Rosylee

TL;DR — Cute little restaurant serving nice food with good service.
A search for a spot of lunch on a Sunday brought us to Rosylee. I’d not actually realised it was a restaurant, I thought it was a bar so was a bit taken aback when we went inside. The interior is incredibly smart and well presented and they were very busy but despite not having booked they managed to squeeze us in.
Sparky and I love our tea, so were very pleased when a strong pot of English breakfast tea was served and we managed to get nearly six cups out of it. We each had a sandwich (I had the fish finger sandwich, Sparky had roasted vegetables and hummus) — they were nice but not out of this world. The fish finger sandwich could have used a bit more tartare sauce. Both were served with chips which were very tasty.
Prices were very reasonable, portions were decent and service was friendly.

Really, really good value. We went on a Wednesday night for dinner and it was reasonably full. The décor is very nice and the menu looked promising.
We ordered the rib eye, césar salad and scampi all were very good. The chilean red wine for 18 pounds was very solid too. The dessert platter was fantastic. A great meal for a great price. We may be back tonight!

Visited for lunch with friends on Saturday, after being tempted along by their January 50% offer! My first visit to Rosylee, although I believe they’ve recently relaunched.
Manchester has no shortage of restaurants, but very few that I’d consider romantic. With the fairy lights and elegant décor, I can imagine this would be a great spot for a date or special occasion.
The menu is great too — a wide selection of starters, mains and sandwiches. We opted for sandwiches this time round, but would love to return to try their Inka grill! Cocktails looked divine too…
Our sandwiches (steak sandwich and roasted veg and hummus sandwich) were delicious — soft ciabatta bread and a generous portion of chips on the side… Although they could have been a little crispier. Prices very reasonable, even without the big discount!
It was hard to judge the service as they had a massive table of 20 people in; nothing to write home about but no complaints either.
All in all, really pleased with our visit and hope to return soon

Here is one of the very best date nights in the city… The place just screams Parisian romance and the food is unreal.
The bar is lovely in its presentation and although never empty, it never feels squashed either.
I had one of the greatest fillet steaks I’ve had in this place and that was a wonderful date helped on by the fantastic staff and atmosphere :)
It’s a bit pricey… But I don’t go to places like this for a bargain ;)

Lovely afternoon tea for a friends hen do, quite a group of us and they were so accommodating and the service on the day was great! Lovely lovely teas, and the cakes were just fantastic! Highly recommended

I visited Rosylee tea rooms as part of a baby shower celebration that I organised — selecting this place to to it’s central Stevenson Square location, it’s lovely interior, Afternoon Tea offering and good reputation.
So this review is based on coming here for an occasion, and in my experience, it was an Afternoon Tea Baby Shower gathering…
The downstairs is a stylish and airy lounge setting, with a sleek bar area and homely vibe. Above Rosylee is an über cool speak-​easy style bar called The Fitzgerald, which is home to a dark, vintage inspired interior, reflecting the prohibition era with it’s classic 1920s theme. Surrounded with gatsby glasswear, dark leather seating, pillars and wooden flooring, the atmosphere is mystic and moody — but all round fantastic!
Although a couple of people opted for food from the lunch menu, the majority of us indulged in Afternoon Tea, which involved finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and a selection of cream, sponge and macaron style cakes. The sandwiches involved beef, mustard, egg, smoked salmon, cream cheese, chicken and three cheeses, meaning a great choice for everyone. We had the nicest selection of tea’s too, as well as a couple of us opting for the odd cheeky glass of wine. The Afternoon Tea was really tasty; the range of sandwiches were scrumptious, and I’m a huge sucker for filling up on super sweet macarons too!
For the people who ordered from the lunch menu, they chose to have the Fish and Chips, which came in a fantastic wrapping of newspaper and a wooden tray for that authentic British look. There were all round happy faces for this meal. The sandwiches however didn’t look anything too special, fairly standard, but they did come with a chunky portion of chips instead of bitty fries which is always nice to see.
There were 19 of us sat around a large table, with every single one of us all happy with the Afternoon Tea, the ambience, the staff and the service…
A lovely place to go for an occasion!

