When you think about food associated with ITV's iconic soap opera Coronation Street, you probably think of Betty's legendary hotpot at the Rovers, a fry up at Roy's Rolls, or maybe a tasty curry at Speed Dahl. You probably do not think of a limp sandwich and ultra-processed muffin.
Sadly, that was the extent of the food offering awaiting me as I headed, with some excitement, to the new Coronation Street Experience in Manchester. I was there to enjoy the new Corrie exhibition at the centre, and enjoy a bit of lunch while I was at it at the brand new café.
It's a large, modern café space as soon as you enter the new visitor centre, with murals of the Rovers Return adorning the wall and old episodes from the 1960s playing on the TVs. But I'm afraid the food does nothing to match the rest of the shiny new experience here, which first opened in the summer.
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The centre has opened as an extension of the visitor offering to soap fans, after the success of the return of Corrie soap tours on weekends at the ITV studios post-pandemic. Now, all visitors enter through this modern new visitor centre, rather than trek around to the main studio gates on Trafford Wharf Road.
It also means that soap fans can enjoy a Corrie experience seven days a week now. For while the Corrie tours are only open on weekends (when filming is paused for the soap stars on the cobbles), the exhibition and café are open every day.
The Coronation Street Experience, as it is called, is also priced at a rather bargainous £7.50 per person. This compares to prices from £35 per person for the guided tour of Coronation Street (which also includes entry to the exhibition).
Now, naturally, I know for many it's the excitement of going down those famous cobbles that's the appeal of a visit to Coronation Street. But if you've already done the exterior set tour on a visit here or at Granada back in the day, or perhaps can't quite stretch to the tour prices, then I personally would recommend giving the exhibition a try.
For soap superfans it contains lots of props and memorabilia from across the decades of much-loved characters and storylines. Think Deirdre Barlow's actual glasses from the 1970s, Stan Ogden's ashes from the 1980s, and the stunning orange wedding dress worn only earlier this year by Gemma Winter.
And what's particularly cool is that you can venture into replica sets of Roy's Rolls and the Rovers Return - and pose up for as many photos as you like. If you're there on your own, like me, there's also staff on hand to take a picture of you, or you can buy a special memorabilia photo as you pose up behind the bar at the Rovers.
You can spend as long as you like walking through the museum part, after watching a brilliant eight minute film in the mini Corrie cinema that you are guided through at the start. The film features some of the soap's most hilarious and heart-warming storylines over the past incredible 63 years on TV.
And then when you've enjoyed your time up in the exhibition, you head back down to the café through the well-stocked gift shop. But what a missed opportunity the café is.
The actual setting is pleasant enough - it's very bright and modern with lots of seating around TVs where those old episodes from the very start of Corrie back in 1960 with a very young Ken Barlow loom large. And staff were all super friendly and helpful - it was the food and drink offering that is sadly lacking.
Was I expecting a tribute to Betty's hotpot? Well yes, maybe I was. Or at least something a little bit Corrie themed - how about a Roy's Rolls bacon bap, or a Bistro burger?
Well, no. Instead I was met with a fridge filled with the most basic looking tuna, cheese and chicken tikka sandwiches you're ever likely to see this side of a motorway service station. That's not even me being harsh - a quick google revealed the sandwich company stocked here does indeed supply to service stations and convenience stores.
I opt for the chicken tikka sandwich mostly because it was the most colourful of the otherwise beige bunch, what with its vibrant, almost a tad too bright, red filling for £3.75. According to the boards at the replica Roy's Rolls in the exhibition, sandwiches at the famous Weatherfield café would only set you back £3.20.
On the sweet treat side of things, again I was disappointed to find there were just pre-wrapped long-life muffins or cake bars on offer. I took a blueberry muffin on for £3.50 as well as a pack of salt and vinegar crisps for £1.75 and headed to sit down with it all.
Taking one half of the sandwich out of its box, I could immediately feel a cold wet sogginess in the bread, with my fingers sinking into it like a sponge. Holding it up for a photo was a tricky business, as I could feel my thumb wallowing deeper and deeper into its moist reaches.
The chicken tikka filling was tasty enough to be fair, but I wasn't keen on the slimy green slices of what I presume were once cucumber. The bread was so weirdly wet I could only manage one triangle before deciding I could not continue with it.
The muffin was similarly unimpressive, a spongy and unyielding lump of cake and so so sickly sweet with a list of ingredients on the packet almost as long as the Corrie credits.
Surely this lacklustre food offering is not quite in keeping with the world's most famous soap is it? Come on Corrie, us soap fans deserve something more exciting than this on a visit to your hallowed turf!
The best thing I purchased at the café was a rather cool Coronation Street reusable coffee mug - it handily comes with a free coffee when you purchase it for £10 in the café. I'm glad the hot beverage was free because that meant I didn't feel quite so cheated about the miserably weak latte that ended up contained within it.
So, all in all, the café just feels like a real missed opportunity in what is an otherwise great Coronation Street experience. Surely a tourist destination like this could, and should, be showcasing something as good about Manchester on the hospitality side, as the soap itself does in the TV world.
You couldn't ask for a better use of £7.50 than a trip around the brilliant Corrie exhibition. But that £8.75 on food in the café would definitely have been better spent elsewhere.
