TOPS Buffet Restaurant Manchester — Restaurant in Manchester

Tops Buffet – Great dishes from all around the world

Thank you for the hospitality and service that we received when visiting your Manchester restaurant last Friday for a pre-theatre meal.

Food and Menu

Tops is a Buffet restaurant that has a wide variety of dishes that cater for all types of diner from the Meat lover to the Vegetarian.

In the Starters there are numerous dishes on offer. This includes Spring Rolls, Chips, Prawn Toast, Crab Claws, Chicken Nuggets, Salt and Pepper Prawns, Onion Rings, Chicken Wings and more.

In the Mains each table consists of dishes from a country. From India there are Vegetarian Samosas, Chicken Curry, Tikka Masala, Poppadom’s and more.

On the Italian table there is a selection of Pizzas. There is Cheese and Tomato, Ham and Pepperoni. There is also Garlic Bread and Potatoes.

In the Thai and Chinese table there is a good range of Curries including Sweet and Sour Chicken, Duck in Pancake, Shrimp and Prawn Curry. There are also different types of noodles too.

For those that love their meat then there is a Grill for those succulent meat dishes.

If you have a sweet craving then there are some great Desserts from the Eclairs to Tiramisu and some great Gateaux. If you love cold Desserts then there is Ice Cream in tubs. There is Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry, and Bubble Gum.

For the Starters the Spring Rolls were moorish. They had a fried crispy batter on the outside with a soft filling that was comforting to eat. The Crab Claws were soft with a mild Crab flavour. The Prawn Toast was tasty but was a bit tough to eat. The Chips were lovely to eat. Chunky Chips that were crispy on the outside with soft fluffy potato on the inside. The Chicken Nuggets were cooked nicely.

There is a Sushi counter. The Sushi was delicious. It awakens your tastebuds with cold tasty raw fish in a rice coating. They were all good.

For the Mains the Noodles were flavoursome. Thin nnodles that were enjoyable to eat. The Sweet and Sour Chicken was cooked perfectly. The Chicken was moist and it melted in the mouth. The Vegetable Samosas were heart-warming to eat. Crisp hearty pastry on the outside with a soft filling of Potato and Peas. Yum.

The Pizzas and Garlic Bread were very good. The Pepperoni one was full of flavour. The Cheese and Tomato one was Cheesy that is irresistible to eat. The Garlic Bread was on a Ciabatta bread. It was soft oozing with Garlic and with enough bite too.

All the Desserts were heaven. The Tiramisu was creamy. The Eclairs were lovely. The shoe pastry was cooked well filled with the right amount of cream inside. The Chocolate topping was brilliant. The Chocolate cake was rich and indulgent with gooey Chocolate. In addition the Strawberry Gateau was light and refreshing. The sponge was perfect.

There is a good selection of soft drinks however there are no Mocktails on offer.

Lighting and Access

The lighting at Tops is OK but it is not strong. It is dim in some parts of the restaurant however the staff were friendly and were accommodating to my needs. As a result our table was good enough and with a relaxed ambience it allowed me to enloy the meal.

In relation to the access of the restaurant the entrance has a small step to enter the building. There are also 4 steps to go down in order to get to your table. If you struggle with steps then there is a lift in the middle of the building which allows you to avoid this.

Parking

There is parking at NCP Oxford Street and also at another NCP car park behind the Palace Theatre. They are both a short walk away. You are required to pay even if you are a Blue Badge holder.

Pricing

The buffet is reasonably priced for all the food options that are available. It is value for money.

Check out the Tops website for full price details.

If you love a culinary journey around the world with dishes that are full of flavour, are hearty and that tickle your tastebuds then Tops Buffet is the...

Attended as a prebooked party of 35 guests for a 50th birthday party. Didn't particularly feel like any thought had gone into where we were allocated and we were split on 4 separate tables in rows which meant it made it hard to socialise throughout the meal. So much faffing with separate drinks orders and so many mistakes made with drinks orders ie wrong drinks, double payments, missing drinks from lists ordered and this was before we'd even got through the starters. The massive choices of foods from around the world was fantastic. I stuck mainly to Chinese food and what I ate for my starter and main, I absolutely loved as did nearly all the remaining party of diners. Really underwhelmed by the quality of the desserts and although they look like they are going to taste amazing as they look, sadly this wasn't the case. Not a fan of synthetic cream filled or topped mini cake sponge slices and although there was a large variety of different looking sponges, every one tasted pretty much identically bland and screamed for some sweet flavour! The cold bananas and custard pudding was the best tasting dessert. I was going to try dipping a marshmallow into the chocolate fountain until I spotted disguarded sticks and marshmallows piling up at the foot of the fountain. Not the most tempting of sights! All in all, we had a really nice 90 minute slot before we were required to vacate the table. I'd of liked to have been allowed a bit longer given the large party number. I emailed the restaurant a few days before to ask of I could decorate the the on advance to guests arriving and also asked that because many guests were travelling from other cities, counties and one from another country to be there for the meal and celebration, if there were any delays, would there be any wriggle room on the table time scale. I received a very blunt response telling me I could decorate the tables with balloons 10 mins before 35 guests were set to decend on the place and in regard to any time extension, I was told, and I quote "NO table times extended available" I know people queue round the block to get into Topps on a Saturday night and I can understand why for the massive choice of fresh savoury dishes they have available for diners to feast on but personally, the dessert is a big part of enjoying the dining out experience and I was left really disappointed at the quality and standard of the ones they had to offer. I wouldn't book a large party for a celebration at this venue again but I'd deffo pop in with a few pals if I was out drinking in Manchester and get a good savoury fill to soak...

We went on the 23rd of August for my 21st birthday. It was a party of 6. The blonde woman on the front of house who took our money was really rude didn’t really greet just demanded our money. We spent the first 45 minutes enjoying our food until the youngest of our party (10) began feeling sick and immediately went to the toilet and threw up. There was a lovely woman who sits in front of the bathroom entrance who came in and checked up on us. After we had left the bathroom we got our stuff and left. As we are walking literally around the corner to the Q car park, the youngest is still violently throwing up every few steps and that’s when it becomes apparent something is wrong because another person in our group begins to do the same. We now have two people throwing up. We all go home. I then get a message around 9-10pm in our groupchat starting up a conversation saying that everyone else is being sick and even experiencing diarrhoea. My youngest brother is still experiencing this too. Me and my partner went to bed before waking up around 12-1am throwing up and having bad stomach. I suffer from Crohn’s disease so this was even worse and is still evident not just with me but everyone. We all have made a report to Manchester City council food hygiene report line. I rang up at 12pm today on the 24th to ask for the manager, where the front of house woman said he is a meeting, he will reply to my email ive sent when he is free. I have just rang up at 2:47 pm for an update on wether the manager is free. The woman on the phone was disgustingly rude and said “yea well it’s a long meeting” I then have told her to inform the manager we have contacted city council and she replied “well haven’t had any complaints apart from you lot it’s probably a virus” I have contacted 111 last night and they say it is most likely food poisoning and for us to make our way down to a&e if it gets worse or wait till Monday for the gp to do a stool sample. I then say to her it’s not just us, you can read the reviews online there is multiple people experiencing the same thing. I would like to speak to the manager not front of house. She then says ok and that is the end of call. My brother and partner also said they seen a family picking the food up with their hands and just been downright disgusting. We are all so upset as it was a birthday party and want a refund haven’t got much hope for it especially with the way we have...