Came here for drinks only and sat outside so no comments about inside or food.
Friendly attentive staff and a great outdoor space on a sunny night. Tables not too close together even in limited space which was nice. Good for a mixed crowd, eg. Both young and older and not to hipsterish.
Good mocktails too — the rhubarb fizz was lovely. If I’m in Manchester again, I’d head back here and try the food.

I came here for a friend’s post birthday lunch drinks. We came here specifically as it’s a sunny spot with tables outside. We got the table but then the sun disappeared and we eventually had to admit defeat and go inside to get warm again.
However this isn’t a bad thing as the inside is quite attractive. There’s black and white tiling, ivy and plenty of tables for two as well as booths for groups. Upstairs there’s lots of squashy sofas and chairs and very dim lighting.
We’d already eaten so I can’t comment on that. I got a bottle of Old Mout Cider for about £4.50. The bar staff seemed alright. I would come back on a Friday for the 2 for £10 cocktail deal which lasts all night. Otherwise prices are £7/​8. I would also come back on a more sunny day.

Finally got around to trying the new menu (twice). It’s really good, small selection but that often works better than being spoilt for choice. Really nice hearty menu for the winter time, cooked very well. It remains a great place to have a good bottle of wine or a few cocktails. Beautiful classic style décor inside and the staff are as sweet and efficient as they get.

Afraid to say, went here again and the food just wasn’t up to scratch. Had the hot pot on the set menu and it was distinctly average. Shame because the afternoon tea I had here the first time was great.

What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon Rosales tea room located Stevenson Square in the Northern quarters. I had a pot of tea and my partner a cup of Coffee. Staff was very polite and friendly and served us outside so can’t comment in the inside of the place

Afternoon Tea
After much deliberation over which of the numerous tea rooms to visit for a workmates reunion, we selected Rosylee and having never been there we were all very excited.
On arrival we were asked to wait as our table wasn’t ready (the restaurant was empty and we were on time) so we decided to get a drink at the bar. £2.50 for a diet coke? Ouch.
Upon seating we were asked which of the afternoon tea menus we would prefer (the majority choosing the champagne option) and were then asked which tea we would like. As the menu didn’t note a choice we requested this to the waitress who produced two additional menus for the table of 8. After much passing around the four people at my end of the table chose the same brew, to which one pot was brought out for us to share. Which I am more than happy to do. However, the additional two refills that were requested were not freshly brewed and as the same tea bags were used this resulted in extremely weak tea towards the end.
The food was brought to the table on a tradition 3 tier cake stand for 2 people to share. Consisting of a selection of sandwiches at the bottom (4 each) still warm out of the oven scones in the middle and a total of 4 cakes on the top. I enquired if additional cakes would be brought out (they were all different and all quite small) and was told that there wouldn’t, we would either have to cut them in half or decide which to have. We decided to share as we both wanted to try them all. On tasting the cakes it was clear that they had not been made on the premises and they all had a distinct ‘prepackaged’ supermarket perfection to them with artificial cream and a bland forgettable flavour.
The scones which by now had started to cool, had lost their ‘fresh from the oven’ warmth and taken on a ‘reheated in the microwave’ coolness, with the edges going hard and starting to taste stale.
The cost for the champagne Afternoon Tea was £25.25 pp and for this you got the addition of a glass of bubbly and chocolate dipped strawberries. The champagne was really nice and the strawberries were lovely, by far the nicest part of the menu.
Being a huge lover of Afternoon Tea I was very disappointed in my visit to Rosylee and won’t be visiting here again for this. I would say however that the Sunday lunches that were being served did look really nice so maybe I will give them a 2^nd chance to redeem themselves.

I’ve been to The Fitzgerald quite a few times for drinks and I’ve always looked through the windows at the bottom of the stairs and wondered if the Rosylee restaurant would be as good as the bar upstairs — so when a friend suggested it today I jumped at the chance to go.
It’s really cute inside — very different to the bar upstairs, but still nice. It’s really light and the tables aren’t close together (which I know can be a big issue for some)
The menu isn’t too large — which made it easy for some of the dishes to stand out for me to try.
To start I tried the Whitby Crab which was baked in a pot with leeks and cream. Really nice. For my main meal I had the Lancashire Hot Pot with red cabbage. This was nice, although being a Lancashire girl I’ve definitely had better.
They do a lunch and early evening set menu from Monday — Saturday 12pm until 7pm
where you can get 2 courses for £12.95 or 3 courses for £14.95 — which is great value for the standard of food you’re getting!
Didn’t try a dessert — next time.

