FESTIVE MENU
Our festive menu will be available from Monday 4th December 2006 until Sunday 7th January 2007. However, the restaurant will close at 7pm on Christmas Day, Monday 25th December until 6.30pm Saturday 30th December 2006.

A FESTIVE THOUGHT
'Meat's no treat to those you eat!'

ANNUAL RESTAURANT CLOSURES
Normally, the restaurant closes for maintenance and holidays twice per year, after Christmas and during the summer BUT this year we are open as usual during the summer. For further details please (click here).

ST VALENTINE'S DAY 2006
St Valentine's Day and Christmas Day are the 2 busiest days in our year. St Valentine's Day wins on covers whereas Christmas Day wins on spend per head.

The high number of covers served on St Vaentine's Day requires very careful planning based on a system we've developed over the last 4 years. This year both the restaurant and kitchen ran very smoothly. There were always tables available for incoming diners who were served efficiently with the staff under no pressure.

On a slightly sour note this year, there were 20% no shows which is totally unacceptable both to The Greenhouse and to some of the 84 potential diners we turned away but could have accomodated. In future years we will introduce a deposit system along similar line to the festive period.

DAYTIME OPENING
We normally only open for Lunch on Sundays from 12 noon, last booking 2pm. On other days and at other times during the afternoons we are often able to open when a minimum of 6 diners book at least 24 hours in advance. We will however be watching this carefully as we will be laying on staff and opening specially for the booking. Consequently last minute cancellations, no shows or a shortfall in numbers are unacceptable. It may prove essential to introduce a deposit system, although at 24 hours notice this could prove to be unworkable. Only time will tell.

We are also often able to open at early doors at 5.30pm (minimum 4 diners) or 6pm (minimum 2 diners) again, unually subject to 24 hours notice.

If there are fewer than 6 of you and you wish to dine during the day it is always worth phoning to check as we may already be opening for a party and would be able to take you. It also gives us important feedback which could lead to the regular re-instatement of times for which we are currently closed. Help us to help you and provide a better service.

GREENHOUSE GIFT VOUCHERS
Our gift vouchers, which have been available on request since 1998, have been redesigned and are now readily available in denominations of £5 up to £100 in £5 increments. For further details please (click here).

CREDIT AND DEBIT CARDS
Except for American Express and Diners Club, we accept most major credit and debit cards.

Since the end of January 2005 most credit and debit card transactions have been confirmed using a PIN number rather than a signature. Our new terminal was installed on the 19th December 2003. This is a small hand held unit which is taken to the table. If the card presented by a diner is configured for PIN authorisation, the terminal will ask for the diner to enter their PIN number (like at a cash machine - we cannot see the number nor is it recorded on our system). Some cards, even including some chipped cards, which are not yet configured for PIN authorisation will be confirmed using a signature. The terminal automatically detects these cards.

This is all part of a major step to cut down on card fraud. This system has been in use on the continent and many other countries for some years with considerable success.

DISCOUNTS & SPECIAL PROMOTIONS
Students and members of the Vegetarian or Vegan Societies are entitled to a 10% discount on all meals and drinks purchased except after 5pm on Saturdays and certain booking only days (typically 24th December - 1st January, Valentine's Day, Mothers Day etc). The discount must be claimed prior to the issue of the bill and on production of a valid student ID card, Greenhouse Student Card or membership card per diner. The bill will be reduced pro rata to the number of qualifying diners.

Booking 24 hours or more in advance (1 - 4 people) opens the door to our special promotion designed to save diners up to 50% off our à la carte menu using the "2 for 1" voucher available from this web site (currently at the foot of this page). This replaces and is far superior to our previous early doors promotion (PEDS). Please note that that this facility is suspended until Monday 8th January 2007.

Our Greenhouse Student Card was introduced in October 2001. Initially students could download special vouchers from this site BUT since January 2002 we now e-mail the vouchers direct to card holders. As the word spreads, the number of students coming onboard has accelerated and as from March 2002 has overtaken the levels we previously achieved with Snapfax. For further details please (click here).

MONDAY OPENING
Now that the darker nights are approaching, commencing Monday 26th September we will open on Mondays from 6.30pm, last booking 9.30pm. This will probably continue until Easter.

