Est Caffe

Great place to eat. Good food and excellent service.

Friendly staff, good, easily accessible baby changes facilities, plenty of room for prams, though the high chairs could do with a good clean. A well located pit stop especially if you’ve kids with you.
The food’s reasonably priced though the full cooked breakfast can be a bit hit and miss, I’ve had this a few times. They’re a little stingy with the bacon and sausage and it’s often served on a cold plate, but, is tasty and served promptly.
Preferred time is first thing in the morning or weekdays during term time as it’s moderately quiet and you can people watch.

Not the usual café/​restaurant I’d find myself in (in other words — stuck inside a giant shopping mall) but needs must one weekend and with a tired (‘we can’t walk any more’) family and friends in tow it is Est Caffe where we ended up. Looking fairly banal, but inviting all the same we decided to give it a whirl.
And actually we were pleasantly surprised. The kids all had home made pizza’s (which were huge especially considering they were child’s portions) — no frozen circular cheese on toast you get in some establishments, these were the real deal. A friend had the lasagne (again a nicely sized portion) which they confirmed was tasty; I had a standard burger but even this was cooked really well and satiated my aching tummy within seconds. I laid off the alcohol (slowly recovering from a night out) and chose a really good coffee instead.
Service was top notch, nothing was missed and the timings were perfect (I’ve been to high end restaurants who cock this up with surprising ease and regularity). The kids all had desserts and from the ‘empty plate in seconds’ routine I guess these hit the spot too.
Est Caffe is situated on the top floor of the Arndale and is itself is spread over two, open floors. Good spot to people watch then and of course you get all types of life’s rich tapestry wandering through the arndale (the new bitthe bit that works remarkably well).
If you’re ever in the area and fancy something a little more substantial than a sandwich and coffee, est might just sort you out.
It’s a chain and they’re mostly confined to large shopping malls and airports but I’ve eaten (and been treated far less well) in far worse places.