Bustling, rowdy, upbeat and full of chicken loving customers having a great time.  Bright colours, tall ceilings, nicely lit with some striking wall murals.  Bang on.

Nothing really. You want a chicken and chips type place to feel like one, and it does.

3 main courses, one of which was monstrous (I’ll come to that shortly), plus 3 soft drinks, came to about £55.  More than acceptable for what we received.

The huge burger which we tried to resist but didn’t, clocked in at £20 alone, which for the sheer scale of it, along with the huge portion of fries it came with, was great value. You can drop that much at Five Guys an awful lot easier.

The milkshake was a touch pricy for its size, as were the upgrade prices on the fries.

Who doesn’t love chicken and chips? I honestly can’t think of too many people, which probably explains why Y&C has been a Northern Quarter staple since the day they opened their doors.

The menu comprises of a variety of breasts, thighs, wings, a half dozen sauces, and just as many options on pimping up your fries. The combo possibilities are endless. There’s also a few burger options too, which we felt obliged to explore. These include a few normal sized burgers, but since the novelty of eating out again still hasn’t quite worn off even after 5 months, there was only one burger to consider.

The aptly named Massive Cock (£20) was a magnificent tower of beige poultry excess. It’s one of those dishes which the whole dining room enviously observes whilst it’s being transported from the kitchen to its final destination; your face.

Leaving any food snobbery at the door, and knowing that you’re not even slightly interested in reading any food related adjectives or technical breakdowns, this was just a whole lot of fun to eat.

The ingredient roster reads like a posh student’s weekly shop; double stacked buttermilk fried chicken breast and thigh, cauli fritters, crispy pulled chicken pancake, hot honey, butter buffalo, creamy garlic ranch and cheese sauce. Piled high with American cheese, bacon, luxe ‘slaw, Garlic Ranch Cheese balls, topped with a chicken wing and pickled jalapeno. We finished it all, bar the bun.

Other slightly less brave dishes included the Fried Chicken Plate with Breast (£12.50), chilli honey sauce and an upgrade of Dirty Fries (+£2.50). Nicely cooked breast with on point fries. And spicy honey seems to be a growing trend at the moment. We’ve had it on both chicken and pizza in the last week alone. That’s a good thing.

Lastly, we went for the Dirty Bird (£13.50) which was buttermilk thigh sat on top of a mound of cheesy fries, with more of that chilli honey and blues cheese dressing, (which we swapped out for ranch via a simple note in the app order). Cluckingly good

The Massive Cock Burger isn’t a burger really.   It’s a huge chicken smorgasbord on 3 skewers, separated with burger buns.  The menu reckons it’s a ‘2 hander’, which is nonsense since it’s over a foot tall.  And since we still need to be semi-professional here; did all the sauces, components and flavours etc really go together and help the dish’s synergy?  Not at all, but then it’s a dish that’s all about excess and ridiculousness, not critiquing.  But that’s the intention really isn’t it, so let’s not get too detailed and just go with it whilst having fun.

Once you land, you’re sat down by an actual person.  Once seated, a little sign/QR code on your table tells you to check in, order and also pay via an app.  Your food then shows up soon after, carried by a human being since fully functioning robots are still really expensive.  All very COVID oriented and suited to tech loving customers who prefer to look at phones rather than people.  There’s also an argument for it still being staff shortage oriented, since that matter continues to be a huge issue as much as it’s been largely forgotten about now. 

I don’t actually mind the app ordering practice to be honest since not every meal needs to be a gastronomic experience, so there’s a huge place for it in casual/quick eats dining realms and will be long after the staffing crisis is over and done with.  Frankie and Benny’s started trialling it 4 years ago, so it was likely coming to the casual side of the market en masse anyway.

However, there was plenty of staff on front of house, so the self-service ordering aspect did feel a touch convenience driven in all honesty. We asked an actual server if they could take our order as we wanted to swap something out, and were just told that we could do this by editing the comments in the app ordering process. The same server then took the order of a larger table later into service, which was clearly a touch inconsistent and didn’t make us feel very loved.

And whilst I’m a massive fan of tipping, the option to tip is presented on the app when you’re ordering you food, before you’ve had any real interaction with anybody or seen your food. A strange point to leave a tip.

Without question, Yard and Coop is a Mcr city centre go to place for good times, simple and tasty food in huge portions for not a lot of money.

You don’t see them advertising with local food media outlets, because they don’t need to, which is a testament to their popularity and also why they’ve now also opened down the M62 in both directions. A 100% Manchester success story which you can see spreading its wings to other cities. Pun absolutely intended. .

Never forget that people are the basis of good service, not technology.