SPECIAL DIETS
Onion Family, Mushroom, Egg and Red Lentil Free Dishes
We periodically breakdown our menus into acceptable groups for diners with specific dietry requirements. Please click on the following links for meditation group acceptable Starters and Main Courses: Starters or Main Courses. Desserts have been omitted as their selection is fairly straight forward.

STREETSMART
We commenced supporting StreetSmart in November 2003. StreetSmart funds a range of homeless charities - some provide shelter and food, while others focus on long term needs, such as job training and counselling. There were two main aspects which appealed to us, all money raised in Manchester stays in Manchester and as all production and administration costs are covered by Bloomberg, every penny raised is spent on the homeless. A voluntary £1 is added to each bill which to date no-one has declined to pay. In fact, many diners have made very favourable comments about the campaign sometimes offering additional contributions. For full details (click here).

SMOKING POLICY
The Greenhouse policy on smoking has varied slightly over the years. We have always had a smoke free section BUT since 1997 we have been non smoking  throughout the restaurant (Even smokers don't like smoke swirling around their heads when they are eating). There are 2 exceptions to this rule: Weekday lunchtimes, when we only open for advanced bookings, we permit smoking in the back restaurant (most of the diners booking for lunchtime are local office workers who smoke and who are not allowed to smoke at work) but no smoking in the front restaurant AND also late night, when everyone has finished eating if all the remaining diners are smokers, particularly on a bitter night, if there are no objections, we permit smoking.

SUPPLY PROBLEMS
Since late 2004 we have been experiencing supply problems for some of the following companies products:
Cream O'Galloway, Mother Hemp, Plamil, Rocombe Farm, Tofutti.
This varies from an intermittant supply to discontinued (sometimes by the wholesale supply chain, sometimes by the manufacturer). In the main this effects our range of desserts, particularly some of the vegan ones. In an effort to improve our currently available dairy free range we have introduced a vegan cheesecake which we make in chocolate or fruit versions and was originally introduced as a blackcurrant cheesecake for our Valentine's Day Menu. A decision which proved very popular.

Disos, the much loved, vegan, additive free range of French Wines is being discontinued. Tony Boffey, the driving force behind Disos commented that the escalating bonded warehouse and other costs meant that Disos is no longer cost effective in the UK retail market place. Whilst they could probably still be sold through restaurants, that accounts for a very small section of their existing market. The consignment currently in bond will be their last. Once our existing stocks are sufficiently reduced we will be introducing a range of organic wines from Vintage Roots.

THE CHANGING FACE OF RUSHOLME
Rusholme is constantly changing. In the last few years substantial, bespoke accomodation blocks for students have sprung up all over the area. Worldwide has replaced Aldi. The Texaco garage has gone as has the Jaguar showroom. We felt the time had come to update our Location Map Page together with the addition of Bus Information ( please click here for details).

ORGANIC UPDATE
January 2003 saw the introduction of 8 new organic pie maincourses which were pruned to 6 options during spring 2005:
Arabian Chickpea Pie (vegan, organic)
Chestnut Cassoulet (vegan, organic)
Creamy Mushroom Pie (vegan, organic)
Greek Kalamata Olive & Brown Lentil Pie (vegan, organic)
Hungarian Goulash Pie (vegan, organic)
Mexican Chilli Pie (vegan, organic)

We now have a Soya and Sage Sausage which is vegan, organic, wheat & gluten free and is available as either starter or maincourse. We also have a vegan, organic Falafel whilst another organic addition was the vegan, organic Tamruc, a falafel style dish with a sweeter flavour also containing dates, raisins and basil which comes served as a starter with hummous or a spicy relish and both are available as a stuffed pitta kebab.

Over a 5 month period since November 2004 we have introduced 5 organic, vegan, Soya Bean & Brown Rice based roasts, 2 nut free and all are available wheat & gluten free and in Standard or Sunday Roast Versions.

VALENTINE'S DAY ROUNDUP
Valentine's Day 2005 ran fairly smoothly with many incoming e-mails expressing delight in the food, in particular the dairy free blackcurrant cheesecake and the dairy free hot chocolate fudge cake. Slightly on a downside this year, five tables failed to turn up which if we had been advised about we good easily have replaced them through some of the frantic 'phone calls we were still receiving until well gone 7pm. This leads to consideration of introducing a booking deposit as done during the festive period.

