Pollen Bakery - KAMPUS — Restaurant in Manchester

First off, I left 2 stars review for 2 mains things I’m impressed. (1) The food - I ordered the potato bun with egg and it was up to the standards. I would like to come back again to try the brunch menu next time. The sourdough bread was unbeatable! (2) The vibe- I’m falling in love with how this place is decorated and located in the heart of Kampus’ s small garden. Perfect place for relaxing.

3 stars I’ve deducted can be broken down into 3 mains points which are; (1) Long wait - from the moment I walked in, the staff offered me a menu and treated me nicely and politely. However, I have to wait half an hour for my food. I even finished my pastries and drink long before the food finally arrived. ( Though, I intended to have everything altogether) Whilst I totally understand that it is busier than usual on weekends, it would be nice if the staff could inform the estimated waiting time for any particular dishes that would take longer than customers might expect. Also, with better HR management, I believe that the food can be prepared a lot quicker if there are more kitchen staffs during weekends.

(2) The price- The price is slightly expensive. But personally I’m not bothered as the quality of the product is reasonable for what I paid.

(3) Hygienic - I have to mention that it is a pet-friendly place where they welcome pets to be indoor. The attitude of staff towards pets is very positive. However, I have seen one of the the staffs make coffee after touching dogs without washing their hands. It would be great if they could be more careful...

Amazing desserts & decent coffee sadly let down by odd opening times & staff who rarely smile, don’t clean the menus before handing them to you (wet!), forget to serve cutlery and/or for example forget straws in the iced coffees, generally behave unprofessionally, and don’t respect personal space. Management should train staff better. The foreign staff are lovely so i suspect it’s a cultural issue with staff from the local area- a shame to let down such amazing food! Staff should be trained like: 1. Always smile. 2. Never rush customer 3. Always offer clean / dry menus 4. Don’t invade customers personal space (eg. Repeatedly rushing past knocking their tables while they’re eating on it). 5. Never bring food before cutlery. 6. Service should always be in a relaxed manner, not anxious.

EDIT: I appreciate the management’s response below & sorry to hear it’s been a rocky week but given that the same problems exist with the staff at pollen in Union street in Ancoats (which has been open for years) I don’t think these issues are related to your rocky week, but are more long-term & staffing / quality related. Manchester is a challenging environment in terms of staffing quality but I hope pollen manages to fix it (if they can’t find decent staff, just train heavily) because the desserts are second to none...

If I lived in the city then pollen is one place I'd visit daily. Whether it'd be for a drink, brunch or to pick up some fresh bread they have it all. Love the simplicity of Kampus Pollen.

We ordered: Creme Brulee French Toast Wild Mushrooms with Chimichurri & Labneh Cinnamon morning bun Caramel Chocolate Cookie Matcha latte Egg mayo sandwich Tofu Katsu sandwich 28hr Sour to go Strawberry Fraisier to go Basque cheesecake to go

Let me tell you about the French Toast: Bruleed Croissant Loaf French Toast, Chilled Vanilla Creme Anglaise + Creme fraiche WOW absolutely WOW. This is one french toast that doesn't need to be soaked. When you break that crispy brulee top you submerge into a soft loaf hitting the creme at the bottom and you get this mouthful of sweet, crunchy but melt in your mouth combination. No other way to describe it really.

The mushrooms were really good and tasty. You really couldn't tell that you were having oat labneh.

The morning cinnamon bun was huge and had the most generous amount of cinnamon sugar. The ratio was spot on.

The sandwiches were very thick and filling and the tofu katsu resembled chicken amazingly.

Their Basque cheesecake was super soft.

I really can't fault Pollen and literally would go every day. Service was fab.

Can't...