The Pen and Pencil is a Northern Quarter bar and restaurant that sits on the corner of Hilton and Tariff Street in Manchester (not far from Piccadilly station), serving food and drinks 7 days a week from 10am till late. I can only comment on one breakfast visit here, but the food was superb!

We spent a weekend in Manchester recently to celebrate Ben’s birthday (see my previous review of El Gato Tapas where we had a gorgeous evening meal), and the next day to quench our hangovers, we needed a good full brekky. I did a little search on Trip Advisor for nearby top rated places for breakfast and The Pen and Pencil in Northern Quarter is rated No.88 of 1,705 Restaurants in Manchester and was based near where our car was parked so seemed a good choice.

The venue is a very typical Northern Quarter/Indie type place and I think we were lucky to get in for breakfast as it was quite busy – a good sign. The “brunch” menu is available everyday from 10am – 4pm and covers a range of full breakfasts, pancakes, eggs, French toast etc with lots of Vegetarian and Vegan choices and extras available. There is also a lot of drinks to choose from, such as brunch cocktails, smoothies, shakes, coffees, teas etc, so I think just bout everyone is catered for here.

On occasion I prefer a veggie breakfast over a “full English” with meat depending on what is on offer (not for everyone but I just like something a little different and less greasy sometimes), and when I spotted it on the menu here, it was an easy choice for me; Vegetarian Breakfast £10.50 – Fried halloumi, black bean patties, beans, poached eggs, hash browns, grilled tomato, flat cap mushroom and toasted sourdough. This was a plate full of goodness and I ate every last bit (hangover proving to be a struggle but I wasn’t going to waste any of this tasty food). Everything was cooked really well and all ingredients complimented each other, I especially enjoyed the tasty of the black bean patties. Eggs were perfectly runny, maybe a little snotty for my hungover state but that was just a personal comment from me. I’d have liked to have seen avocado on the breakfast but now I am being greedy lol.

Ben chose something a little different and an absolute treat for his breakfast; Steak & Eggs £10.50 – 6oz marinated rump steak, hash browns, fried eggs, hollandaise. The chunky bit of steak was cooked perfectly medium rare and was very juicy. There were 3 fried eggs and the hash browns are homemade here too. A very filling breakfast that went down very well. We washed the delicious breakfasts with some coffees.

The service here was friendly, we did find we had a bit of a waiting time but this was understandable as the restaurant was busy, which from our experience is 100% understandable. I would totally recommend this place for a decent breakfast in Manchester City Centre.

For more information, check out their website here.

I hope that you enjoyed my review and it has inspired you to give this restaurant a visit. Please check out my other reviews, and my recipes too! If you have anywhere you recommend I should eat at, please leave a comment below. If you are a restaurant/food vendor and would like to collaborate with me in any way, please just email me at jensfoodblog@gmail.com!

Happy munching!

Jen

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