out I mainly order only veggie for meals, but given Gordon has put his name on it I couldn't resist, despite the cold look of disapproval of my partner. It did not dissappoint. I will be dreaming of it for years to come. Sweet spicy, crispy, creamy, and cooked to perfection. Fried chicken has always been one of my fav foods, it has been elevated to new heights.

For dessert we opted for the truffles and mochi to share them.

We loved the mochi, less so the truffles, but they were lovely and they added an alternate variety to evenings flavours. They were not quite the dessert we usually would go for, or were hoping for I have a very sweet tooth.

I have rarely been so wowed at every dish and my brain has been overwhelmed with the sensations received through my pallet, I am still processing the concerto of flavours.

The meal wasn't a meal it was an experience I loved it...

I would also like to shout out to the brilliant staff, Service was excellent and drinks weren't...