There’s no better feeling than waking up early on a Saturday morning and attempting to hit a personal best during the Platt Fields 5km Park Run.
Ok that’s a lie.
The best feeling is hitting a pb during the Platt Fields 5km Park run and then celebrating with a big, bad-ass breakfast.
This week, we opted to try the famous pancakes at Ezra & Gil in the Northern Quarter. The restaurant is a great space: simple tables, combination of old-and-new-looking chairs, a comfy booth a few quirky wall décor arrangements. It has a stark industrial, but not cold, feel, making it a worthy addition to the NQ breakfast scene.
Rookie mistake – I went straight to the counter to order and literally selected from the board behind the till. Not realising there is actually a lot more choice on the menu (d’oh!) BUT, saying that, it forced me to experiment away from my safe zone and I chose to go for a savoury pancake (even though my stomach was dying at the thought of even considering a pancake that wasn’t dripping in syrup).
The gamble totally paid off, I loved my savoury goats cheese, tomato and pesto fluffy american-style pancake. I craved it for days. It was great after running fuel for sure.
Mo couldn’t resist a full on veggie breakfast (unfortunately the meat here isn’t halal), but I was surprised at how tasty the vege ‘sausage’ was. Made from sweet potato, it made a nice change from the ones you usually get in restaurants, you could tell this had been home-made with some thought put into it. Not quite sure if it’s on par with the ultimate vege sausage at Giraffe though… might need to do a side-by-side taste test to decide that.
Service, good – the lady behind the till was very patient with me taking what felt like a century to decide what I wanted.
Considering it was late morning on a Saturday, the atmosphere was cool and relaxed, just what you want when you’re grabbing a coffee. Didn’t realise how calm it was inside until we stepped outside where the pavements were full of the fast-paced hustle and bustle of the city, almost makes you want to run back in.
All in all, this is a great place to wind down, especially after a morning sprint jog-slash-attempted-sprint. Next time, I’ll have to make sure to peruse the menu fully before walking up to order.
Since writing this post we returned to E&G and tried a few other dishes, scrambled egg with spinach and smoked salmon and also the goats cheese panini. Both delicious! (there really is something quite beautiful about goats cheese)
Ezra & Gil
20 Hilton Street, Manchester, M1 1FR
Any other menu recommendations I should try??
