Hotel Football is not just for football fans on match day, that covers the elephant in the locker room so let’s move on. Arriving at HF is very much the same as arriving at any other nice hotel, the receptionist is welcoming and the place looks pretty slick, I use that word as it seems an appropriate description.
One of the main selling points for HF and another “first things first” moment is heading up to “Heaven” – the rooftop football pitch greenhouse with fantastic views of the city and surrounding areas, including of course Old Trafford. I kicked a ball around and scored some goals against an imaginary keeper whilst finding out about the hire facilities up there, I know where my next party’s going to be.
The room is kind of as expected, nicely finished, modern hotel room spec but little playful pieces of communication add that extra level, most notable the “Dreaming of Victory” pillow cases.
We heading down for dinner at CafeFootball, this is 6.30pm on a Wednesday evening and over the space of half an hour or so the restaurant completely fills up. The mix of people was for me testament to the pull of Football but also the quality of HF & CF as venues. There’s a total spectrum: young couple, parents & children, parents & grown children, business men and of course some general footy fans.
We started on some calamari to share, which was actually the dish of the night and frankly I should have just ordered another one. As it happen we stayed over on National Burger Day so of course 1 of us had to go for it. I opted for THE WIZARD: Welsh lamb and harrisa, smoked chilli crème fraiche, cucumber, rocket and feta. Burgers are a large part of the selling point for CF and I can see why, it was really good. The whole menu is themed around DEFENCE, MIDFIELD and ATTACK, which is a nice touch with specials and dishes all relating to famous footballing stars / teams.
Thinking on this Hotel football makes really good sense for a parent & child combo – location wise access to Trafford centre, ChillFactore and LegoLand was perfect for a chap we overheard, here with his son for 3 days.
Also on location, travel to and from Salford Quays or into the city via Chester road is spot on. Makes sense for any travelling sales men or Directors looking for something more interesting than the usual high street hotel options, it’d certainly be my choice.
Overall our stay at HF was a win. In Football score terms I’d give it a 2-0 to us and I’m looking forward to the second leg.
