On the corner of High Street and Thomas Street, you’ll find a Northern Quarter cocktail bar selling one of Manchester’s cheapest, but tastiest eats. But how cheap? You might ask. A glass of wine and a bite to eat for a fiver kind of cheap.
Wolf at the Door isn’t particularly new to the vibrant city centre district, having opened in 2019, where Folk & Soul and Odd Bar once stood. But with so many people keeping a close eye on their paypackets and cutting back on unnecessary spends, foodies may look at it through fresh eyes, as many search for cheap eats as a way to dine out and socialise without the huge price tag of city centre dining.
Initially, the venue offered Scandi-style small plates, but in 2020, switched to focus on wallet-friendly bar bites, including tacos and bao buns stuffed with a variety of fillings, and prices start from as little as £1. That’s right, a quid!
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I’ve often been tempted to walk past the pink stickered windows and push through the door to try them out, and this week I finally did, and might have just found my new favourite lunch spot in the process.
Wolf at the Door don’t take bookings, so you may have to wait for a table during busy periods, but luckily, at around 1pm on a cold Wednesday in November, there was a warm and inviting table waiting for me when I arrived.
The dimly lit bar offers an array of seating arrangements, including communal benches and solo tables, each complete with a tasty looking menu to browse before ordering at the bar. The windows advertise their £1 bao and tacos ‘all day, every day’, so it was about time we gave them a go for ourselves.
The menu is split into three sections: fries, baos and tacos. The cheapest items on the menu come in at £1, while the most expensive is £5.50 for loaded fries, which come in a huge portion size, too.
There is a caveat to your £1 meal, being that you do have to order a drink if you’re wanting food, but with glasses of orange wine on the list for £4, and soft drinks even cheaper, it’s well worth it.
I opted for a can of Coke, going on to order the margarita pizza taco, chicken caesar taco, and two bao buns - chippy tea and the not dog. My Coke was around £3, bringing my total bill with the four menu items to a little over £7, since a discretionary 5 per cent service charge is added. Strapped for cash, you can certainly ask for this to be removed though, that said, I think 5 per cent is pretty reasonable when some other places are adding 12.5 per cent on.
It was great to see a range of meat, vegan and veggie options on the menu, and the affordability allows diners to access a range of flavours and combinations they may otherwise avoid due to a fear of wasting money, too.
The tacos and baos came served all on one plate, each one roughly the size of the palm of my hand. For the price, it’s a substantial serving, and one that certainly fills a gap when hunger strikes unexpectedly.
The Margarita pizza taco comes with a house pizza sauce, Italian mozzarella, garlic and parmesan mayo with olive oil, tomato and basil. They’re the epitome of ‘small, but mighty’, packing bags of flavour into a few mouthfuls.
Similarly, the chicken caesar features lemon and garlic grilled chicken thigh with caesar sauce, shredded lettuce with a parmesan and herb crumb. In fact, for a quid, it’s amazing how sophisticated these morsels of deliciousness are - they could have easily made these less exciting and the price would still have been justified.
Onto the baos, where the WATD Chippy Curry bao has already become the stuff of legend among the city. The steamed Asian bun features a giant curried fat chip shop style chip that could double as a door wedge, with curry sauce and curry dust for those that enjoy a bit of a kick to their food.
But it was actually the Not Dog vegan hot dog that I enjoyed the most, comprising a meat-free sausage with diced white onion, ketchup, mustard, gherkin and crispy fried onion, offering a total taste sensation in miniature form.
It may not be the most gourmet food I’ve ever eaten, but it’s cheap, cheerful and flavoursome, offering an affordable way to dine out without having to break the bank. There’s a great selection of cocktails, wines and beers that are really reasonably priced, too, meaning you can have a pocket-friendly night out with friends, even in the week before pay day.
The menu is available seven days a week, and is a food is served between 12pm-9pm.
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