It’s that time of year again: that one that
begins with the dreaded “V.” If you’re single, like me, the whole palaver can
be quite over the top and frustrating. I’m not really a celebrator of Valentines,
single or not, but last Thursday evening I was lucky enough to be invited to a
little pre-Valentines shindig of eating good food and watching a fab movie, at
the Printworks in Manchester. I invited one of my friends to come along with me and join in the fun and boy oh boy, a lot of fun was had.
I’m at an age (the young age of 23, if you’re wondering) where heading to the
Printworks is actually a regular occurrence: it’s definitely got that
rep
One of the good things about Printworks is the fact that all of the
restaurants, bars and venues are under one roof, meaning that access was
ridiculously easy and our journey from Wagamama to ODEON took mere seconds
(which was fantastic, considering the fact we were 10 minutes late in setting
off to see our film AND the fact that Manchester is eternally arctic and
venturing outside of the building would have been horrendous.) There really is
something for absolutely everyone: Liam, who I took along with me, for example,
is a vegetarian and still managed to find something amazing and delicious to
eat on the menu.
Wagamama was particularly easy to find and
the staff were ridiculously accommodating and made sure that everything was up
to scratch with our food. Our waitress was very attentive and checked on us all
throughout our meal, even though the restaurant was pretty busy! She took the
time to advise us on some things on the menu that we probably otherwise wouldn’t
have tried. She recommended that we try the mushroom and aubergine hirata
steamed buns which we definitely wouldn’t have chosen otherwise and they were
absolutely phenomenal. I absolutely LOVE carrot juice so I tried Wagamama carrot filled contribution to
the juice trend. In all honesty, I could have drunk it by the bucket load: it
was ridiculously refreshing and the ginger definitely complemented the carrot
flavour. Alongside the mushroom steamed buns, we also ordered the ebi katsu which were essentially
battered chilli prawns. I love prawns, I love chilli, and to be frank, I would
have been perfectly content with just a plate full of these delights. I
definitely spied my pal eyeing up my last prawn whilst I was eating some of my
main course. I think murder might have occurred if that prawn had left my
plate. For mains, I ordered the beef teriyaki donburi, a firm favourite of mine
whilst Liam opted for the seafood ramen. We were both incredibly impressed by
both the food and service, which just goes to show that Printworks have a fine
establishment in Wagamama in their building.
Bellies full and feeling optimistic about our
film choice (T2 Trainspotting), we headed the short distance through Printworks
to ODEON. I LOVE ODEON. I’m all for independent cinemas and fully encourage
people to use them whenever they can but there’s honestly nothing more reliable
than a good ODEON cinema. They always have regular showings of films and of
course, they serve my favourite raspberry tango ice blast. I have a habit of
falling asleep whenever I go to the cinema (dark lights and comfy seats =
sleepy hol) but I’m pleased to say I managed to stay awake for the entire duration
of the film. The ODEON in Printworks is enormous: it was a little bit like a
maze trying to navigate our way up to the screen where our film was being
shown. I’ve never seen a cinema as big which obviously has its advantages- the
number of films on show was vast so obviously we had a lot of choice when
choosing the perfect flick for us. If I’d have had my way, we’d have gone for a
viewing of La La Land but that didn’t sit particularly well with my partner in
crime. No complaints whatsoever, though, because as a book blogger, watching
Trainspotting is definitely something that appeals to me: I’ve read and loved the
book and I was incredibly excited to see what they were going to do with the
sequel.
I was not in any way disappointed: the film was
hilarious, brought together the original, incredible cast and was accompanied
with a bloody spectacular soundtrack. There were a few things that happened
during the film that threw me a little and I had to really think about the
first film- I’d recommend a rewatch of the original Trainspotting if you’re
planning on seeing this one but it’s definitely possible as a standalone as
well!
We had around an hour after our screening of
the show before it was time to get our train back to Liverpool so we OBVIOUSLY
nipped into Yates’ for a little bevvie to end the night. I’ll definitely be
coming back to Printworks for any
future date nights I might have: the range of choice appeals without a doubt.
No matter what your taste in food, drink or film, there is something for
everyone. The entire evening came together nicely and everything is so
affordable. If you fancy a fun, romantic evening on a relatively small budget
then Printworks is most definitely the one for you.
I’d like to say thank you to the PR team at
Printworks, Odeon and Wagamama for accommodating us on this amazing evening! As
always, views are my mine and mine alone.
