One place you should go to in Manchester is Volta. Located in the leafy suburb of West Didsbury it’s a relative newcomer to the Manchester food scene and in the last few days has been awarded Best Restaurant in Manchester by the Manchester Evening News. Our Mancunian unhipster hipster friends spoke highly of here when we were visiting a few months ago and so we stopped by for some weekend brunch.
Volta is surrounded by local shops, cafes & restaurants in the way that English towns and cities do well, proper little village-style neighbourhoods outwith the centre.
Outside there’s a large, canopied seating area and inside you are greeted by the sight of cakes and a wonderful mix of wood, Formica and mirrors, so it’s quite eclectic, old-fashioned & charming decor.
We found a cosy table and settled down for brunch.
A large, frothy and creamy cappuccino (£2.40), we also had Earl Grey (£1.80), builders tea (£1.70) as well as an Americano (£2.10). All drinks hit the spot.
£6.50 for proper chips – crisp, fluffy and with that bit of dripping taste, served with two perfectly gooey fried eggs on top of a hunk of salty gammon. Two of us had this, and both were demolished sharpish.
£6.50 for edgeree, not overpowered by the smoked haddock, another perfectly boiled egg with enough goo to mix into the flavoured rice. Lightly spiced, Mr Foodie would have preferred a stronger kick for his Sunday awakening, however thumbs up for not being stodgy.
£5.00 for eggs, tomato, peppers and spices baked together. An excellent pick-me-up. A small portion for the price, however tasty, with bread to soak up the sauce.
After seeing the array of cakes it would have been rude not to try one! Cake of the day £2.30. Peanut butter flavour frosting with a light jam filling. It was actually a bit dry so more jam would have been good, but a solid homemade cake taste. Mr Unhipster had a treacle tart, it disappeared far too quickly, We didn’t get a sniff of it! He did mention the tart was one of his main reasons for visiting.
Beers available, Mr Foodie of course had to try a juniper-ish gin saison beer!
All in, £48.50 for four meals, four hot drinks, two fresh orange juice, two desserts and an alcoholic drink. Not bad at all!