Tampopo

Tampopo typifies one of my favourite types of restaurant: the local chain which embarrasses the big boys. A Manchester establishment, Tampopo makes Wagamama and most of the other imitators look like a bunch of amateurs and never gives you a bad meal. With several locations around Manchester City Centre and dishes full of flavour (as well as a varied menu) there is simply no reason not to head here whenever you want a stir fry, soup noodle, or the like.
Prices are reasonable, particularly the lunch deal which is frankly generous. My only issue is the starters which are a bit pricey, an issue in all restaurants of this type unfortunately.

Really nice food, but a little pricey. Good place for food before The Albert Hall.

This is one of my two favourite places to go for noodles since it is Manchester’s own original Asian fast food place and Wagamama’s decided to westernise their dishes! Our recent visit was no disappointment (except it gets 4 stars because the place is looking a bit tired and less shiny). The service was quick and friendly as usual. The menu has been recently updated to include more «small plates» and fewer main dishes so that one could now get Asian tapas, so to speak.
We went for a sharing platter for two. This was freshly prepared and came with all the different dips. The BBQ chicken was more like garlic chicken though. For mains we got Nasi Goreng with Chicken and Vietnamese Phở with Chicken — both came promptly after our starters and piping hot and full of flavour. We were really full but the dessert menu was tempting! Not your usual desert spread, there were Asian twists on new classics, including freshly deep fried churros with cinnamon sugar and dipping chocolate! Mmm! We took this to share and finished it off with fresh mint tea. When we paid, we even got a voucher for a free «small plate» on our next visit! Cash back!

After a heavy Friday night on the drink it was time to start thinking about where we could eat that would be quick and easy. We were sat next door to Tampopo so it was the obvious choice.
We were seated straight away and considering it was half 9 it was relatively busy! We were served by a devil (halloween themed) and considering the outfit the server was lovely. We ordered a bottle of fizz and a coke, the soft drink did get lost on route however was soon rectified. I opted for the duck dumplings to start and pitting them against Wagamamas own I was left slightly disappointed. The dumplings had a sticky texture and weren’t quite full to the brim with duck and didn’t have much of a taste alone but needed a good dip in the soy sauce to add flavour.
For my main I opted for the chicken katsu curry (I was hungry!) It arrived promptly and was a super tasty combo of sticky rice, deep fried chicken with a mild curry sauce. I would say it was on par with Wagamamas version even served with the same side salad topped with ginger. I wouldn’t come here for a special occasion but its perfect for a quick and reasonable dinner!

Delicious! Prawn crackers and chilli/​salted edamame beans with a Asahi beer while we were perused the menu, then chicken satay skewers and duck red Thai curry followed. Really can’t fault this experience, the food was spot on with amazing flavour (although I wasn’t so keen on the lychee in the curry) and the service was super quick and friendly. Great meal! Word of advice — make sure your seat has a little cushion in place or ask for one!

Great food for value. The service is very good as well. The menu has everything you need and has dishes from a lot of different Asian countries, it is not an exhaustive list of unknowns which is good. The food is served fast and very tasty. Nice place to go for a semi casual night or just night out with friends. Very affordable as well. Very similar to wagamama; probably cheaper though. Only inconvenient point for some maybe is that you sometimes have to sit next to people you don’t know since it is just several really long tables; this didn’t bother me at all though. Had a awesome night.

Not really traditional food. I ordered phở with chicken yesterday. The chicken was over grilled and they added random stuff like ginger and aniseed in it! It tasted very bitter and is totally different traditional phở. Plus the price is not that decent compared to its food. The only thing that is good is the service.

Tasty food, good value, and very quick.
A few of us from work went here to grab some food one evening. Despite different tastes and dietary needs we were all able to order something to suit us, and they were happy to switch up ingredients when asked.
Prawn crackers were delicious with a real prawn flavour and came with a deliciously spicy chilli sauce. For a main course I had Yaki Udon — Udon noodles with chicken, prawn, mussels and squid. There were only two mussels in the whole dish but there was a decent amount of the other ingredients, including the squid which was really well cooked and not chewy at all. The flavours of the dish were superb but I couldn’t resist adding soy sauce and sriracha at the table.
The price for what I ate was really good value, especially considering how much I enjoyed my meal. I’d be really happy going back here to grab a bite to eat.

