City Cafe

This «City Café» is located inside the Doubletree Hilton @ Manchester Piccadilly, and I called in here recently for Afternoon tea and at around £16.50 a person, and with the Hilton name, I was expecting big things, but I was disappointed and truly let down at the poor food, service, which I feel was literally taking the mick, and making me stand out for being gluten free, which really shouldn’t happen.
I ordered a gluten free Afternoon tea, and I was excited to see what they would do for me, having been pleasantly surprised at Cloud 23, which is inside the Deansgate Hilton.
My Afternoon Tea, was like a deconstructed Afternoon Tea, and in my opinion it wasn’t even in the category for Afternoon Tea.
I got 3 different varieties of things, starting with the sandwiches, normally I get around 5 varieties of sandwiches, however here, I just simply got beef, cucumber and salmon, all with a horrible sauce and the bread was tiny too and had no tops, the sandwiches did taste nice, but they were simply too small, and covered in horrible sauces, and in all honesty they shouldn’t even be called the sandwiches, as they didn’t have a top. For the price I paid, I expect good quality not horrible sandwiches with no top, ruined by a particular dressing.
Normally for Afternoon Tea, I get a few cakes and deserts to go alongside it, but City Café’s alternative was a lot worse, it was simply a rice pudding, the rice pudding did taste better quality than most I have had before, and was warm, but still it wasn’t very nice, and was a big let down considering what I was expecting.
One of the final parts of Afternoon Tea has got to be the scones, as this is a basic requirement, I thought they could at least get this right, but no, instead they offered me simply a fruit salad, and although the presentation was good, the fruit was bad quality and sour.
The loose leaf teas were quite poor considering what I have had before with my Afternoon Tea and even PG Tips probably can beat it ! (And I’m more of a Yorkshire Tea fan!)
The service was very poor as well, it seemed whenever I needed a waitress she wasn’t there, and even though I’m sure she knew she was taking the mick, compared to my friend’s afternoon tea, she offered no apology and didn’t come round to ask how everything was, which I have even seen in a Mcdonalds and Pizza Hut before, so especially in a Hilton, it is needed!
My friend’s afternoon tea looked quite nice, with battenbergs and full sandwiches, and even scones, and it really made mine stand out, but they claim for theirs to be very poor and a waste of money too.
In my opinion, an experience like this tarnishes the good name of Hilton, especially compared to other branches, and I am very upset at how I stood out from the crowd, and my Afternoon Tea was horrible, in fact I wouldn’t even call it Afternoon Tea, I’d call it a cheap meal, lazily thrown together at the last minute, even though I did give plenty of notice.

Duck is good. If u stay in doubletree you can get a discount. This is the best restaurant i had in the past three days in the Uk.

I stay at the Doubletree very regularly, so thought I’d compare the proper restaurant with the Lounge area (selling burgers and the like) that I normally frequent.
I skipped starters giving the price of everything (someone has to pay for the place given I was one of only two tables in use!) straight into a rather small Chicken Supreme. The Chicken was okay, the Gnocci pleasing, but for some reason, half the Pesto was good and the other half unexpectedly bitter. To their credit, they gave me my Beer for free by way of apology.
The Sticky Toffee pudding on the other hand was delicious. I’ve had better, but not too many.
So all in all, middle-​range, good service, high-​priced.

Booked a Saturday evening meal for 2 at the City Café, despite there only being 4 or 5 couples in the there, the level of service and quality of food was superb. All the waiting on staff were extremely professional and friendly, the choice of wines was excellent and my partner being a vegitarian had a very good selection of suitable menu. Will certainly dine here again.