Allpress Coffee Roasters sits tucked away on Dantzic Street in Manchester, the kind of place you have to mean to find. As we walked in, every table was occupied apart from one at the back that was just being cleared, which made the whole thing feel like good timing rather than bad planning.
The space looks exactly like somewhere that takes coffee seriously. It’s bright and open, with big windows, beech wood, simple lines, slightly odd stools and exposed vents overhead. Along one wall are these fantastic coffee tubes dispensing beans like something out of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
I love weird coffee people and places like this.
We had a long day ahead of us and had planned on breakfast, but Sunday had other ideas.
There was no breakfast menu, but they did offer us the lunch menu and pastries instead.
So we changed course and ordered a cheese and tomato croissant, a mortadella sandwich and two V60s of their Gui Ben, a lightly roasted Chinese coffee.
Gui Ben V60 Coffee
The coffee came first, poured into a small jug and set on a wooden tray with a green mug and a little card detailing the origin, roast and brewing variables.
It’s exactly the kind of thing I like.
Not because I need a card to tell me what I’m drinking, but because it makes the whole thing feel considered.
Then I noticed the jug was smeared and in desperate need of a polish.
When you’re in a space where everything else feels so intentional, something like that stands out immediately.
This was my first honey-processed coffee, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It had a light strawberry note at first, then caramel and cacao started coming through as it cooled.
Nothing too wild, nothing trying too hard. Just really easy to sit with.
Then the food arrived, and the sandwich looked like a work of art.
Mortadella Sandwich
Huge, beautifully wrapped, with all those coloured layers spilling out from the side. Yellow cheese, pink mortadella, red peppers and green rocket, all pressed between two crisp pieces of bread.
And because it was served warm, it smelled incredible too.
The first bite had everything going on at once. The mortadella brought the salt, the peppers added sweetness, the rocket cut through it and the crisp bread held everything together without turning it into a fight.
It was a big sandwich too, but one of those where you realise halfway through that you’re still very happily working your way through it.
The croissant was much simpler, but still worth talking about. It had been pressed down, yet somehow kept all those flaky layers, with melted cheese running through the middle and tomato bringing just enough sharpness to cut through the richness.
Simple, but really well done.
Inside Allpress Coffee Manchester
I expected Allpress to get the coffee right, and of course they did.
What I didn’t expect was for us to get steered into lunch territory and enjoy that just as much.
We came in looking for breakfast and left very happy that Sunday had other ideas.