Wandering around Manchester looking for somewhere to have a late meal, we stumbled across Tampopo and decided to give it a whirl, having enjoyed meals at Umami recently.
The interior is really nice, although Sparky did think there was a bit of a late 90s vibe to some of the décor. We were seated promptly and the staff were very friendly, attentive — and our waiter was also knowledgeable about the different dishes which was nice to see.
The menu is themed around countries with dishes with similar flavours and style grouped by geography. Maybe I’m not explaining it well… but suffice it to say if you want a particular type of dish, there’s some colour codings in the menu which help you find similar dishes.
I went for chicken adobo, Sparky went for his long time favourite Singapore noodles. The chicken was great, but unfortunately the rice which came with it was somewhat undercooked (still crunchy in places!). The sweet potato chips which came with it were lovely though. Sparky’s noodles were nice, but he said he’d had better.
It’s a nice place with nice food and I’d probably come back. I’d definitely prefer this to a big chain like Wagamama, but it’s hard to get excited when Manchester has places like Umami which are more authentic and serve consistently great food.

Love this place. A great place to eat with friends. Authentic flavours, amazing smells. From the extensive menu, I selected Bo Luc Lac (Shaking Beef) for the main, which was amazing and to start, Prawn Tempura. I love the atmosphere in here. Highly recommend:)

This is a quirky, below street level, authentic restaurant that provides a good selection of Asian cuisine. The dining area is quaint with a mixture of length tables, although on the larger tables you may not be separated from other customers if it’s busy. There is some space to hang coats etc but it could be disturbing to other customers and you cannot really hang things with you as the seating is small stools that are fixed to the ground. You can see all the food being prepared and cooked fresh as you have direct access to view the kitchen and that’s very interesting to watch.

A good selection of thai vietnamese chinese and other Asian cuisines. Great atmosphere with friendly staff. Great location by the Town Hall. Although I didn’t choose my main well from the menu all my friends were happy. The starters are amazing with corn fritters topping the lot for me as well as the tempura vegetables. We had a voucher for 50% off which makes it taste even better.

Om nom nom!
Great restaurant with decent prices, for me personally I would have liked a bit of sushi on the menu but that’s just a personal preference. for 4 of us having a main meal each and a couple of portions of prawn crackers and edemamme to share and an alcoholic drink each it was £20 each including tip which I think is really reasonable for city centre. its lots of long tables with stools so you get cosy with your neighbours which i’m not overly over the moon about but i can live with it.
The edemamme were beautifully seasoned with salt and chilli and you got a decent sized portion, I opted for the katsu curry and it was really well cooked and flavourful with yummy sticky rice and a delicious katsu sauce.
the staff were really attentive and friendly and really efficient, I would definatley head back here next time i’m in Manchester. My friends all really enjoyed their dishes too and they all looked really well presented

I’ve been to Tampopo a few times before. This one in Albert Square and the one in Trafford Centre.
Previous visits I have enjoyed what I had. I remember a couple times having a starter platter — which had a variety of different things. Must of them were nice but 1 or 2 of the things were not that good.
Anyway, this time I had the seafood Udon stir fried noodles — Yaki Udon. I wanted the Udon Soup Noodles I have had before (which had some tempura prawns on the side) but looks like they’ve changed menu since — it was a while ago!
For starter, I had the tempura prawns. I am a big fan of tempura — where its prawns or veg. However, this time they were a bit too greasy I think. It was «OK».
The Udon Noodles were also just OK. Stir fried Udon noodles with various veg thrown in inc. prawns, squid and a couple large mussels in the shell.
For drinks, I just had some green tea which came in one of those heavy cast iron pots. Cost of £1.80 is a bit steep for just a tea bag and some boiling water. Especially when its free from Wagamama which is their rival which does similar food. Although Tampopo does do cuisine from other Eastern Asian countries so more variety.
I had a voucher though for 50% food so cant that was good! :) Total excluding tip was just under £9 each.
My score is overall taking into account the food and the service.

