You’ve seen me review over a dozen Too Good To Go bags now, mostly because I want to help you work out which ones are worth spending your hard earned cash on, but truth be told, I love the element of mystery, too.
Manchester has such a wealth of venues offering these ‘magic bags’ for a third of their usual cost, with more being added each week it's almost impossible to keep track.
For those who are yet to discover this gem of a money-saving app, Too Good To Go is a food-surplus app which partners with local retailers and chains to offer reduced-price food bags that would otherwise be thrown away at the end of the shift.
READ MORE: Everywhere you can get cheap mystery bags in Manchester on Too Good To Go
The app has a massive social following, with Facebook groups dedicated to people showing off their hauls from the likes of Starbucks, Greggs and Pret A Manger, which would have wound up in the bin otherwise.
In July, there were 9.4 million people using the app, which partners with more than 21,000 businesses which have helped save 13 million bags of food to date.
This week, I headed down to Spinningfields to see which retailers were offering cut-price meals and discovered a mystery offering from Bagel Factory. The bakery is tucked behind The Ivy, and, as the name suggests, dishes up fresh bagels with an array of fillings, and a handful of other snacks, too.
I had reserved a bag for £4.10, which I would be able to collect between 4.40pm and 4.50pm. I considered the collection window to be quite slim - had my Uber been late I’d have surely missed my time slot. That’s one of the only issues with the app is that you have to have your eye on the time, both to reserve bags before they sell out, and to collect them so that you’re there right on time.
Inside the cafe it was quiet - not a soul more than me and the gentleman behind the counter. There were two brown paper bags sitting on top of the counter, which is a telltale sign of a brand that’s on the app.
After ascertaining whether my bag was meat-free or not (it wasn’t) he handed me my bag and I was on my way. Too eager to see what was inside - that and the fact it was coming up to tea time - I unpacked my bag on one of the outdoor tables to discover its contents.
I was treated to one well-filled bagel as well as three plain ones, a strawberry granola pot and a single packaged cookie which, to be fair, did look as though it had seen better days.
Bagel Factory’s menu has a selection of mouth-watering options from pulled pork to halloumi melt. My worst fear would have been to wind up with something fish based like tuna or salmon, but I hit the jackpot with the Salt Beef Melt. The bagel contained a generous amount of salt beef with emmenthal cheese, gherkins and mustard, already pre-cut in half meaning I could eat half straight away, and save the rest for later.
As for the plain bagels, each was topped with various flavours like poppyseed and seasame seed. These are ideal for freezing and then popping in the toaster whenever you fancy one, meaning that none of them went to waste. They’re beautiful on their own with butter or jam, or you could try and recreate a Bagel Factory creation at home and stack it high.
The yoghurt granola pot had the same day’s date on it, but after being refridgerated it was still okay to eat the following morning. The cookie would have been quite messy to eat, though, so dad ended up blending that into a protein shake for extra flavour and crunch.
The total bag contents would have cost more than £13 to buy separately, meaning I saved around £9 on this bag, which covered tea and four days worth of breakfasts or lunch - which is good going for less than a fiver.
There are more than 50 Bagel Factory outlets across the UK and Ireland, including the Spinningfields branch and a second in the Arndale Centre. Both branches are available on the Too Good To Go app with collection times around 4.40pm.
You can download the app and give it a go for yourself here.
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