Zaap Thai Street Food Manchester — Restaurant in Manchester

I was excited about the opening in Manchester after visiting the respective zaap branches in Leeds and Sheffield so had to give it a try once it opened

The interior was beautiful and the entire atmosphere with the seating brings you back to Thailand so first thoughts were positive.

The food however was pretty lacklustre - I was dining in a big group so decided to try a bit of everything on the menu but the dishes weren’t as tasty as it’s other branches, the green curry was the worst as it was just creamy with no depth of flavour, my favourite was probably the starters and pad see ew noodles. The worst dish I had was the mango sticky rice in which the sauce on the dish was incredibly salty, nothing like what I had eaten in Thailand.

The service was somewhat inconsistent - while some staff members were exceptionally attentive and friendly, others seemed a bit stressed and hurried. In particular, the female manager came across as unwelcoming and lacked understanding toward the toddler in our group. Her approach felt rather hostile, which detracted from the overall experience.

I’d probably go here with a smaller group next time as bigger groups don’t seem to be managed well by the staff, and definitely not rushing to come back as my experience has tarnished my feelings with the place sadly - maybe for a...

Fantastic decor, friendly and efficient staff, good music and great atmosphere. Food was good value and delicious BUT I was very disappointed that the somtam was only on the top layer of the bowl, the rest being shredded iceberg lettuce. I mean, lettuce in Somtam who does that? Although the Somtam was a bit of a let down it was still good value and I look forward to my next visit.

Update 23/08/2025 Second visit - Pad Kee Mao was yummy and authentic. At last a Thai restaurant which is Instagram worthy without compromise on the food. And unlike many Manchester restaurants adding unexpected service charges to the bill Zaap adds ZERO, they give you the opportunity to add a tip if you wish (100% of which is split between all staff). A great addition to the Manchester food scene.

Update 06/09/2025 Disappointingly they have now succumbed to the recent common bad practice of adding an automatic service charge to the bill. Whilst the service charge is only 7.5% it is still an unwelcome change. (Also it means that they will receive less from me as I usually leave at least...

A little bit localized thai food by removing spiciness. But in general, the taste is good.

The pork neck meat was tender and fried well. The satay chicken was sweet, and the satay sauce was tuned, not simply a peanut butter.

The pad thai was good, dry with "wok hei", but I would expect there are some dry chili to let me to decide to mix it or not.

The portion of the curry fried chicken was a bit small, but the curry got a good balance of spicy and coconut sweetness. I also prefer a bit more sauce so I can mix with rice.

The mango rice was salty, not sweet, the white sauce was too thin and the mango was not sweet.

The pandan pancake was pretty good, though the custard was domainting the taste of pandan. The texture of the ice cream was close to ice rather then smooth ice cream, it was quite interesting.

The staff were nice there, they checked if I want another drink, so i am willing to pay the service charge. But it was pretty full that the only 6 servers so the service is pretty slow but acceptable.

I would say it is localized well, not a bad choice in...