Great for informal dining and for when your a bit short on time. I’ve eaten here before taking off to the royal exchange theatre. They do mixed Asian cuisine so you can get dishes from Japan, China, Korea and Vietnam.
I dined with a friend and we went for the starter platter to share, although we did get a touch of food envy as the people sat next to us (you dine on long benches so not great if you fancy an intimate dinner a deux) had some interesting looking prawns on sugar canes. Platter was good, fresh and filling.
I went for a Vietnamese noodle based dish with chicken which was very fresh — can’t remember what it was called so ill have to pop back so i can update the review as it was nicely spiced and tasty.
If you sign up to their mailing list they give you bottle of fizz fir your birthday which is nice

Pretty reliable food in a central location. I am sure there are more interesting places to grab a bite but this is good food cooked well, and quickly, with reasonable prices. I’m afraid I can’t remember exactly what I got but it was a lovely Korean dish that was generous and filling. I’d visit again happily!

Great, reasonably priced restaurant in Manchester that some locals told us about. Tampopo is an Asian fusion restaurant with cuisine from around Asia and a map of where each entrée is from. Its a creative idea and filled my craving for rice.
Of course i craved rice and ordered Singapore noodles. They were really good, Tampopo definitely knew how to work with spices to bring out flavors.

Number one reason to come here?
Delicious fresh food.
The chefs at Tampopo know what they are doing and it shows in the dishes. I’ve been here a few times and everytime the helpful wait staff serve a dish I am always stunned by how freshly cooked it tastes. The flavours too are wonderful and very different to most asian restauraunts, one of my favourites is the addition of peanuts to many dishes, very tasty indeed.
The atmosphere is nice. It’s a cosy place with an open kitchen so you can always see what’s going on and this serves to fill the eating space with a nice ambient noise. Don’t go here if you are looking for somewhere very quiet.
The only letdown is the (male) toilets. I have no idea what female toilets are like but the male toilets are tiny and cramped. Literally one toilet and one urinal complemented by one sink. It’s just about enough for the restuarant but very awkward and not great.
I will return in the future simply because the food is sooo nice and the prices are very fair.

It’s not really authentic Asian but it is inspired for British. Employees were nice. There were menus from many different asian countries which is not impressive at all but it’s cute. Seems there is another Tampopo that is the original and larger, Was strange that they served hot tea in a cast iron pot that tastes like iron. It was okay and the food was okay, not impressive but edible. Ordered Vietnamese pork and the portion was small and soup tasted very thin with a small amount of vegetables

I was craving Thai, and saw that Tampopo was the highest rated restaurant in the area on Unilocal that was open. It also promised to be reasonably priced (even better) and so I walked in expecting to have a good experience. Unfortunately it was as mediocre as many other Eastern-​inspired restaurants I’ve eaten at.
Tampopo is a restaurant that really wants to bring good Eastern food to its tables, but fails in its execution. I’m not sure what gets lost in translation here, but somehow despite the owners touting that they’ve traveled extensively to bring authentic flavor, the cooks manage to rob the food of just that and instead bring on the bland.
I feel like staple dishes should be the safest bet when venturing into a place like this — (i.e., an Eastern-​inspired restaurant run by Europeans) but unfortunately theirs are pretty weak. It should be nearly impossible to fail at Pad Thai, but they do, and epically I might add. It was pretty much an abomination in the face of all that is good about Pad Thai. Blubbery, overcooked noodles swimming in bland, oily sauce, littered with too many spring onions and burnt egg. My «lime soda» was also an epic fail — soda water with a lime wedge and a couple of ice cubes. Could we be any more literal and uncreative here? All this for £11.00 — pretty much a complete rip off.
The service also left a lot to be desired. Nice people, but pretty slow and didn’t ask if I was enjoying what I was eating, which would have been nice considering that I was wasn’t.
Overall verdict? Mediocrity rules at Tampopo.
My advice? Steer clear and look elsewhere if you actually want to enjoy your food and feel good about parting with the pounds when you get the bill.

Hier kann man es wirklich aushalten! Super schneller und netter Service plus hervorragendes Essen.
Das Local liegt im Souterrain, also genau hinsehen ist gefragt :-)
Lohnt sich!!!