This Friday marks National Katsu Curry Day and to celebrate the occasion, Tampopo is giving away a whopping 400 free curries to us Mancs.
We’ve suddenly just become bigger fans of Tampopo than we already were.
The Pan-Asian favourite franchise, which started here in our city nearly three decades ago, now boasts a total of four Greater Manchester sites and all of them will be participating in handing out free bowls of katsu curry at the end of the week.
We can’t think of many better ways to kick off the weekend than with a free curry, to be honest.
So what’s the deal? Well, it’s pretty simple: special popup ‘Katsu Curry Hubs’ will be stationed outside all of Tampopo’s locations in and around Manchester and free curries will be served up from 11am-1pm.
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Just to warn you now, it’s strictly first come, first served and when they’re gone, they’re GONE, so you’re best making a beeline for your nearest Tampopo restaurant when in time to get in line.
100 curries will be given away at Albert Square, The Corn Exchange, The Trafford Centre Restaurant and The Trafford Centre Kiosk site too, meaning a total of 400 bowls of complimentary katsu curry are up for grabs, so you stand a very good chance of getting your hands on some free scran this Friday.
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Better yet, the Tampopo has just had one their biggest menu updates ever; 70% of dishes are either brand new or refined to perfection – including the already much-loved katsu curry, so not only are getting it for free but it promises to taste better than ever.
The chain has always been committed to bringing the best of Far Eastern cuisine to Manchester even since it first opened up in 1997, and it remains just as diverse and dynamic as it is authentic.
The dish has evolved and tastes better than ever. (Credit: The Manc Eats/Supplied)
David Fox, co-founder of Tampopo, said: “Katsu Curry Day is the perfect occasion for us to give back to our amazing Tampopo community and to share one of most popular dishes – and a great way to welcome the Autumn.
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“Our Katsu Curry has been honed to perfection over 27 years and we’re delighted to invite Manchester to come and celebrate with us.”
The katsu curry isn’t just a dish synonymous with Japanese cuisine but has quickly become a staple of comfort food here in the UK too. The crispy chicken, the steamed rice and that rich, savoury sauce – it’s just the best, and we have Tampopo to thank for being one of the first to bring it to Manchester.
It’s not the only freebie you can grab this week either…
New Manchester restaurant receives rave review as another is slammed as ‘torture’
Daisy Jackson
Pip, a new restaurant in Manchester, has received a rave national review this week – a review which slammed another restaurant in the same feature.
Food critic William Sitwell wrote in his review in The Telegraph that Pip is charming, refined, and fabulous.
“Bravo, Pip. Pip pip!” he wrote in the glowing write-up on the new restaurant, which stands at the foot of the new Treehouse Hotel and has the acclaimed Mary-Ellen McTague at its helm.
Sitwell’s Telegraph review particularly raved about dishes including Lancashire hot pot (‘fabulously good’), a wild garlic soup (‘a gorgeous thing’), and an apple trifle (‘a gift from heaven’).
But while it was all good for Pip, there were significantly less positive adjectives heaped on another restaurant in Manchester.
In fact, he said that Pip is ‘a great-value tonic’ for the ‘brash (and pricey) torture’ across town.
That restaurant was KAJI, formerly known as MUSU, which he said was ‘all tummies, bald heads, tattoos and heat’.
Sitwell said that while the service and sashimi are good at KAJI, the ‘place is afflicted by some overbearing cooking that cheapens the noble name of Japanese cuisine’.
He wrote: “Lamb chops fail the tender test and are properly wrecked sitting on a vulgar pond of sticky “tomato ponzu”. No beast should die to have that stuff squirted anywhere near it.
“And Kaji is a Japanese gaff without sake. Which is like opening a British pub in Tokyo and forgetting to put an ale on tap.”
Sharing the review, Pip wrote: “Thankyou @telegraph and @williamsitwell for the fantastic feature. We’re so proud of our team here.”
Milk Maids, Bolton – The family-run ice cream parlour on an award-winning farm
Daisy Jackson
Ice cream doesn’t come much fresher than those served at Milk Maids – in fact, you’ll be standing right on the family farm where the cows that produce the milk live, as you tuck into your scoop.
This unassuming dairy farm in Bolton has been in operation for decades, and in the same family for generations.
But it’s when sisters Fiona and Rebecca saw the full potential of all that award-winning milk being produced on their farm that Milk Maids was born.
This ice cream parlour on Dearden’s Farm in Over Hulton is now one of the hottest spots in Greater Manchester, especially when the weather is similarly hot.
Every month they release a whole batch of flavours, all made fresh daily (you can literally see Fiona legging it across the yard with buckets of milk to make fresh batches), with May specials including white chocolate and sea salt caramel, raspberry cookie, and passionfruit pavlova.
Milk Maids, Bolton – The family-run ice cream parlour on an award-winning farm
Cones can be filled with molten chocolate or pistachio creme before your ice cream is scooped and pressed into the cone.
Or you can have your chosen flavour whizzed up into a milkshake, served in a milk bun, or presented in an insulated take-home box for later.
We could wax lyrical about how good this ice cream is, but the queues really do speak for themselves, and you should go and get in it right now.