Cuckoo

Immediately welcomed in — spacious, broad menu and cocktails!
This is a lovely addition to Prestwich’s burgeoning night-​time scene with an industrial/​shabby chic vibe over two floors of refurbished terrace. Upstairs/​ground floor is the bar and plenty of tables and comfy sofas, downstairs is a secluded area with outdoor seating.
The menu is a mix of classic British café and stone baked pizzas, with ingredients from both Britain and Naples. I’ve had cake here a couple of times and it’s all very good quality.
Cuckoo has a broad range of teas and coffees, as well as plenty of alcohol with a strong cocktail culture, including a Sunday for Bloody Marys. If you’re in the town, pop in to Cuckoo for a warm welcome and a whole load of food and drink.

I came to Cuckoo on a Saturday afternoon to try out their pizzas. Upon entering i instantly liked the place. It’s small and compact and has only a few tables, although i believe there are some more tables and an extra seating area downstairs.
We waited at the door for a minute or so, then figured it must be a ‘choose a table and order at the bar’ type of place because nobody approached us, so we sat at a small table at the top of the stairs.
The menu is decent, split out between ‘red’ and ‘white’ pizzas — some vegetarian options too. They’re all reasonably priced at around £5 — £6.50 and when they arrived they were also reasonably sized.
I ordered the margherita, as i believe this how you determine a very good pizza. It was OK. The oven could have been a little hotter, as the base didn’t cook completely to the edges and didn’t achieve much ‘lepoarding’ as you expect with usual sourdough wood oven type pizzas. There was also, maybe, a little too much cheese on there and the dough had an excess amount of flour on it, which i had to wipe off to make the crusts edible.
For Prestwich, this place is great. But living in MCR and being a regular* at Honest Crust and Rudy’s Pizza, this place just isn’t that good.
The cocktail menu looks great.
*more than regular ;)

Well I was most disappointed with this Virgin visit to cuckoo. There were 2 other couples sat relaxing in the place. Looking bored. The décor is quite quirky. A good old blackboard with an attempt at fancy writing although my OCD was kicking in as it was slightly leaning downwards to the right.
The manager which we shall name Mr BeardMan him due to the nest that was perching on his chin, was a very jolly happy fellow, attentive and welcoming. The bar maid/​waitress. We shall call her Miss Mac due to the amount of times she applied lipstick, blusher and plucked her eyebrows, at the bar, in between and during serving, She was less interested. It was almost a chore to serve us. Maybe if I had given her a makeup tip or 3 I may have had mor a success.
However that did not put us off, what did was the length of time it took to firstly order a coffee. The time it took to make. The hunt for condiments and then finally the icing on the cake. The Luke warm drink. The fact there was little change from a tenner nearly sent my Man Pet under. We only stayed for the few minutes it took to swallow the poor attempt at a latte and as we exited I did hope to offer some positive feedback as a critical friend however we didn’t even get so much as a goodbye or Ta ra! Up your game people. The pink pound is strong and we won’t be spending it with you anytime soon.

Cuckoo is easily the coolest place in Prestwich, with its stripped back interior, and laid back vibe. Admittedly, there may not be too much competition but you know that it’s got some credibility when Phil and Kirstie show the place on Location Location Location as they describe Prestwich as the «Didsbury of the North».
We stopped by for a Sunday afternoon coffee, whilst a few others chilled out with beers. There’s outdoor seating and a pizza oven, but as the rain fell there was little demand for that.
Cuckoo’s well worth a visit — this kind of business needs encouraging and is a real treat for those in the area.