Eats

The bottomless Manchester Christmas party with tropical cocktails and jerk chicken

Turkey is overrated - there, I said it.

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 24th October 2022

A group of Caribbean-inspired restaurants in Manchester has just launched a bottomless Christmas party deal with unlimited drinks and plates of fiery jerk chicken, and it sounds like it will be quite the raucous affair.

Turtle Bay, the restaurant group famed for serving a bottomless brunch with every cocktail on its menu included, has decided to play right to its strengths this season – creating an updated version of the offer for partygoers over the festive period.

With two hours of unlimited drinks, a burger, roti or brunch dish all included in the £32.50 price, from now until the New Year, it will run its bottomless deal right through till 5pm – meaning that any festive get together booked before this time can really make the most of their budget.

Turtle Bay on Oxford Road has just had a big makeover. / Image: Turtle Bay
Image: Turtle Bay

There’s also an option to upgrade if you fancy a main with your botomless Christmas deal, choosing from the likes of fiery jerk chicken, Caribbean katsu or chef Colin’s mac and cheese for an extra £4.50.

As for cocktails, indulge in the likes of the Dessert Island (dark rum, Tia Maria, cold brew and salted caramel); Tobago Tea (white rum, vodka, tequila, gin, triple sec, grapefruit, mango and lime); Jamrock Punch (gin, passionfruit, strawberry, apple, grapefruit and lime) and the Tingwray (Wray & Nephew, white rum, grapefruit and lime) over the course of your bookinh.

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Read more: A Manchester coffee shop is selling pumpkin spice and mummy donuts

As well as extending its bottomless deal to make it available to afternoon and early evening Christmas parties, the restaurant group is also planning a NYE bottomless dinner , where fans can ring in the new year in style after a quiet couple of years.

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Here, guests can celebrate the arrival of 2023 with two courses and two hours of unlimited cocktails for £44, or three courses for £49. 

The Oxford Road has been refurbished and redecorated ready for the party season. / Image: Turtle Bay
Image: Turtle Bay

It is worth noting, however, that those who want to keep their table until close will need to book their table after 9pm.

As for those who fancy a Christmas party with a twist, but don’t want to go all-in with bottomless drinks, Turtle Bay has another food-only package, with two courses for £18.50 or three courses for £23.50.

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As art of this festive offering, the whole menu is up for grabs – with an option to mix and match starters and small plates if two or three course dining isn’t your thing.

Read more: This Manchester bar serves a bottomless cheese fondue with endless beer and wine

Turtle Bay has three sites in Greater Manchester, two of which are located in the city centre and a third, newly-opened waterside restaurant with a huge outdoor terrace at Salford Quays.

To find out more and book a table for this bottomless Christmas party with a twist, head over to Turtle Bay’s website here.

Feature image – Turtle Bay

Eats

There’s a bakery in Manchester where you can decorate your own adorable tiny bento cake

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson The finished products from our bento cake workshop

We’ve found a wholesome activity that’ll suit even the most cack-handed of bakers – a workshop where you can decorate your own miniature bento cake.

This Manchester activity has shot to the top of our list of our favourite things to do locally, perfect for a hen do, a birthday, a mate date or a date date.

Bento cakes, or lunchbox cakes, have all the elaborate decorations of a full celebration cake but made miniature, for a treat that doesn’t have to be shared out to dozens of people.

From swirls of buttercream frosting to pretty piped love hearts to cursive writing atop your cake, there are loads of decorations you can add to your own creation.

At Vanilla Ice Cakes in Chorlton, you’ll sit under the expert eye of owner Fiza, a master baker who’s been in the game for more than a decade.

She’ll guide you (and sometimes step in to help you) as you fumble your way through decorating your own cake.

As you arrive for your workshop you’re presented with two adorable vanilla sponge cakes, a classic base for a proper Victoria sponge or a more elaborate celebration cake.

Other cakes at Vanilla Ice Cakes
Other cakes at Vanilla Ice Cakes
You can mix up your own buttercream icing
You can mix up your own buttercream icing
Master baker Fiza at work at the bento cake workshop
Master baker Fiza at work at the bento cake workshop
The bento cake workshop space in Manchester
The bento cake workshop space in Manchester
One of our creations at the bento cake workshop in Chorlton, Manchester
One of our creations at the bento cake workshop in Chorlton, Manchester

Each class includes hot drinks, plus a plate full of Vanilla Ice Cakes’ delicious brownie bites.

