Every year, Manchester hosts its Manchester Food and Drink Festival around September-October and it is a festival I continually look forward to year on year. It takes place outside Manchester Town Hall on St Albert’s Square and is a 2-week free entry festival featuring market stalls from independents and chains as well as specialised events such as themed meals or workshops. This year there is an experimental vegan banquet as well as several hidden banquets including one by MilkJam. There is also Manchester’s own Bake Off competition.
Here, I explore what’s available on the second day of the festival.
Manchester Food and Drink Festival 2016
The market was fairly quiet as my friends and I went at about 5:30pm and it had just finished raining. My friends were instantly drawn to Bakchich, especially after I was raving about it to them. They proceeded to queue there and liked their food very much.
I was on the hunt for somewhere I haven’t tried before. After being uninspired by the selection of markets (for some reason, nothing appealed to me), I ended up ordering a pizza from Proove, who are based in Sheffield. Normally, I order pizzas which are largely veggie with a bit of meat, but opted for vegetarian, this time.
Vegetarian pizza from Proove
I didn’t have to wait too long for my pizza but unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it that much. It was a watery mess! Perhaps the vegetables should have been dried off a bit beforehand? In any case, I doubt I will be ordering from Proove again.
Despite my negative experience this year and my lack of enthusiasm for the stalls available, I will no doubt be returning the week after since the stalls should change then. (I struggled to confirm this information on their website, but if the format is similar to previous years they should switch around.)
Information
The festival runs from 29th September – 10th October 2016.
http://foodanddrinkfestival.com
Albert Square, Manchester, M2 4JW
11 Comments
Oliver
4th October 2016 at 9:18 amI went a couple of days ago and I had the vegan burgers from one of the stalls and they were pretty good! Better than I’d anticipated and I’m attempted to go back soon to try out Mowgli or the Lebonese place next to it. 😀
Oliver x
Elsa Eats
4th October 2016 at 12:07 pmBakchich (The Lebanese place) is good, you won’t be disappointed. I nearly went to the vegan place, what a shame!
Oliver
4th October 2016 at 12:09 pmAhhh I saw the £3.50 falafel wrap and thought “what a bargain”! I’ll check it out sometime this week for sure. The vegan place is really nice… I also had a lemon curd cake and it tasted just like a regular cake. Very moist but a tad too sugary for my liking. The burger though were really good, except I would’ve preferred warm buns.
Oliver x
Elsa Eats
4th October 2016 at 2:00 pmThey are based in Hulme usually. I once went there in the morning to have a vegan breakfast, it was interesting and not bad apart from the vegan bacon; I’d prefer my normal bacon or just leaving the vegan version out.
Oliver
4th October 2016 at 3:04 pmOh yeah, I saw on their leaflets… just curious what do they do with the eggs? Anyway, I wouldn’t go for a “vegan” breakfast, vegetarian maybe but not vegan.
Oliver xx
Elsa Eats
5th October 2016 at 4:25 pmI can’t remember actually… maybe I had a vegetarian one as opposed to full vegan..
Katya Willems
5th October 2016 at 10:01 amOh no that’s a shame! Not sure I’m that tempted to go now.
Elsa Eats
5th October 2016 at 10:41 amI think I was just being picky that day, Katya. I didn’t feel like mac and cheese or the curries on offer in the other stalls. I’m sure there’s good stuff around, and Oliver below did mention that the vegan stall had some good things too!
MissPond
5th October 2016 at 10:53 amThat’s a shame about the pizza- I’m not a huge pizza fan tbh- the other year I really enjoyed a BBQ pop up that was there but I know it can change a lot.
Elsa Eats
5th October 2016 at 4:25 pmI’ll probably pop down again next week if I have time, I usually enjoy the festival
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