They have a cracking location! You can sit outside on Hilton Street and people watch. It feels like you’re on holiday, on a sunny Manchester day.
Attentive service, although not always seemless, the waiting staff are found and friendly.
I’ve been a few times now:
— afternoon tea in spring. We sat inside. It was a ⁷⁄₁₀. They’d only been open a short while at this point and the menu had a few oddities, spelling errors, portion sizes were a bit sporadic (huge cakes and tiny sandwiches). They’ve probably ironed these out by now
— evening drinks inside in winter. Quite nice, only a small bar area at the front, but beautifully done and a good barman. ⁹⁄₁₀
— evening drinks outside in summer. Good ambiance, four of us were going to enjoy the sun and catch up, but my friends were on a budget and it wasn’t possible to buy bottle of wine for under £20 (I think! Memory a bit shoddy here), it was over budget so we had coffees and went to a friends garden to share a bottle. ⁷⁄₁₀
— lunch outside in summer. Great spot to enjoy lunch. they were busy and service was slow. We on an hours lunch break. Took 10 mins to order, food arrived 25−30mins later and we had to eat quickly. Linguini with crab dish, was fair. My friend said her burger was quite good. ⁸⁄₁₀
… This place is on my door step. It’s got the best outside terrace area in the Northern Quarter. I’ll be returning soon. Downstairs décor is nice and unique for the Northern Quarter, it’s got a lovely feel to it.
Upstairs looks a little odd (photo attached), and might be available for private hire (?)

Being quite anti-​tea (and coffee and in fact any hot drink I can think of), one would be right to question why on earth I ended up at Rosylee Tea Rooms. Well, the answer is quite simply: SUNSHINE AND CIDER.
There aren’t many bars in the Northern Quarter which offer ample outdoor seating and on those rare, not-​a-​cloud-​in-​the-​sky days, you’re twice as unlikely to find a free table even when you DO stumble upon a watering hole with outdoor space. But last weekend, luckily, Rosylee just happened to offer an al fresco option — and there was one free table just waiting for us.
If you want to enjoy a refreshing glass of Kopparberg with ice and tan up at the same time, Rosylee’s roadside sun-​trap is the place to do it. However, its interior is just as appealling, with a laid-​back French feel and set in a beautiful old building. I can imagine this being a warm, cosy place to meet friends for a catch up on a more typical wind/​rain-​filled Manchester weekend.
For a light snack, I recommend the Sharing Platter (£10) — a wooden plank covered in olives, jamon serrano, salad leaves, mushrooms, mozzarella, and roasted peppers, as well as hummus, balsamic vinegar and olive oil to dip your ciabatta into. We could have done with a couple more slices of bread to mop up the remaining hummus but it wasn’t the end of the world.
The staff are friendly — and honest. After a mix-​up with the card reader, which resulted in me over-​paying without realising, the staff came back to the table and put things right, which I thought was nice of them, seeing as they probably could have got away with over-​charging me (I was a bit tipsy).
All in all, this was a pleasant first experience of Rosylee and I’m sure I’ll be back to sample their drool-​inducing cakes and buns in the near future.

I’ve only ever been here for a meeting over drinks, so I can’t comment on the food. They’ve just moved their bar to the front in the entrance bit, where you can perch on high stools and grab a casual drink. Their beer selection is a bit crap, but they have Goose Island in bottles which is palatable if not something I’d usually choose. Looking over the cocktail menu, I was drawn to their iced tea cocktails, of which they have a fair few, all with literary names. I decided on E. M Forster’s A Passage to India — chai, coconut water, saffron, and Old Raj gin. It was lovely, and, at only six pounds, fairly reasonably priced for a tall cocktail.
I enjoyed my short time there, and the staff were pleasant and attentive. I’ll be back to try more of the iced tea cocktails.

