5/5 Bruncho Café lives up to Manchester restaurant tour hype

Before visiting Bruncho Café for our restaurant food tour of Manchester, we knew that this wasn’t just another café.

Bruncho Café in Deangate

Not only does it boast an incredible 4.9 rating on Google after some 4,500 reviews, but on Tripadvisor too, making it the 10th most popular eatery in the city out of almost 3,000.

Elegantly designed with a homely, wooden interior, this 2-storey venue in Deansgate can cater for 34 downstairs, 42 upstairs, and even has a garden at the back for social functions.

Bruncho Café offers a fully Halal menu that focuses on Turkish cuisine, with brunch dishes inspired by the flavours and ingredients from that region.

Bruncho Café offer a Turkish-inspired menu

Alongside a rich selection of freshly brewed coffees and other beverages, like iced matcha, teas, and freddos, they also have handcrafted cakes.

When it comes to breakfast and brunch, then there’s the classic full English, eggs benedict, and what they call Pizza Breakfasts, as well as sandwiches and french toasts.

Mocha, Cappuccino - £3.80 each

Honeycomb Latte £5.20, Strawberry Blue Matcha, Raspberry Matcha - £5.70 each

When a café presents coffees and beverages as finely crafted as these, you know you’re off to a good start.

Coconut Matcha, £9.90

The pair of Iced Matchas were refreshingly good, with the strawberry and raspberry playing their parts subtly.

Alongside these, we enjoyed the Coconut Matcha, which wasn’t just presented in the husk of a coconut, but one that was actually branded.

A popular drink for obvious reasons, this was a creamy concoction that contrasted well against some of the bolder flavoured dishes had below.

Blending the earthy notes of Japanese matcha with the gentle sweetness of coconut, it was certainly different.

Finally, we had a Mocha that was velvety smooth and creamy, and a Cappuccino that was light, rich and frothy.

Beef Pizza – Pulled beef, red pesto, egg, pomegranate & sesame seeds, £14.90

What a wonderfully well-conceived and delicious plate of food this Beef Pizza was.

The combination of the ridiculously soft and tender slow-cooked pulled beef mixed in with melted cheese, and the signature Bruncho red pesto, is what made this so memorable.

With the stone-baked bread being crispy and fluffy, the fried egg was a great touch, and the burst of sweetness from the pomegranate seeds a clever addition.

Shakshuka – Turkish sausages, tomato sauce, mixed cheese, poached eggs, with sourdough bread, £14.90

There’s a number of reasons why Bruncho’s shakshuka succeeds where so many others fail. The most critical was their fantastic tomato sauce, which delivered real depth without being overly sharp.

Another was their liberal use of mixed cheese, whose piquancy beautifully married with the gentle heat from the slices of spicy Turkish sausage.

The final one was the accompanying shot of sweet and chilli honey, which elevated this dish to a whole other plane.

Add to that the pair of perfectly poached, free-range eggs, and the serving of sourdough bread, and this was one of the best we’ve ever had.

Naughty Beef Yorkie – Pulled beef, cheese, fries, Bruncho topping on Yorkshire pudding, £16.90

A Naughty Beef Yorkie indeed. It was obvious at first sight that this spruced-up Yorkshire pudding – filled with gorgeously glistening pulled beef and chips, and topped with pickled vegetables, cheese, and a vibrant orange sauce – was going to rock.

Succulent umami beef being complemented by the acidity of the pickled veg, with the touch of heat from the sauce; a flawless experience.

Bruncho Roll Burger – Beef patty, cheese, onions, fried egg, Bruncho burger sauce, in a New York roll, £9.90

What an extraordinary burger this was, made momentous by the most crumbliest, flakiest bun imaginable.

An extraordinary take on a burger

Why this Bruncho Roll Burger hasn’t gone viral, or hasn’t been replicated by others, we don’t know.

What we do know is that this has to be in contention for FtLion’s End of Year Awards in December.

The endless layers in that New York roll meant an utterly light and crispy bun that gave way to a properly-seasoned beef patty, sweet caramelised onion, a fried egg that we would have preferred runny, and plenty of piquant cheese.

The result was arguably one of the best burgers we’ve had in years (up there with those by Brioche Burger that set the standard all those moons ago).

Pistachio & Kinder French Toast – Brioche toast, White choc sauce, Turkish Kaymak topping, with ice cream & bobas, £14.90

And what an end to Bruncho Café, with yet another benchmark dish. We were simply floored by how good this Pistachio and Kinder French Toast was.

What truly impressed us was the way in which they executed such thick-cut brioche while keeping it remarkably light and airy.

In any case, with plenty of fresh juicy berries, vanilla ice cream with a quality waffle cone, white chocolate sauce, and indulgent dollops of Turkish kaymak clotted cream dotted about, this will live long in the memory.