Busaba Eathai

I went there with some Unilocalers to make the most of their 50% offer. I really like Thai food and I wasn’t disappointed. For starter we order almost all what they got on the menu to share and everything was very nice. I ordered duck breast as a main which I regretted a bit. First I’m not sure it’s really «Thai» and the sauce served with that was a bit too strong. the others really enjoyed their «thai» main though.
I would never think of going to the Printworks for food so thanks Michael B. for organising!

I visited on a Wednesday evening with a bunch of Unilocaling friends. There were just the right amount of us to order one of each of the small plates — and why not when there’s 50% off?! I liked the calamari and the tamarind wings and would happily order them again. Nothing was bad but the other dishes didn’t quite stand out for me.
For my main course I had the sen chan pad Thai. This was very generous in terms of portion size and the amount of ingredients in there. I really enjoyed this, especially after jazzing it up with the sauces on the table such as fish sauce and sriracha.
Overall I would say this place is nothing very exciting. I won’t be rushing back, especially as there are plenty of great independent Thai restaurants in Manchester, but sometimes you have to end up at a chain and as chains go, I enjoyed my meal.

With only a couple of days of January left, a few of us went to check out Busaba’s newest UK restaurant just inside The Printworks. They mostly face out on to Exchange Square and the main entrance is on Withy Grove.
Not the warmest of welcomes by the lady at the front desk it has to be said, but thankfully the opposite was true of our server for the evening — an extremely friendly and attentive gent who kept our water glasses filled up (with seriously under-​sized water bottles — they need to change those soon as it’ll save them 100s of man-​hours).
Our group decided the best way forward was to all share starters and then get our own main courses — this proved to be a great way to sample a lot of the menu in one sitting. Their tamarind chicken was a personal fave of the starters, though most were fairly decent. I dare say they have ‘toned down’ the spices and flavours for the British palate, though I wasn’t complaining as I’m a well-​known wuss when it comes to chili consumption.
My main of Mussaman duck on the bone was hearty, especially with the serving of Jasmine rice. As they were running an offer of 50% off your bill if you paid via their own app, a few of us splurged and ordered desserts too — I think my mango and coconut panalova was the clear winner — being light and creamy; the ice cream and ‘deconstructed’ chocolate fondant appeared to underwhelm my friends.
Though paying the bill via the app turned into a bit of a saga (the printed receipt didn’t match the total shown on my phone so I couldn’t pay it at first!), it was soon sorted out by management.
Would I go back at full price? Probably not in a hurry if I’m honest. It was a nice meal in a nice setting but nothing is compelling me to return.

Busaba recently opened in Manchester, their first restaurant outside of London. I visited here with a few friends, partly to just check it out but also to advantage of the 50% off offer. (Its 50% up to 4^th February and if you pay via their app — more about that later!
We decided to try every starter (aka small plate) and share it between us — tapas style. There were 8 different starters and 7 of us so worked out well. Its nice having a smörgåsbord of different things. Some of the things we had included soft shell crab, breaded prawns, tamarind chicken wings and thai fish cakes.
Overall they were all not bad, I always have big hope for soft shell crab which was quite nice but nothing special. As Michael B has mentioned, the tamarind chicken wings were probably the stand out of the starters.
For the main, I went for the char-​grilled duck. Not sure what I expected but thought it would be more than basically some duck on the plate. To be fair, it was with some Chinese broccoli. Unfortunately I was not too keen on the flavour. I looked at the menu and it mentioned it had tamarind in it. Maybe I have not had tamarind before — although it was on the chicken wings we had for starter? As mentioned, didn’t really like the flavour and it had a very strong smell which I didn’t really like — reminded me of fish sauce, although there was fish sauce on the table so I could compare; not quite same smell! So maybe it my fault for picking the «wrong dish»??
For dessert, I went for the ice cream sundae but asked for it before the coconut ice cream and just have the vanilla and Thai tea. I am «OK» with coconut but just rather not have it. When I got it, I am sure I tasted a bit of coconut and a bit of the texture? But in the glass it just had 2 different scoops — which of which was definitely vanilla. And Thai Tea is probably not the strongest flavour ice cream. It came with some biscuit crumble and mango sauce.
The service though, especially by our waiter was really good. There was a bit of confusion/​complication with the app which you pay through. The amount on the app and the amount on the receipt didn’t match up so that delayed things a bit.
And if you want to split the bill, every person needs to have the app.
If was to go back again, I would go for the pad Thai which looked nice. I only didn’t go for it as t was 50% off and also think I should order which costs a bit more! Hehe

I decided to go here today for the grand opening because a choice of 25 different main courses were being offered for 99p. I went for lunch; it was very busy but that was to be expected for such a great introductory offer. We were offered Thai crackers while we waited (I couldn’t have these because of the gluten) and after 20 minutes I was seated upstairs. Note that if you get a table for 2, it’s a tight squeeze getting in and out if you’re sat on the couch side. I was impressed by the tidy and easy to understand allergen menu, and by the level of choice available for me considering my requirements. I ordered the Thai fish cakes for starter, the best thing about these was the accompanying sweet chilli dip. For my main course I ordered the Thai Laksa — it had just the right balance of coconut and spices. The only thing that was disappointing was that I had to wait 30 – 40 minutes for the main course to be served, but I appreciate that the staff were very busy. They gave me a voucher for 50% off when I pay using the Busaba app, so I’ll be downloading this and coming again.

This review was from a soft launch/​bloggers event, so it doesn’t necessarily reflect Busaba properly. That said, I really enjoyed my night here and I’ll be looking to come back again next time I’m feeling like some time food.
Taking up the old Café Rouge unit at the printworks, Busaba is part of a chain of Thai restaurants with 12 branches in London looking to expanded northwards into Manchester and Liverpool next month. There’s a nice outdoor seating area where (when he sun finally arrives again) you can sample their fantastic cocktail menu. The interior is lovely too with lots of black and copper accents. Sriracha, soy and sweet chilli are already on every table which personally I like.
We tried quite a few of the cocktails, all with a very delicious Thai twist. The Thai martini was certainly on of our favourite, as was making our own coconut Collins — a grown up version of a piña colada.
We also got to order a few dishes off the menu, so we opted for the chicken satay to start (the best satay sauce ever my dining companion proclaimed) and the crispy king prawns which were cooked to perfection, served with a limey spicy salty sauce. Delicious. Our waiter also insisted that we try the calamari, which was the stand out food of the evening. Seriously if you go, try the calamari you will not be disappointed. We also had some of the traditional Som Tam green papaya salad that had quite a kick to it.
For mains we had chicken jungle curry, which while delicious could have had a slightly thick sauce, and the chicken and butternut squash stir fry which was brilliant. All topped off with a cocktail the bartender created for us which was like a coconut mojito.
As it was a soft launch/​event there were a few issue in terms of service (food coming together, drinks orders being wrong), however the staff they have in place are wonderful and seem to genuinely care about being part of Busaba. I’ll be heading back soon, even just for more Thai martinis and a bucket of calamari.