Lunches in Manchester, Wales, and Bristol - Recommendations?
 

Mr. Pickle's a capella men's choir is touring Wales from May 24-June 6. We're flying into Manchester and departing from Heathrow.

Almost all our breakfasts and dinners will be at our various hotels (included in the lodging price), but we're on our own for lunch. We like just about any cuisine, and we'd like to keep mains at or under 10 GBP if possible.

What would you all recommend in

Manchester
Conwy
Betws-y-Coed
Llanberis
Caernarfon
Aberystwyth
St. Davids
Swansea
Cardiff (the Pickles will probably be around Cardiff Bay at lunchtime)
Bristol

Thanks for your help, Fodorites!

Lee Ann

Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?

Lee Ann

Topping - anyone have some suggestions for me? Please?

Lee Ann

The Castle pub Conway has good food or over the river Deganwy marina restaurant has stunning views.

In Manchester, El Rincon is a very Spanish Tapas bar, you could be in Barcelona. Also good Chinese restaurants. Kroma does good value, good standard modern menus and is usually very busy as a consequence.

Caernarfon is a fairly awful place. Stunning castle but the town itself is stuck in another century.

Thanks, Dickie_Gr.

Lee Ann

Topping this for one last try before we leave tomorrow. :-)

Lee Ann

Lee Ann, I can only help with Bristol; there are lots of nice places up in Clifton, or you could try the St nicholas Market which has a number of cafe-style stalls selling largely ethnic but tasty and well priced food. There are a number of pubs near there too, plus a branch of All Bar One which is within your price bracket I think.

As far as Bristol is concerned, there are hundreds of good places, and it all depends on where you are, how much you want to spend, and if you are prepared to travel from one part of the city to another, with all that entails in travel time and parking. There is no valet parking here, and parking charges are high.

Ann is right about Clifton village, and the area around St Nicholas Market in the City Centre. There are also good places at the top of Park Street near the Museum (Jamie's Italian, Brown's, Goldbrick House and others), and on the harbourside, especially Bordeaux Quay. Elsewhere, tapas and small plates are popular, and there are even Caribbean and South Asian tapas specialists, as well as the usual Spanish and Italian choices.

Mid-market chains like Cote, Las Iguanas, Strada, Cafe Rouge and Pizza Express can be found in the city, as well as independent restaurants like Flinty Red in Cotham and Clifton Lido, where you can dine while watching people swim.

I suggest you try looking at some of these online to check menus and prices.

Thanks, annhig and chartley.

Lee Ann

Many of the restaurants in Manchester city centre will offer a two course lunch for under £12 pp. It depends where you are staying in the city. If you pick this up during your travels, let me know where you're staying and I'll give you a couple of recommendations, as well as things to do.

It occurs to me that you shouldn't miss either Sam's Chop House or Mr Thomas's Chop House, for a real flavour of Victorian pub and good food at a reasonable price.

Rubicund, we're staying at the Altrincham Lodge Hotel.

Lee Ann, currently thinking of napping at MSP :-)

hi Lee Ann

I'm going to be in Cardiff city centre on Tuesday 3rd June, though as I will only have less than an hour for lunch due to being in a meeting, I will pick up something from the wonderful indoor market. Will you be in Cardiff that day? Which is your Bristol day?

Otherwise there is a nice restaurant doing good lunch menus under St David's Hall. I can't remember the name right now, but as you approach the Hall, it is to the right, and downstairs. There's a pub we go as well sometimes, but while the food is reasonably good, I'd not really recommend it. You can find better places by yourself.

I really hope you and Mr Pickle have a wonderful time on your return to England's green and pleasant land, and not forgetting Wales! I still have that pic of the rainbow over the Stroud Valleys.

May be late, but would support the chop houses and love el rincon, also if nice day either Dukes on the canal for pub BBQ or Last House for fabulous kebabs! All in Manchester.

The Altrincham Lodge is not in Manchester, but is some 10 miles away along the Chester Road. It's close, unsurprisingly, to the small town of Altrincham which has its own collection of restaurants and pubs, some expensive, some not. It's behind the Pelican pub and could best be described as a motel and is a mile or so out of Altrincham itself in Timperley. The Pelican has its own restaurant, although I can't testify to its quality.

To get into Manchester, you can catch the Metro tram system by turning left out of the hotel and left again into Park Road. the station is on your left some 2 or 3 minutes away.

We just got back last night, and I didn't have time to check this thread while I was gone. Limited Internet access didn't help, either.

Julia, we picked up lunch at Cardiff Market on Tuesday! I'm so sorry I didn't see your post. It would have been lovely to see you again.

Lee Ann

hope you had a good trip, Lee Ann, apart from lack of contact with your fellow fodorites of course!

Lee Ann: the meeting was cancelled the day before, so I didn't get to Cardiff anyway! Serendipity that we hadn't planned to meet perhaps?

I'm glad you discovered the wonderful indoor market, such a great place to get a lunch-to-go.

Looking forward to your trip report...

If you're ever in Cardiff again, I'd recommend Casanovas- an authentic Italian restaurant in the shadow of the Milkenium Stadium. They have a fixed price lunch for around 13 GBP. No pizza here but genuine Ialian specialties. When we went there at lunch half the clients were speaking Italian. :)

That's a great market - Mr. Pickle had to haul me out of the CD store. :-D

Lee Ann