The Wonder Inn
Location: Shudehill/City Centre
Address: 29 Shudehill, Manchester, M4 2AF
Category: Vegan pub and venue
Opening hours: Monday-Thursday 5pm-12:30am, Friday-Sunday 10am-12:30am
Veganness: 100% vegan!
Value for money: 4/10
Wait for food: Generally 15-20 minutes.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Thewonderinn/
The Wonder Inn is closing one week today. I should have written a review of this place weeks ago and feel bad that I don't. You all have one week to visit The Wonder Inn before it closes. It's location is about a 5 minute walk from Victoria train station and a 1 or 2 minute walk from Shudehill tram stop and bus station.
The Wonder Inn opened up 3 years, and is a large vegan pub and venue. As you walk in the front entrance you see a reasonable sized cafe and bar. When I first went here this is all I thought there was, enough seating for perhaps 30 people. However, there is so much more to the Wonder Inn. At the back of the building there is another room with a lot more seating and the toilets. There are other rooms in the back where they hold events. Upstairs there are a number of large rooms where they hold large events. These events include music concerts, poetry nights, talks, workshops, yoga, martial arts and a lot more.
The Wonder Inn is fully vegan and has a lot of raw options. Their raw cakes are brilliant. Their hot food is really wholesome and very healthy. I have only tried their cakes, but I have heard that the hot food is good. However, the portions are small for the price, and the cakes aren't cheap either. Neither are the drinks here. Everything is of a very high standard though.
What really makes The Wonder Inn for me though is the ambiance. It feels like a pub and a cafe combined. It's somewhere I can feel comfortable hanging out all day long. There's plenty of space and you can spend hours there just having a few cups of tea if you wish. I have spent time here hanging out with friends casually for hours on end. You wouldn't be out of place drinking tea and reading a book on your own for hours either. There aren't many places in Manchester that I feel that way about. At least not without spending lots of money or drinking a lot. It feels like a safe space for hippies everywhere.
Unfortunately the costs of running such a large venue have paid their price. The Wonder Inn can no longer keep up with the cost of rent and bills. They are closing on 31st October and are having a closing party this Sunday where the owner is performing a music set as she is a musician. It is a ticketed event but hopefully the cafe/bar will still be open for free for all. It's certainly somewhere worth visiting before it closes down.
No comments:
Post a Comment