We are often asked which were the most popular dishes. We can only base our results on the actual dishes ordered. Starters were pretty well across the board with the Broccoli and Scheeze Fillo Parcel, Organic Tamruc and Braai Sausages being the front runners. Main Courses were more clear cut with the Mediterranean Wellington in front followed by the Organic Walnut and Almond Roast and the Broccoli and Scheeze Fillo Parcels. The Desserts were also clear cut with the Dairy Free Hot Chocolate Fudge Cake leading the Dairy Free Blackcurrant Cheesecake and the Tiramisu. A rotating variety of Dairy Free Cheesecakes have now joined our regular line up of Desserts.

BROADLAND WINES
From just Elderberry 21 years ago we now carry all 27 Broadland wines the Lea Cottage Punch which except for the 2 meads which are suitable for vegetarians all the others are suitable for vegans. Since, to the best of our knowledge, there are no retail outlets for these wines in the North West we sell them by the case of 12 bottles (mixed cases acceptable) at considerably lower prices than in the restaurant.
The price per bottle is £5.85p except for:
Sparkling Elderflower £6.15p
Norfolk Mead £6.25p
Original Mead £6.45p
For full details on all the Broadland Wines in our printer friendly format please click here.

PRINTER FRIENDLY PAGES
Over the coming months we will work through this web site producing printer friendly options for many of the pages and features on the site. An example is the 2 for 1 voucher at the bottom of this page or the Starters, Main Courses, Desserts or Sundries pages from the Food Menu section of this site.

FISHLESS FISH
March saw the introduction of fishless fish steaks with proper chips, mushy peas and a side salad for £7.45p (Suitable for vegans). This proved to be very popular on Good Friday! Serving a single fish steak with a sauce and salad as a starter is under consideration and could be provided on request. This has been followed in May with the introduction of deep fried scampi (Suitable for vegans) as a starter or a main course.

GLAMORGAN SAUSAGES
From 25th March our Glamorgan Sausages are organic and are tofu rather than wheat based although they do still contain wheat gluten. They are available as a starter for £3.25p or as a main course for £7.45p.

NEW ORGANIC LAGER

On Sunday 22nd February we discontinued De Koninck as a draught beer, serving it instead in 330ml bottles. Its place in our draught beer line up has been taken by Budels Organic Lager, our very first organic draught beer, from a small family owned dutch brewery, 5% alcohol by volume which we have been assured is suitable for vegans. This is available at £1.55 per half pint or £5.45 for a 2 pint jug which reduces to £3.95 during Happy Hour (12 noon - 7pm).

NEW LOGO
We have recently developed a new logo for The GREENHOUSE using letters digitally cut out of green peppers. This will be used to replace our original green plasma patterned times roman logo. We hope customers like it as much as we do.

ALL DAY BREAKFASTS (Before 5pm*)

NEW TABLES & CHAIRS
Monday 18th November 2002 saw a dream originally formulated in '94 come to fruition. We replaced our original mixed sized tables with 14 pedestal tables (13 - 27" tables and 1 - 36" round table) and stackable chairs. Depending on the seating arrangements required at any one time we will be able to fit round or square tops. The pedestal bases allow any table to be used with a wheel chair and when fitted with square tops are perfect for banquet style layouts with no diners having to contend with 2 legs together where 2 tables meet.

We have now been able to try out various layouts and have standardised on one using 8 square and 6 round topped tables. Whilst changing table tops for special events etc. can be done it is a somewhat laborious task so it is now even more essential for parties of 5 or more to book in advance.

NEW SOFT DRINKS
We now carry the 250ml Bottle Green Pressé in: citrus, cranberry, elderflower, ginger & lemongrass and limeflower. We also stock the 330ml Whole Earth sparkling organic fruit drinks in: cranberry, elderflower, ginger and lemon.

FRUIT JUICES
We now carry the complete range of fruit juices by Looza in individual 200ml bottles from Belgium who currently produce 16 juices: apple, apricot, banana, grapefruit, mango, orange, passion fruit, peach, pear, pineapple, red grape, strawberry mix, tomato, tropical and the 2 vitamin enriched B3 and PLUS multivitamin.