Sunny Cafe — Restaurant in Manchester

I had mixed feelings about my visit today. Some aspects were fairly positive, while I was a little disappointed with others.

First, the positive. The parking is adequate, the exterior is inviting, the inside is clean, light, and airy. Really appreciate the clean part, as it is nice to walk into a restaurant that just feels clean from the start. High marks here! The menu is perhaps a little limited but not badly, however it is uncommon and interesting enough to make the restaurant an attractive pick for that reason alone. One point I genuinely appreciated was that while open, airy, and full of acoustically reflective surfaces that normally cause sounds to echo across the store, the ambient interior volume never approached the annoying din that many other places suffer from, even though it was full of people. Had I visited with someone else we could held our own dialogue without needing to yell at one another across the table. Not sure how they pulled that off, but that’s a big plus for me! The food portion was perhaps a little small for the price paid, but it was fresh and tasted good.

As for the disappointments, there are only a few. First, I wish there were more healthy drink options. For a menu that largely seems to appeal to a healthy crowd, I didn’t find the kind of drink choices I would have liked to see. They do have what appears to be a decent coffee bar, but that’s not particularly healthy and I don’t drink coffee. The other choices were sugar drinks or water. The second issue was staff friendliness. I believe I had the only smile at the counter. Beyond merely a dearth of smiles, they struck me as quite indifferent.

Lastly, is the tip amounts on their register. I will confess that I am beginning to feel rather strongly about this point. For context, I am generally a pretty hefty tipper. People comment on it often, but I respect the work folks in these restaurants do working with and serving the general public day in and day out. Having said that… Nobody owes me a smile. Nobody owes me a friendly introduction or response to my questions about their menu or requests for their own personal menu suggestions. However, this is essentially a counter-serve restaurant. They do drop the food off at your table when it’s done, but so does McDonald’s. This is not a bad thing. But when I am faced with a series of suggested tip percentages with nothing below 15%, I’m sorry, but I take issue with that here. The visitor waits in line, is presented with an indifferent employee, and the food is dropped off with no eye contact, no acknowledgement of the “Thank you!” they are given, and yet I am asked to tip between 15-20%. Do I tip like that for counter serve? Yes. Frequently, and even better than that, truth be told. But that is for service earned. I find it increasingly offensive to be routinely asked to tip what not long was be reserved for a good full-service restaurant for what amounts to the service level one would receive at a mediocre McDonald’s. One star for that.

Enough of the rant. Overall this place has a lot going for it. I would love to see them bump it up a little bit, and may return again in the future to see if they make it happen. I like the concept, and there has obviously been some thought put into it. If I could ask for three things, give me some healthy drink options (even just a bottled greens drink), encourage your staff so they are a little more cheerful, and do not start your tip suggestions higher than 10% at the most. It...

From the moment you walk into this place, you can tell that it's something special. The atmosphere is very gentle and warm with diffused light and soft jazz playing in the background. Even though there was a busy intersection next door, it was impossibly comfortable.

The process for ordering is very similar to a poke bowl or burrito bowl joint where you can order a base (in this case, pierogies or dumplings) and then pick out which toppings you want. If you're a bit overwhelmed by all of the choices (like I was at first) then you can go with one of their premade options as well!

Wanting to test something a little bit out of my comfort zone, I decided to try the "Zesty Garlic Dumpling Bowl" which featured garlic sauce, wasabi mayo, and a pickle over their chicken and beef dumplings.

The plating was lovely with a decent balance of colors. The green wasabi mayo was not overwhelming and gave a good bit of zest to the dish.

I originally was planning to buy the larger portion of dumplings but I found the smaller size to be perfectly filling by itself. I think that the larger size would be better split with someone else.

My sibling wanted to order something a bit sweeter so they went with the "Berries and Creme Crepe". While I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it myself, my sibling sent me their pic. We swapped plates towards the end of the meal and I was absolutely blown away by the crepe.

The crepe had a nice light texture with a delicious strawberry cream filling. Those were definitely some of the best blueberries that I've ever had in my entire life (they had a good snap to them). I'm not the biggest fruit fan myself, but the consistency in these berries was impressive. Absolutely delicious!!

Overall, I'm incredibly satisfied with this café and I recommend it to anyone who is looking for quiet respite in...

Clean and bright. I wasn’t expecting such a high class environment in Manchester, nearly impossible to find.

Coffee was excellent, which is also difficult to find in such an over saturated industry.

My husband and I loved the aesthetic appeal, as the decor was pleasant, and so were the staff. Many hip coffee shops are full of disrespectful teenagers in pajamas, but here the staff are well dressed and seemingly educated.

My only concern would be to address the maturity of some of the young girls out front, as some were working hard and then others goofing off. Perhaps management should be stricter in order to maintain their pristine reputation.

The bacon avacado breakfast sandwich was a great quick and easy solution to my hunger, as was my husband’s breakfast taco. The ingredients were obviously fresh, however the food was okay at best. They seem to have nailed the coffee menu, but maybe add some more thought to the food. When asking an employee, we were pleasantly surprised to find that all baked goods are made in house by their own baker!

Be mindful of other customers who use this space to work, or what appears to be studying. The noise bounces off the walls easily.

Overall a wonderful experience. This is a well thought out establishment and I look forward to any future improvements. If management does read this review, please consider reinforcing better rules for your staff.

We will most definitely be coming back, and I will be...