Store Street Exchange Restaurant — Restaurant in Manchester

Rude front of house staff who treat you with contempt if they can’t take your money.

Saw that this place was on the way to the train station for breakfast. The hours on Google say 24 hours so we went and checked at about 1030am. We went via the obscure entrance (not the big one for hotel guests). We entered and it was empty so something didn’t seem right. Then a staff member very abruptly said they were closed and told me to go to the bar further down (not sure why!) he didn’t ask me what we were there for but I clearly asked for a table for two so the clue is in what we ASKED!

Then when I asked if the store street kitchen is open and he abruptly said no it’s closed and again told me to go further down to the bar to speak to someone there. Again, not sure why. He just wanted to rudely brush us off without clarifying things. When I checked afterwards I noticed the revised Google hours for breakfast which I saw ends at 10am, but this is hidden and needs to be expanded by users. Store street exchange needs to change the hours to reflect the true kitchen hours because IT IS NOT 24 hours! Also, display relevant signage wherever customers enter with CLEAR kitchen hours!

These type of changes will improve the customer experience and avoid awkward experiences like we had, which wasn’t our fault whatsoever!

Oh and if that guy we spoke to is in charge of front of house,...

Strange place really. It's under a hotel and you really know that it's under a hotel, like they could've totally broken away from that. You have to walk past reception to get to the toilets. You can tell that most people in the restaurant are hotel guests.

We ordered some pork scratching type things as nibbles. These came before our drinks. They were £5 and were basically like pork flavoured quavers. Puffs of air. Didn't get many.

Starters we shared chicken wings. These were a nice decent portion and crispy, although the sauce was drizzled on top as opposed to them being tossed. Calamari. Chewy. It's very difficult to get calimari right to be honest but if in doubt leave them in the fryer for longer. Black pudding and apple sausage roll. The plate was enormous with two small pieces of sausage roll on. It was just black pudding in pastry with apple sauce.

Mains we both had pork belly. I enjoyed this my partner didn't. There wasn't enough sauce. But let's face it, where can you go and get enough sauce!! Will chefs ever learn we like sauce!!! He thought was chewy and there was no crispy top which was true. I'm not so fussy.

Dessert was the saving grace. A melt in the middle chocolate pudding with salted caramel ice cream. I was tempted to order another.

Will I be...

I stumbled upon this place on a rather dull morning. As soon as I stepped into the restaurant, I was greeted by the staffs warmly and seated quickly. The hostess Wing was genuine and passionate. She explained to me in details about the buffet breakfast offerings. I was really impressed. The buffet included a variety of hot and cold selection, from fruits and yoghurt, to bread and pastry. Sausages and egg dishes are readily available, or one may ask the server for freshly cooked eggs in any style. While the food wasn't top notch, the staffs' attitude and service more than made up for the short comings. Another staff member Alvan, was often seen checking on the customers and made sure they were enjoying their breakfast. I would recommend this restaurant to my friends for a casual breakfast gathering, simply because the staffs were efficient, polite...