Umami must hate the dreaded "W" word. You know, "W***m**a." But then, seeing as the restaurant…read moreseems to be almost entirely modelled on the famous Japanese noodle chain, they can't really complain. Sitting in an underground premises on Oxford Road, Umami reflects the students swarming all around the local area. A slightly budget w***m**a but with same bench tables, open kitchen and scribbling-down-your-order-on-your-paper-place-mat kind of vibe. They do great lunch deals, which include a starter and a main for just £4.95, which really is a steal. I went to Umami with two friends for a quick lunch and we all taken in by the lunch deal. For my appetiser I had the king prawn gyoza dumplings. They came with a tasty dipping sauce and were served really quickly. For the main course, I chose the ngaulam gaeng keow wan (I wrote it down!) which is basically a thai green curry. It came with lots of cucumber which isn't really my thing, but it was hot both in a spicy and temperature way so it really did the job for me as it was freezing outside! At times, I did feel that it was so spicy the taste of the dish was lost, but I guess that depends on individuals' tastes. Umami is just fine if you're a student and fancy a quick, cheap bite to eat. It's not as good as Wagamama though. Oops. I said it. Wagamama. And again.

Service here is at times physically as well as verbally aggressive which is...disconcerting…read more Express means express. It will not be acceptable if you are not ready to order. It will be acceptable to serve your main course before you have finished your starter. Lunch deal - £5.95 for 2 courses is good value and I had decent gyoza (3 pcs) and what was essentially won ton soup which wasn't particularly flavourful except I thought the dumplings themselves were quite good. There is a full menu too and basically this place is pretty good, overall though I do prefer eatGoody (it's Korean food though) which is also marginally closer to my office.

Pearl city is a nice place to go for Chinese karaoke + dinner session. They have private rooms 2nd…read morefloor upstairs which with a minimum charge of 60 pounds. If we go with a few friends, we would order a number of dishes to share which are easily over 60 pounds. There are also English songs available for non-Chinese people to sing. I've seen people doing a private clubbing session here in the private room when they turn on loud dance music & dance in the room. You can also order drinks instead of food which might be more suitable for the western customers. 1st floor is normal restaurant & their dim sum are quite good.

I really liked Pearl City and would definitely go back to try more of its excellent menu which…read morefeatures favourites such as sichuan beef (really tasty) but also more unusual dishes such as tofu stuffed with eggplant and various casseroles. The dim sum is excellent too, and not too pricey, the har gau and prawn in paper were my favourites as the prawns had a really good flavour. The only thing I wouldn't recommend was the fried squid starter as it was quite bland. We got a selection of meats which were all good but I'd probably go just for pork belly next time - it was delicious!

Great service, food was lovely and was served fast and hot…read more Would have liked a little longer at beginning to enjoy complimentary crackers and for the staff not to assume we had finished because we were taking a break and having a chat. I would say the only disappointment was the take out menu was different to the menu in house with the costs being alotbhigjer for the banquets. Cannot say anything would stop me from going back though.

we spent just over £50, the chips were over cooked, we asked for vegetable spring rolls we got…read moreduck, the salt and pepper squid was undercooked and the salt and pepper chicken tasted like it was warmed up! it's a shame was lovely the first time we went.

Day in, day out, the tiny scowling woman behind the counter at Lime Cafe serves up hearty meals for…read moreless than £4 to University students and staff, while her sidekicks, the dim blonde girl and the sullen Manc chef all assist her in some kind of wonderful, balletic routine. And the food's not bad either. If you're on campus, you have a billion options for nosh. You could go to the big bean tin (University Place), or Kro, or risk the sarnies at Big Hands. It all depends on what you actually want to eat. If all you want is a jacket potato or a simple sarnie, Lime Cafe is a safe bet. The baked potatoes here are MASSIVE, and absolutely loaded with filling. The best value baked potato filling is beans and cheese, for a ridiculously low £2.20! If you fancy spicing it up a bit, the chilli and cheese option is still a steal at £2.95. I'm a huge fan of their potatoes; they're so fluffy and tasty, and they have that lovely thick skin that I cannot get enough of! As well as baked tatties, Lime Cafe offers several daily specials. These change every day, but there's always chilli, a curry, and a meat and vege option for a chinese dish. Expect to see pork in plum sauce, vegetable chow mein, lamb rogan josh and chicken tikka. These specials are £3.50, and the chilli and curries are served with rice. The fridges by the side hold a multitude of sandwiches, cold drinks and yoghurty dessert things, and there's also a soup of the day for £1.25, including a bun. They sell a variety of biscuit-type things from the Wicked Cake Co, but they're all a bit disappointing, really. You're better off with a piece of fruit (40p). Word has it that you can grab a breakfast bacon buttie here for less than £2, but I've never seen evidence of this; probably because in all my years as a student in the Sam Alexander building, I was never there around breakfast time! Lime Cafe really is one of the campus' best Uni-run eateries, with tasty options made fresh in front of you. The sandwiches might be a little ropey, but when there's fresh chicken stir fry on offer, who cares about the state of the egg and cress?

