Fress

62 Oldham Street, Manchester

Manchester’s Northern Quarter is full of weird and wonderful surprises, none more surprising than this Parisian-style cafe on Oldham Street. It has a stylish black and white colour scheme, with its ornate canapy, checkerboard floor, wooden tables and chairs and shimmering wall tiles. The Victorian bistro chairs add to the retro vibe.

Fress is one of those restaurants that have totally mastered the art of Instagram. My feed regularly features photos of their delectable brunches and decedent-looking cakes and desserts and, having salivated over them for so long, I thought it was high time I gave it a go.

As in life, the photo, sadly, doesn’t always match the reality. Whilst our Fress experience was pleasant and enjoyable, it was really nothing to write home about.

They claim to be the only place in the Northern Quarter to make everything fresh in-house, from scratch, using locally sourced ingredients. I guess Joe Public will never know whether or not this is true, but the quality of their food led to them being awarded the ‘Best Brunch in Manchester’ accolade last year.

On this award-winning brunch menu are the Full English, both meat and veggie options, Eggs Benedict with a variety of extras, the very trendy Smashed Avocado and a selection of sandwiches. On a scorching Spring Bank Holiday, a light lunch was certainly what was needed. I opted for the Eggs Benedict with grilled mushrooms and halloumi.

Eggs Benedict with Grilled Mushrooms and Halloumi

The sourdough toast on which the Eggs Benedict was sat was slightly over-toasted, to the point of being chewy and difficult to cut through. The poached eggs, however, were perfectly cooked, the runny yolk making up for the tough bread. The hollandaise sauce was just right, too. I absolutely love mushrooms and believe they can add several layers of depth and flavour to practically any dish, but these were disappointing. They were lukewarm and slightly shrivelled, tasting like they had been reheated rather than cooked fresh.

It wasn’t a massive portion, but was satisfying enough for a light lunch, albeit overpriced at £8.00. The brunch menu is available until 3.00pm. The Lunch and Dinner menu features light bites such as calamari, grilled halloumi and tiger prawns, as well as main courses including burgers, seabass and vegetable flatbread.

Given that the cakes have always stolen the show on Instagram, I thought I’d be determined not to leave until I’d tried one. Only the previous day, there was a sensational-looking Galaxy Ripple Cheesecake advertised online. However, on Monday, the selection of cakes looked rather less impressive. This coupled with the fact that we weren’t bowled over with the brunch meant that we didn’t bother hanging around, instead taking a couple of cakes home with us.

We collected a Snickers cronut (that’s a cross between a croissant and a doughnut) and a cookie dough brownie. These were, without doubt, the highlight of our visit.

I was unsure how I felt about a cronut. It’s essentially a doughnut made from croissant pastry – sweet, sticky and deliciously moreish. There was a ring of chocolate running through the middle and the top was covered in chocolate and spotted with hefty chunks of Snickers. I thought £5 was a little steep, but it truly was a masterpiece.

Snickers Cronut

The cookie dough brownie was just as delicious. The heat may have made it go a little bit sloppy on the way home, but the goey-ness certainly didn’t spoil it.

The sweet stuff is definitely the best part of Fress and is probably the only thing that would tempt be back. Even then, I’d probably just opt for a takeaway, as the food seemed over-priced and not really worth it.

Website: http://fressrestaurant.com/