Leeds ramen and dumpling spot House of Fu is heading to Manchester. It will land on Portland Street, on the site formerly occupied by tearoom Leaf, and will also feature ‘state of the art’ karaoke rooms.
There will also be a late-night bar, with a licence application in for a 2.30am close, and a ‘secret outdoor terrace’. The new restaurant has been inspired not only by trips to New York, Portland and Los Angeles, but mostly by chef Ben Iley’s 10-year stint as a chef in Tokyo.
The project is coming from the team behind Leed’s Headrow House, the Ox Club and live venue and Belgrave Music Hall, where the first House of Fu opened as a pop up in 2014. It opened a standalone venue on The Headrow just under a year ago.
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“I think when we opened House of Fu in Leeds, we always had an eye on Manchester straight away,” he told the Manchester Evening News. “We always saw this thing as going to more than one city, and we’ve been scouting in Manchester for quite some time. We’re very friendly with Bundobust and we saw their success and that paved the way a little bit.
“At the House of Fu in Leeds, we’ve got the restaurant downstairs and the karaoke bar upstairs, and in Manchester it’ll be the reverse, with the karaoke down in the basement. We have early 2023 pencilled in. There are still a few hoops to jump through, but around January or February, we should be coming over.”
Charlotte Wild, head of retail and leisure for Bruntwood Works, which owns the building said: “We’re delighted that House of Fu are joining our West Village community. It will be a welcome addition to Portland Street bringing something new, vibrant and distinctive to this area of the city.
“The team behind the brand have a strong track record in Leeds and we’re excited that they are finding a home for their first House of Fu in Manchester at one of our most established and historic buildings.”
Iley went to work in Tokyo in 2005, and had intended just to stay for a few months, but ended up staying for 10 years, meeting his wife there and having children. He returned to the UK in 2014 and started House of Fu.
“Every new kitchen you go to, you learn something new,” Iley went on. “But in Japan it was a sense of pride. You have McDonald’s here, it looks nothing like the picture. You just get a messy, horrible looking burger. You go to McDonald’s in Japan, it’s plump, it looks like the picture. If you imagine that’s the bottom end of the catering scale, imagine what it’s like when you start moving up.
“The attention to detail, the pride. That’s the main thing I learned, was taking pride in everything you do. You get a lot of chefs over here, and it’s just a job, which is fine, but at the same time, if you’re going to do it, let’s do it to the best of our ability.”
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