Manchester Press has a new menu!

I've been here 3 times in the past 2 weeks, and dozens of times in the past year and a half. Strangely enough, I've never properly blogged about the place.

Manchester Press
8 Rankins Lane, Melbourne VIC
03 9600 4054
Mon - Fri, 7am - 5pm, Sat - Sun, 9am - 5pm
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Manchester-Press/171807409566156

I was really excited to see a the new menu! The old, plastic boards with the embossed stickers, yeap, long gone. Let me start by pointing out what's new, or what's been changed as far as I remember.

For one thing, this is their weekend menu; I did go 2 other times on weekdays when they had their (new) weekday menu, but I've lost the photos on that memory card :(

What's Really New

1. Breakfast: Cereal of the week
2. Bagels: Grilled Blue Cheese with grapes, roquette and walnuts
3. Bagels: 12 hour Roasted Pulled Pork with lettuce, BBQ sauce and homemade apple slaw
4. Salads: Beetroot and Chickpea with mixed leaves, cherry tomatoes, red onion and fetta

What's Changed
1. Breakfast: Raisin bagel now comes with Pineapple and apricot jam instead of blueberry passionfruit jam.
2. Bagels: Thick sliced Pastrami now comes with tomato, sauerkraut, swiss cheese and thousand island instead of dill cream cheese and roquette.
3. B.L.A.T is now topped with cranberry and plum relish instead of homemade basil mayo.

What's Gone
I can't be too sure what's not there anymore, but I do know for a fact that their Baked Eggs aren't on the weekend menu, but is still available on their weekday menu. Also, either their Hungarian Salami or Chorizo bagel has been omitted - I'll go back and check again (or does any reader out there know? Leave a comment!).

I went with Demie and Maxine on a Sunday mid-morning, and I was surprised that at 10.30am, there wasn't a line or a waiting list. The crowd was slowly building up outside as we were leaving though.

Flat white, $3.50

Manchester Press' latte art is pretty different, I must say. Demie got her coffee and immediately wailed 'WHY IS HE GRUMPYYYYY??????'

Maybe because you were late and made us all wait, little one. Just maybe.

Soy latté, $4. 

Such a beautiful rosetta made on a soy latté, really. 

Cappuccino, $3.50. 

I have a feeling the baristas observe the customers who order the coffee and try to make the latté art faces look like them, because Max's latte art lady looked pretty familiar.....

Now I really love these two to bits; for one, they ordered different items, and for another, they both ordered the new/altered items on the menu! 

Thick sliced Pastrami with tomato, sauerkraut, swiss cheese and thousand island, $13

Demie's dish looked pretty magnificent: the approximately 1cm thick pastrami just kept me gawking and wishing that I ordered that instead! I tried a small portion, and the pastrami was really good. The taste of the swiss cheese and thousand island didn't come through very well though. I was just really impressed by the portion and quality of the pastrami.

Grilled Blue Cheese with grapes, roquette and walnuts, $13

I liked it when I tried a bit a few days prior with my new housemate, Nicole. Grapes and blue cheese is a definite combination you should try. I didn't really like the amount of roquette on top though that's a personal preference, and the bagel itself was a little more chewy than crunchy that day. That aside, the bagel was surprisingly extremely filling, even for me.

12 hour Roasted Pulled Pork with lettuce, BBQ sauce and homemade apple slaw, $14.

I've had this twice now, and Max ordered this that day. This dish gives you plenty of bang for the buck; what you see in the photo is probably 3/5s of the portion of pulled pork given to you. You barely have to think about chewing the pork as it was, shall I say, pulled very well. It actually shadowed the apple slaw too. This bagel probably ousted the fruit and nut bagel as my favourite thing to order at Manchester Press! I kid you not. 

I'm usually told that Manchester Press is overrated and I used to agree, but really, I think it's because people are bored of the old menu. Give their new stuff a try, really!

Food: 8 (this includes the other things I've tried there)

Coffee: 7.5

Ambience: 6.5

Value: 8

Staff: 6 - 7 (they're pretty hot and cold, really. Some are pretty great but some treated me like I was annoying)

do you guys think i should give my blog layout a makeover?
may.