Description: The last time that I was in Manchester was for a concert at the MEN arena and we stayed overnight so the next day we decided to do some shopping in the city centre. We ended up close to the Printworks and decided to look there to see where to have lunch and settled on The Hard Rock Café as I personally had never been to one before and wanted to see what it was like.
It is located right at the entrance to the Printworks so you can’t really miss it. I was surprised by just how dark the whole complex was though and we actually had to push the door open to make sure it was open as it was so dark that we really were unsure. Once we had seen that it was open we went in and waited at the door for a server to come and show us to our table.
As it was pretty quiet we were allowed to choose where we wanted to sit and we decided on a booth near the back as they looked the most comfortable. The seating is made up of both tables and booths and as well as the ground floor there is also another floor above so there are a lot of tables and even if it is a busy day such as a Saturday you should be able to get a table ok without a long wait.
The whole restaurant is themed around music especially Rock and Roll with loads of items from famous musicians adorning the walls.
I spent most of my time in the restaurant while we were waiting for our food looking at the items and trying to see if there was anything that I might recognise. Unfortunately there wasn’t really a lot that I would know as I imagine that the more famous items are housed in bigger Hard Rock Cafes but there was some interesting memorabilia especially of older Rock and Roll stars such as a shirt belonging to Elvis and some Beatles memorabilia. Being in Manchester there was of course some Oasis memorabilia too but nothing too famous. I honestly think that it was too dark though as I had trouble even making out what a lot of the items were supposed to be.
The service was pretty good. Our server was friendly and took our drink order straight away and while she got our drinks she left us to peruse the menu.
The menu itself is very American themed as you might expect with a strong emphasis on burgers. The burgers on the menu are called ‘legendary’ so I was expecting something special especially as they were quite expensive for what is essentially a burger and chips.
I ordered a Mushroom and Swiss burger which comes with Swiss cheese and sautéed mushrooms while other members of our party ordered more exotic sounding burgers such as the S.O.B burger which comes with spicy Chipotle pepper puree and Montery Jack cheese. The menu does a really good job of making the burgers sound delicious and I was really looking forward to mine arriving. Unfortunately the description was much better than the actual burger as when it arrived it was dry and had the tiniest amount of mushrooms on it and the chips were just frozen chips. It tasted ok but was nothing special and I have had much nicer burgers in pubs for a fraction of the price that The Hard Rock Café charges.
Everyone else agreed that their food was ok but nothing special and certainly not worth the premium that the restaurant charges.
I wouldn’t go back to The Hard rock Café in Manchester as the food was just ok and the memorabilia wasn’t interesting enough for me personally. It serves up pub food but tries to make it sound more appealing that it actually is in reality. The servers were really nice and I can’t fault this aspect but I would probably just find a local pub next time if I fancied a burger and chips.
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