Red Hot World Buffet has only been open a month or so in Manchester but is already attracting queues of customers from lunchtime right through to the evening.
With branches in Leeds, Liverpool and Nottingham among others it is not too difficult to see what all the fuss is about. Allegedly the Manchester branch has over 300 dishes on its buffet menu in a self serve restaurant which can seat up to 350 people. Our lunchtime visit, after a short wait was rewarded with a good percentage of those 300 dishes to choose from and the hope that we would have the appetite to match! The buffet is divided into oriental, tex mex, Indian, Italian and British - disappointingly we couldn't find the advertised Mediterranean or Thai sections. However with my plate full to the edges with deep fried scallops, calamari, vegetable spring rolls, spare ribs and noodles the disappointment was short lived. The next hour or so became a blur of revisits to the buffet - char grilled corn on the cob, lemon chicken, lamb rogan josh, bombay potatoes, daal. For less than £30 for two including a bottle of crisp Chilean Sauvignon Blanc Red Hot's lunchtime menu cannot be recommended highly enough. It's more expensive in the evening and no doubt the queues are even longer.