CityLife

The Koffee Pot

The Koffee Pot

The Koffee Pot
Northern Quarter
January 2010

Casual dining review

Overall: 3/5

“HERE at the pot, we serve filter koffee as we believe it suits what we do, serving decent food to decent folk at decent prices. There are plenty of places around here you can get a mocha-frappa-lattechino.”

So exclaims the mission statement at the bottom of the menu at The Koffee Pot, in the Northern Quarter.

The menu is laminated, resting on a plastic table cover, reflecting light from bare beams on the ceiling. It is authentically greasy spoon, you see. Ladies can order hot Vimto at the bar.

The kettle wolf-whistles the fit ones.

A glance at the menu suggests this common touch is a bit of a pretence. The first three dishes – £6 smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on Sourdough toast, £5 smoked haddock rarebit and £5 Portobello mushrooms on brioche – wouldn’t be seen dead in a builder’s cafe.

Speaking of builders, there are not any around. Instead, sat on the wooden benches are Guardian-reading twentysomethings with messy hair. There’s not a red-top in sight.

This week is national Farmhouse Breakfast Week and though we are are miles from the countryside, my friend orders the full English – bacon, sausage, Bury black pudding, beans, hash brown, tomato, fried egg, toast and tea or koffee – spelled with a K - for £5. The bacon – endorsed by Guy Garvey no less at Elbow’s Arena gig last year – is thick and quickly devoured.

I go for the veggie option. The Quorn sausages are as meaty as they come and the sunny-side-up egg streams, but not too much. It is hangover-antidote perfection but, at £5, the portions are too small. My other friend opts for the smoked salmon and is disappointed. Served in a heap, the egg and fish sog the toast underneath.

The Koffee Pot looks, talks and acts like a greasy spoon – but tastes almost like a gastropub. 

The Koffee Pot, 21 Hilton Street, Manchester, M1 1JJ (0161 228 1484).