From here, you’re taught the basics of piping, building a buttercream ‘dam’ before spooning in a filling of choice – jam, Nutella or Lotus Biscoff.

After applying a crumb coat (Great British Bake Off fans will already be on the right page here), the real fun begins.

Fiza will help you to whip up a smooth buttercream in whichever colour you wish, before letting you run riot with a piping bag.

You’ll practice swirls, rosettes, hearts, and even writing in icing ahead of decorating your actual cake.

You can see how we got on below, then book your own spot HERE.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

Eats

A big US fast food chain said to be ‘much better’ than McDonald’s is coming to the UK

Danny Jones Danny Jones Carl's Jr. coming to the UK 100 locations Manchester

Fast food fans, feel free to get excited and potentially add another name to your rankings because a big US burger-driven brand hailed by many as ‘better’ than McDonald’s is coming to the UK. The rumours are true: Greater Manchester could very soon get a Carl’s Jr.

Carl’s Jr. is an American chain best known for chicken sandwiches and its trademark ‘charbroiled’ beef patties such as menu favourites like the ‘Famous Star’. You can even get star-shaped chicken nuggets.

First opening back in 1941, it’s very nearly as old as Maccies itself and although its profile is much smaller than that of the iconic golden arches, there are many who still firmly believe that it serves a superior product than the global conglomerate.

Well, hopefully soon you’ll be able to decide for yourselves as Carl’s Jr. is set to face off with McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Popeyes and all the other franchises that have made their way across the Atlantic over the last half a century or so – and it’s coming to Wales first.

In an announcement made via Restaurant Online, Carl’s Jr.’s country manager under parent company BRG (Boparan Restaurant Group), David Moffat said: “We’re looking at a steady rollout with a target of 100 restaurants plus in four years.

“We’ll open a number of corporate stores that we’ll retain as we go along and we’ll also be going into the sub-franchise market, which we hope to begin actioning towards the end of the year. We’ve had a lot of interest from big group franchisees already.”

Named after founder Carl N. Karcher, who set up the very first iteration of Carl’s Jr. after moving from his hometown of Ohio to California and purchasing a hot dog cart for $326, the brand then opened as a drive-in BBQ in January 1945 before opening its first real restaurants in 1956.

Although both he and his wife Margaret have long since passed away, there is a huge family lineage that has carried on the name and it’s only gotten bigger with each decade that’s passed.

So what separates it from its biggest and most dominant competition? Well, not only do lots of American diners swear by their charbroiled burger recipes over McDonald’s big a part of the Carl’s Jr.s over Maccies campaign front is said to come down to the chips – especially as they also do waffle fries.

Put simply by one user on X just last month, he believes “Carl’s Jr is the best fast food burger”. Current day Carl’s in the States now boasts everything from the classic burger and chicken to sandwiches, milkshakes, sides and desserts to a sizeable breakfast menu.

However, Moffat clarified that “the UK will probably have the smallest menu outside the US, which will be focused on the core products: burgers, chicken and fries. You’ve got to look at it culturally and in a way that ensures the brand has a broad, diverse appeal.”

For context, as well as five sites in Europe, there are locations in: Australia, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Russia, Singapore and Vietnam.

Judging by the endless expansion, Carl’s Jr. was always going to come to the UK, it was just a matter of when. This move was actually confirmed back in May 2024, when they reached a master license agreement with BRG to bring the brand to Britain, as well as the Republic and Northern Ireland.

carl's jr.s burgers
big mac
They have 1,600 restaurants in 25+ countries around the world to Maccies’ 41,800. Choose your fighter… (Credit: Carl’s Jr./McDonald’s)

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The first UK Carl’s Jr. restaurant in Cardiff is set to open in the St David’s shopping centre in April and a second site is due to launch somewhere in the south – you would presume London but who knows? – in time for the summer.

With that in mind, and given Manchester is the second city after London as well all know (sorry, Birmingham, we’ll die on this hill), you can expect at least one of the 100+ Carl’s Jr. locations to pop up somewhere in 0161.

However, before we get ahead of ourselves, we want to know if any of you have tried the chain before and do you agree that it’s ‘better’ than Maccies?

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Aditya Oberai (via Wikimedia Commons)/Ernesto Andrade/Willis Lam (via Flickr)

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