"Pre-booking is highly recommended at Hard Rock, especially when there's a show at the MEN Arena next door. Our two previous visits had resulted in an hour waiting time, which our rumbling bellies wouldn't allow, so with just a 30 minute wait on our third attempt we headed to the bar with the LP cover of Mike & The Mechanics 'The Living Years', which we'd been given so the very friendly waiters could recognise us when our table was ready.

Interestingly, Mike & The Mechanics lead singer was none other than the late great Paul Young, a proud Mancunian like so many other musicians to come from the city. Surprisingly though, the Mancunian musical connection doesn't really venture further with memorabilia from the likes of Kiss, Rolling Stones and many 1980's permed soft metal bands taking pride of place over the likes of The Smiths, Oasis, Take That, Simply Red, The Hollies, Stone Roses, 10cc, Bee Gees, Joy Division, New Order or... erm... Barclay James Harvest. But to be honest, that's the only gripe we had and the superb value-for-money cocktails soon reduced the ranting.

It wasn't long before our waiter had located Mike & The Mechanics and took us to our table, each seat offering a good view of the video screens where the likes of Midnight Oil, Soul Asylum, Bob Marley and Rod Stewart rocked away with an amazing surround soundsystem that may be a little too loud for some people - not one for your Granny!.

The starters were as big as any main course elsewhere in town with the Tupelo Chicken Tenders and Joe Perry's 'Rock Your World' Quesadilla worthy of mention. The mains were also huge - without doubt the biggest food portions on offer in the city centre - so much so we failed in our attempts to finish the HRC Cheeseburger, the very tasty Hickory BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger and the superb Haystack Chicken Salad. Desserts were certainly out of the question on this visit!

Hard Rock Cafe is certainly great value for money and in a great location, with the MEN Arena, Royal Exchange Theatre and designer stores all less than 5 minutes walk away. If you like your rock music loud and can put up with the odd video of obscure American metal bands amongst a whole collection of classics, this is the place for you! We've even bought the T-Shirt!" - restaurants of manchester 27/1/08 (visited on a sunday evening)