Banyan Corn Exchange, Manchester

Nice brasserie style place. Service and food are good. Enjoyable upbeat atmosphere. The wait for the food is just a bit too long but when you get it, the quality is quite good.

We travelled from Cumbria to watch a show and called ahead to inform we were held up in traffic and would be late for our reservation, but were reassured not to worry. Despite a delay to food service due to a fire alarm in The Corn Exchange building (which meant the gas supply was automatically disconnected and the kitchen had to temporarily close), the waitress who served us kept us informed and looked after with delicious cocktails. The 2 for 1 cocktail offer was great value and we tried our first Caramel 'Old Fashioned' after our waitress suggested we should. I was hesitant, but I am glad we did. They were delicious! The only reason I haven't given the full five stars was because we had to wait for over ten minutes at the entrance to be seen to by a member of the team. In the end my husband went inside to try and find someone but it felt less friendly than we feel it should have. Whilst we appreciate that it was very busy, we would have given the full five stars if someone could have just acknowledged us. Luckily, as soon as we were shown to our table, the waitress allocated to us turned everything around. We feel bad for not remembering her name, sorry!!! Banyan was recommended to me by a friend and it did not disappoint. Friendly, super efficient and the food was well worth the wait. We will be back!

Recommended by a friend to visit for the 2-4-1 cocktails and won't return again! Some guy manager with short blondish hair on duty was SO rude and had such an attitude. Get off your high horse and be polite to customers. My friend and I visited Friday afternoon and ordered the June Bug. When they came, we weren't entirely happy with them because they were nothing but ice. We told an employee, and the manager was called. No friendly greeting but attitude and a glaring stare from the start. He said, "Well, that's our standards across the company," and then just stared, no smile or warmth. He explained they put that amount of ice to make the most of the 2-4-1 offer, like they were scrimping on ingredients - bar the ice. From that comment, I assumed you'd get a better standard on a day the 2-4-1 offer wasn't on. You dont. He said it would be the same 👀 so his comment about adding all the ice to compensate for the 2-4-1 offer was unnecessary. He was combative and didn't make us feel like valued customers. He didn't at least try to offer a resolution like one of the employees did, just stare. He refused to give us a refund, so I asked if we could have the same drink without all the ice and received about half a glass of a cocktail (picture attached). We didn't even want to stay for food, so we left and won't be returning. Why would we when we could get better customer service elsewhere and better value for money. If you have certain standards to abide to, fine. But don't be so rude or have an attitude, and I suggest some training for that manager on problem-solving skills.