So I met friends here, and was fairly impressed although the noise levels were a bit too high for me, not helped by a hen do on the table next to ours. The food looked amazing and I was informed it tasted good, although I thought this was fairly expensive for a general get together, i would go go here for a special occasion. Apparently there is a good bar upstairs too, although it was not open yet when we were there.
The staff were very friendly and there seemed to be enough of them. I was impressed with the selection of tea, cocktails and hot chocolate, in some cases these were combined :)
I would love to try coming here again at a non-​peak time as I went on a Saturday lunchtime and to be fair the noise levels meant having a conversation was difficult, even when sitting next to someone.

I had high hopes for Rosylee Tea Rooms in the Northern Quarter. They opened their doors towards the end of summer last year and I had been wanting to try their food since. A friend and I headed there for dessert after eating a light dinner at Soup Kitchen (Brilliant.). We were excited. We had heard good things and the photographs on their website suggested we were going to be very happy.
It wasn’t a great start — the staff ignored us as we walked in and looked obviously annoyed that we had entered their restaurant at 8.30pm when they had seem some potential for closing early. We were eventually invited to take a seat of our choosing and we then were presented with dessert menus. Rosylee has a fancy-​vibe going for it. Lots of shiny things, black and white furnishings and the waitstaff look like they want to take your coat. It could be elegant but the restaurant was half-​empty so it just felt a bit uncomfortable.
I went down a classic route and chose the plum and apple crumble served with cinnamon clotted cream. It was the clotted cream that got me and I promised to share some of it with my friend. The chocolate item on the menu was a chocolate marquis with cherry which I knew I wouldn’t like because chocolate should never, ever, ever be put together with cherry or orange. Plus I was feeling like something cozy and comforting so crumble it was.
It was disappointing. I could have made a better crumble — the apple and the plum were both undercooked and the crumble topping had nothing interesting to it. Plus the custard was lumpy. The clotted cream was good (of course) but that’s because it is clotted cream and it is impossible for that not to taste amazing.
My friend chose a Baileys crème brûlée which tasted nothing like Baileys. And it was overcooked and slightly curdled. Both dishes looked very pretty and there was a moment of joy when they were placed in front of us. But sadly the joy ended as we dipped our over-​sized spoons into delicate pots. Such a shame.
We had both independently decided against ordering tea when we had seen the price — £3.60. That’s a lot of money for some hot water and tea leaves. We were sad that our Rosylee Tea Room experience hadn’t been more successful, and while we agreed they weren’t the worst desserts we have ever eaten, they were overpriced and just not great. The final interesting moment was when our bill was plonked down on our table, signalling it was time for us to leave. And most likely never go back.

I’ve heard some amazing things about Rosylee, and just had to try it out. Hailed as a great game-​changer for the Northern Quarter, it’s a step away from the bare bricked hipsters towards the sophistication of the French. It’s what I imagine the Blue Pig would be like if stretched.
The interior really is impressive. Checkered floor, plush sofa-​style booths, a man playing the piano. Let’s all take a moment to applaud that man — what a job!
We chose our table and were sat down with the lunch menus. Eek already; no choice, and we’d been for food elsewhere and were only after cake. After about 5 minutes someone came over and we asked for the cake menu, which she gladly bought over. It’s not a huge selection, but everything jumps out and sounds delicious.
Sadly, this is where it all got a bit disappointing. We were sat waiting for at least 15 minutes before anyone even made eye contact with us, and even then we had to request to order something. With everyone else been served around us, we felt as if we had done something wrong.
When we were eventually allowed to order, I went for the chocolate éclair and standard English Breakfast tea, and the boyf went for a normal coffee. Perhaps this is why they were reluctant to serve us? The éclair was very impressive, beautifully presented, and turned out to be a pair, which was a nice extra treat. We made sure to get our receipt when the plate was cleared, just in case we were left stranded again.
Sad face for Rosylee — hopefully it will be better next time.

A great little tea rooms that’s just opened in Stevenson Square — plus they have exciting menus for breakfast and evening meals.
This was only a flying visit for a coffee and meet but their flat white was excellent, the staff friendly and approachable; while the owner was very welcoming and warm — just the sort of place you want to do well!
The décor is stripped back but very classically done with a kind of shabby chic flavour — plus there’s a fair amount of outside seating to the front which catches the sun from noon to night.
Looking forward to going back very soon to try their breakfast or afternoon tea