MCR 42

Excellent choice of cocktails, great ambulance, comfy chairs, different levels of seating, a compete dinning drinking or entertainment venue. Good news it’s bogof on cocktails when we arrived and their lush.
Gracing board, peppered beef, sift sitter and tender, salmon smooth juicy lovely seasoned, pork and apple Bön bins– couldn’t get the apple, slaw nice but dejohn side not needed.
Ribs well sorry but not a patch on my favourite, though plenty of my meat served nicely, just no extra sauce
Cocktails flowing very well, pins colada take, black cherry Mai tai.
Well chocolate brownie is intense. Def a chocolate sugar rush that will leave you tasting it for an hr later– think it needs to come with a warning ’ eat me and prepare for a rush’
Service is brilliant, ambience, music — found a great venue in the village for fab food service and quality. It’d definite a contender, granted no outside seating and possibly few minor refinements — but for what me and my partner have experienced today happy to give 4.5 stars. Thanks mcr42.

Having been a regular at Tea42 I met a friend at MCR42 today, since she lives closer to that one. It’s a similar look to the original.
We came for tea and cake. Having sampled the teas at the sister branch, I didn’t need to look through the menu and just went for my favourite, Princess Jasmine. My friend went for her favourite, which is the Cinnamon Cup. The taste was as good as at at the original. They also do free hot water refills, as they do in the original.
Cake-​wise, I went for the blackberry cheescake which had edible glitter sprinkled on the top. I love eating food with edible glitter or gold, makes me feel very glamorous. My friend went for the mango cheesecake, which didn’t have the glitter but was assured that it tasted good.
The service in terms of the tea and cake was quicker than at the original, so that is a bonus. They were, however, very slow with getting the bill as it took us three times of asking and about ten minutes to get it. Hence the reason for 4* rather than 5*.
When we did get our bill, we had a discount for a tea/​cake combo, which I don’t recall seeing on the menu but a welcome surprise. Cost £10.75 for the two of us, which is pretty good.
I really like that it is bigger, so less waiting, and it also has a downstairs bar area, meaning you can come just for a drink. I also noticed what looked like a private dining room, though didn’t ask about it — could be worth asking about if looking for a venue in the village.
Will definitely be back for food and for drinks in the downstairs bar. They were playing music downstairs so imagine it being a good Friday/​Saturday place to start the evening.

MCR 42 is another restaurant from the guys behind TEA 42, and although the location isn’t as good as High Street, opposite the Manchester Arndale, it is still relatively easy to find, on the corner of Richmond Street close to Richmond Tea Rooms.
MCR 42 has gone for quite a different look to its’ sister restaurant, it is mainly a black /​darker colour with the traditional seating, but it is still quite a cool place, and probably a nicer design than its’ sister restaurant.
The menu seems to have had some tweeks, with a different design, however most of it seems to be the same, so you shouldn’t need to worry if you have a favourite Tea 42 dish that it might not be available here.
The service here, seems a little faster than at TEA 4 /​2, but still it isn’t the fastest of places, and I was still let down by the service. I was served by a new waiter, who did seem to be struggling and he seemed to be untrained, and couldn’t answer basic questions, such as whether they were still doing the brunch crumpet dish previously offered at TEA ⁴⁄₂ a good few months ago now, and he struggled to be able to recommend certain dishes or tell me what was in certain dishes, and he kept consulting with a chef, which added time to my wait, and I feel he should have been trained better to answer these questions without causing hassle for the customer.
I did also feel pressured by my server into ordering, after he already went away once, and it seemed that he wouldn’t leave and was getting frustrated, which pushed me into ordering something I wasn’t sure about, but still I decided to go for an Aussie burger, as it had a rather interesting combination, which was passed off as «divine» on the menu. Divine it was not.
My burger cost £9.95 and it contained meat, pineapple, sauces, relish (side), cheese and bacon. I found the burger to be a little messy and it barely fitted on the plate, and came apart very easily, hence I needed to ask for another «side» plate.
The pineapple I found to be too sweet, and I also found the bacon not to be good quality either, parts of it were either fatty or simply not good quality, I also didn’t like the addition of beetroot, and the sauces, which I’d have prefered to go on the side.
I also found the onion rings to be low quality, and I was disappointed with most aspects of my burger, due to the cheese being melted onto the bacon, that had to go right off, as I really couldn’t eat it, as I found it to be simply just poor quality and fatty.
I also ordered a peach iced tea, hoping it would be similar to the one I had, with «extra peach» at their sister branch, and I felt assured they would do it better, with the same women asking me about my drinks, before the trainee taking over, however it was not. I just simply think they had never done something like that before, and they simply made a mess of it, they put a good amount of ice in the cup, which added a watery taste, and to go alongside the peach (which was a stronger flavour), it just didn’t taste right, it tasted like it had not been stirred or something had gone wrong, as it still tasted like watery, but with a little too much peach, which could have been something to do with the ratio of tea, to peach, to water, which could have made the drink feel disappointing, and for the quite pricey price of this, I was very upset.
I was also upset that I could not redeem my loyalty card, after being open for over a week, they still had not set the system up, which meant I had simply lost my points, normally I just give my surname and they sort it at their sister branch, but now with my card (should be even easier) they just couldn’t do it.
MCR ⁴⁄₂ is a little pricey so it is best going on their half price days I know their sister branch is half price Monday — Wednesday, so I guess it will be the same here, but considering it is gluten free food, and a safe place to eat for coeliacs, you are basically just paying gluten free prices, which makes this place one to avoid if you’re not gluten free and it isn’t Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
In my opinion, MCR 42 has opened at the wrong time and it isn’t ready, they even told me about more construction work being done, and I did see some men bobbing in and out of the store, which I feel is ridiculous considering they have been open for 10 days.
Before I give MCR 42 1 star, I would like to come back and give them one more try, in a few weeks when all teething problems should definitely have been sorted, although based on this experience I feel 2 stars is a little generous, I feel based on the standards set by their sister branch, they just need time to adjust to the menu and have more guests (it did seem pretty quiet when I visited)