I've got to say that review has really made me laugh. I go there every day and have been doing so…read morefor the last three years. That scowling woman is absolutely hilarious and the chef geezer, well I don't even know what to say about him. Three members of staff, never ever not never not being there! Anyway Rebecca has absolutely hit the nail on the head. You'll be served good food, for £3 or so, with a sour look. It may well be depressing serving students, but still, a little smile isn't too much to ask. Food quality is high in my opinion (it must be the talented chef). Chilli and rice is always on the menu. Its faultless, large, and comes with a generous helping of cheese if you want it. Please note the blonde girl gives the largest portions so if you can engineer your queue position to get her, I advise doing so. The curries are all good too and sometimes you'll get lucky and they're available with noodles instead of rice. Breakfasts are a bit greasy but at least they're cheap. Also worth noting is that you can get a gorgeous pecan plait with your coffee, for just 10p! That's right, ten pence! One tenth of a pound! Recently they've started doing half pizzas for a quid, which are great. You will probably want to buy both halves, which will be £2 (£1 plus £1 equals £2). They've probably done this to give girls the option of not eating a full meal. They come in two flavours, veggie and 'miscellaneous meat' so I know which I'm opting for. Yep, it's the meat.

It tastes good and is not expensive. The menu is not the same every week…read more The waiters are all Chinese and very friendly！

Over priced, waiter forgot what I ordered and was very rude, food tasted like plastic and no one…read moreelse was there

I am not sure if this is a resteraunt or just a takeaway because I have never actually been there…read more Our neighbours recommended it to us and we rang them and they delivered to us, even though we live out of their local delivery area, the food arrived still hot and the extra milage delivery cost was not too much. We use this takeaway all the time now as it still remains good value for money since the food is really nice. We get prawn toast and BBQ ribs as starters and find that from some takeaways the prawn toast is covered in grease, but that is not the case here and the sauce for the BBQ ribs is gorgeous. Our meals arrive hot and the delivery staff are nice and pleasant. I would definately recommend this place to anyone areound the penwortham area and even up towards tarleton.

I live in higher penwortham and this is my local chineese resteraunt. The food is well cooked and…read morethe chips are not the soggy French fries that you get at other chineese take aways. Recommend sweet n sour pork, chicken in blackbean sauce and BBQ spare ribs and of course the chips

Chop! Chop! is a handy one to know about as if you don't live round here, as a friend of mine used…read moreto, you might not think to wander to Great Ancoats after the Northern Quarter. Yet here it is, a beacon of 'Oriental Cuisine' for all to experience and relative newcomer to the Ancoats 'scene' if you can call it that. Typical menu: select your meat for £3/£4, a little more for duck, and some sauce and away you go. There's a really good selection of veggie options here- veggie Chow Mein, veggie Vermicelli etc. But the Sweet and Sour chicken is really good, if you eat meat. This Chinese take out is everything you want it to be and more: value for money, friendly service and good enough food. A word of warning though: we once ordered delivery from here (for just a £1 charge) and it took absolutely forever so order early if you're thinking of doing this. We may have just been unlucky but even so. Chop Chop didn't exactly live up to its name that time.

Exactly the same experiences as my own. Good Chinese food, less obvious MSG than usual and a…read morehealthy taste, but slow delivery times. To be honest, with the plethora of greasy horrible Chinese food establishments taking over the country, this is a small price to pay for a nice healthy (ish) meal. You can tell the food is not bad because even the photos of it look good, and they are usually always a bad idea (see photos). The meals are remarkably cheap as well and though it might be more expensive to get prawns and the like, its still a ridiculous £4! This is at elast a quid cheaper than anywhere else I know. I also like the style of choosing a meat or fish and then a sauce seperately, as opposed to them being listen on the menu several times under each heading, i.e. Chicken in Cashew Nut, Prawn in Cashew Nut, Beef in Cashew Nut and so on, what is this larking about for? Just be straight up, you've got some cashew nut sauce in that kitchen haven't you? They also do a 'mixed meat' option, but that doest quite sound right to me, so I've always had prawn or chicken. For starters I recommend the soups, especially the noodle soups, which come with beef or chicken. I've got so say though, even though its only soup its damn filling so you might want to skip the delicious pre-main course treat if you aren't starving. Having said that, you could just force it down, along with some prawn crackers and prawn toast (very good here), and you'll still have only spend a few quid.

A welcome respite from the rain. They do pan-Chinese cuisine but specialize in Hong Kong style. I…read moredon't think my order was best, but I won't penalize them for it. It was still tasty, but I saw lots of better dishes flying by to the people near me. They have a ton of staff who are all very attentive and helpful. It seemed like they were also training some junior staff that day, but it wasn't disruptive. The interior is clean and presentable, if not chic. I would go back if I were in Manchester again, if only to see what else was available.

This place feels like a hidden gem. There are kind employees and a good supervisor. So many…read morevegetarian/vegan options and it's very clean and big inside. My partner and I popped in half an hour before closing and they happily served us, telling us not to rush and to take our time. The food was lovely, and the supervisor came up to serve us some rice. Really authentic Chinese food.