When I go to stay at a hotel, it’s not the huge fluffy pillows or the city skyline view I look forward to the most - though they are a bonus. It’s waking up after a blissful night’s rest and heading down to the buffet-style breakfast.
When I reviewed the Moxy Manchester city centre earlier this year, I enjoyed their continental selection, opting for a croissant, sausage, bacon and various other picky bits, while my partner made himself a full English.
Now, the hotel has teamed up with Too Good To Go to give away mystery bags of hotel breakfast items for a fraction of the usual price - and you don’t need to have stayed there to order one.
READ MORE: Everywhere you can get cheap mystery bags in Manchester on Too Good To Go
At Moxy, breakfast is served from 7am to 11am, so joining the app in May, the hotel launched a collection slot for 11.30am to 12pm for any leftovers.
I reserved a bag for £3, with around £9 worth of ‘delights of a breakfast buffet’ inside. From my experience staying at the hotel, which opened in January, their breakfast bar consists of fruits, yoghurts, cereals, pastries and cooked sausages, bacon, eggs, hash browns and beans. But there’s also a snack bar and grab and go drinks area if you’re peckish too.
Before I arrived, the hotel changed my collection slot from 11.30am to 12pm, extending it by three hours to 3pm, giving me a little more time to get over to Spinningfields. Whenever slots change like this, the app usually gives you plenty of notice so you can still plan the rest of your day, but you can’t collect early, or after the window closes on the app. You can, however, cancel your order up to two hours before the start of the collection time, with the bag then being offered out to other users.
I arrived at about 12.15pm to collect my bag at the front desk and was reminded at just how gorgeous this hotel is. The lobby is uber chic, with bowler hats nodding to the building's history as a hat factory, but bringing a moderness to it with Manchester pop culture in the form of music prints and cushions.
After swiping the collect button on the app, I pulled up a chair in the lounge area, where members of the public are free to work or socialise without needing to book a room. And after completing some work, the temptation to see what was in my mystery bag became too much - that and I was a bit peckish.
What I was greeted with was a rather bizarre combination of breakfast offerings - though they were mostly pretty welcome, but did give me a good giggle.
First up was a chicken, sweetcorn and iceberg lettuce sandwich which would make a rather suitable lunch, to which, if I wanted, I could have added slices of ham or chicken which had been individually wrapped in cellophane. I’m not certain why I found this so comical, but alas, if it's only going to go in the bin, I - or my dogs - will be happy to eat it.
Also in the bag was a handful of cherry tomatoes, which I later roasted and used in my tea, while my dad enjoyed the two peeled boiled eggs for a protein boost after the gym.
The better finds in the bag were three cinnamon rolls which I shared with family over a cuppa, and some croissants which were perhaps not as soft as you’d like, but were fine for toasting over the next few days,
It was a real mismatch of finger food and while it would have been difficult to make a meal from all of the ingredients provided in Master Chef style, I was able to use or share everything within 48 hours, which saved it from going to waste.
It may not have been the hotel breakfast I’d have chosen for myself at Moxy, but it’s great to see that the hotel is dedicated to preventing food waste with these cheap magic bags.
