There are nearly 50 different places to grab a bite to eat at the Arndale centre, from pizza and fried chicken, to freshly baked doughnuts and cakes. That’s without venturing into the Arndale Market, where there’s even more on offer.
Many of the venues are partnered up with the Too Good To Go app, which offers ‘magic bags’ of food nearing its sell-by date for around a third of the cost. It means shoppers can snap up surprised bags of food for extremely cheap, saving them from heading straight into the bin.
Following a food-waste fighting pop-up at the shopping centre last month, there are some new faces popping up on the app - and some of them are giving out FRESH food, making it a really tasty deal.
READ MORE: Everywhere you can get cheap mystery bags in Manchester on Too Good To Go
One such brand is the Churros Mexicanos stand, opposite Costa on the lower mall. They joined the app in October, and have been offering around £16.50 worth of goods for just £5.50. It’s slightly more expensive than some of the other bags on the app, which average between £3 and £4 - but would this sweet treat pay off?
I reserved a magic bag on the app the day before my visit, knowing that I’d be in the area around that time. The app said: “Rescue some tasty churros that will come with one of our delicious sauces.”
I’m quite the fan of the fried Mexican dessert, so it was exciting to see them join the money-saving app, serving up the popular snack.
My collection time was from 1pm until 2.30pm, which is a rather generous window, as some places only give you a 15 minute slot in which you can collect your food.
Many bakeries on the Too Good To Go app tend to give away unsold bakes towards the end of the day, or products made the previous day - all of which are perfectly good to eat. Not many give out completely fresh goods, although you can get some refreshing frozen yoghurt from Peter Street’s Frurt on the app.
Want to see what other goodies we've found on the Too Good To Go app?
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Spinningfields Frurt dishing out £3.33 mystery bags to save food waste
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At around 1.30pm, I made my way over to the churros stand where two girls in front of me were ordering a ‘big hat’ of churros to share. The order consists of a large Mexican-style party hat turned upside down, filled with churros and fitted with two dips, from a choice of 10.
The big hats cost £7.50, and feature nine churros, while there is a smaller version available with five churros and one dip for £5.50.
When it was my turn at the till, I explained I was here to collect a Too Good To Go bag, and swiped the app to confirm my collection. The small team of staff set to work getting the bag ready, which included making churros from scratch in the vat.
My box was bagged up with three randomly selected dipping sauces and off I went. Inside the box was a whopping 14 fresh, hot and sugared churros, all around 20cm in length, so almost three metres of dessert in total. They came with two hazelnut dips and a berry dip, which was okay, but given the choice I’d have definitely picked white chocolate.
Based on a small hat being £5.50 and big hat costing £7.50, my 14 churros would have cost £13, which is slightly less than the estimated £16.50 on the app, but still a pretty sweet deal for fresh churros.
They definitely taste better hot, and 14 churros is far too many for just myself, so in future I’d probably only order this to share, because once churros go cold they are past their best, really, and don’t reheat too well.
That said, I really enjoyed the cut-price treat, and it’s definitely a quick and fun way to save a couple of quid during a shopping pit-stop.
Other Arndale vendors offering magic bags on the Too Good To Go app include:
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Barburrito - Lower Mall
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Caffe Nero - Lower Mall
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Costa Coffee (Next) - Lower Mall
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Costa Coffee (Market Street) - Lower Mall
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Costa Coffee (Wintergarden) - Lower Mall
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Greggs - Upper Mall
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Krispy Kreme - Lower Mall
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Millie’s Cookies - Upper Mall
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Pizza Slice - Food Court
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Slim Chickens - Upper Mall
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Tim Hortons - Lower Mall
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Wolf Street Food - Halle Place
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Yo! Sushi - Upper Mall
You can see what Magic Bags are available near you on the Too Good To Go app.
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