Tampopo has been feeding Manchester since 1997. That’s nearly thirty years on Albert Square, which in restaurant terms makes it practically ancient. While half the city’s food scene reinvents itself every eighteen months, Tampopo just keeps doing what it does — big bowls of noodle soup, solid curries, and stir-fries that hit the spot every time. It’s not trying to be fashionable. It doesn’t need to be.
The menu pulls from across Southeast Asia — Thai, Malaysian, Japanese, Indonesian, Vietnamese. Some people reckon that’s too broad. Those people are wrong. The laksa is rich and coconutty, the pad thai is better than most places charging twice the price, and the katsu curry is the one that everyone orders on a cold Tuesday when they can’t be bothered thinking about food.
What to Order
The Malaysian laksa. Full stop. If you want something lighter, the Vietnamese pho is clean and fragrant. The ramen is decent and the Indonesian rendang has proper depth to it. Most mains sit around the ten to fourteen quid mark, which for a sit-down meal on Albert Square is reasonable. Quick service, no fuss, and a menu that’s built for when you just want good food without the performance.