Manchester’s restaurant scene has never been so exciting. Bursting with new openings, down-to-earth staples and up-and-coming culinary talent, it’s one of the most talked about scenes in the North - and rightly so.
As well as Mana’s 2019 Michelin star - the first in the city for more than 40 years - the food scene is continually growing. There’s the innovative independents popping up at locations across the city, the under-the-radar neighbourhood favourites praised by the press, and the maverick chefs unafraid to challenge the status quo.
It would be remiss to ignore the difficulties Manchester’s hospitality industry has faced over the last two years - a double whammy of pandemic-induced closures and the crippling costs associated with the rising prices and energy bills. However, as this year’s Manchester Food and Drink Awards showed, there is an unwavering resilience and tenacity embedded in the city’s restaurant scene - traits that mean it always picks itself back up again.
Read more: Where to get breakfast, lunch and dinner in Manchester city centre for £5 a meal
Whether it's heritage food that nourishes the soul, cutting-edge menus dreamt up by some of the country’s best chefs or simple, home comforts served down hidden alleyways, every taste, mood and budget are well catered for. Below you’ll find our selection of the best in town, but if you think we’ve missed any please be sure to let us know in the comments.
Mana
Simon Martin’s fine-dining restaurant in Ancoats continues to raise the bar for Manchester’s hospitality scene. The kitchen here won Manchester’s first Michelin star in 42 years, back in 2019, for their 14-course tasting menu - and things are only getting better - as we recently found out.
As you would expect, the city’s only restaurant to hold a Michelin Star is rather busy and booking in advance is a must. Bookings open at midday on the first of every month for two months in advance.
42 Blossom St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 6BF
Bundobust
With two locations in Manchester, this Gujarati street food kitchen has become a mainstay of the city’s vibrant restaurant scene. Head downstairs at the Piccadilly site and grab a snack under its Victorian atrium or sit amongst stainless steel brewing tanks at its brewery on Oxford Road and prepare for a menu that doesn’t miss a single beat.
Choose from fan favourites like the moreish okra fries or Bundo Chaat and wash it down with a beer and IPAs from local breweries Track and Cloudwater - as well as the own brew. Don’t miss the seasonal menu too, featuring twists on Christmas classics - like mince pie paratha and sprout bhajis.
St James's Bldg, Bundobust Brewery, 61-69 Oxford St, Manchester M1 6EQ
Another Hand
This neighbourhood eatery on Deansgate Mews has had quite the year. With its New York loft-style interiors and seasonal small plates menu it has impressed both local and national critics, picked up an award at the Manchester Food and Drink Awards and even been listed in the Michelin Guide of recommended restaurants.
Intimate, casual dining with natural wine and handcrafted cocktails, this place isn't just about style, but substance. A love letter to local suppliers, its produce comes direct from partners such as Cinderwood Market Garden and Littlewood Butchers and helps to produce knockout dishes - from delicately swirled cod’s roe with Holy Grain rye sourdough, to chalk stream trout surrounded by burnt apple dashi.
Unit F, 253 Deansgate, Manchester M3 4EN
Climat
It’s only just arrived on the scene but this wine-led rooftop restaurant has plenty of people talking. From the creators of Covino in Chester - who have nabbed a spot in the Michelin Guide - the restaurant isn't just about its panoramic views - it also boasts some carefully curated menus.
Starting off with its signature bar snack, the mushroom and Berkswell cheese vol-au-vent, and progressing to whole turbot, slow-cooked lamb shoulder and ex-dairy cuts on the bone, this restaurant has got off to a flying start. Its wine cellar meanwhile, houses more than 250 wines, with many coming from one specific Burgundy vineyard site with its own microclimate and specific geological conditions.
8th Floor, Blackfriars House St Marys, Climat, Parsonage, Manchester M3 2JA
Sparrows
This modern, central European restaurant is a little off the beaten path - but is well worth the extra effort required to find it. Heaped with praise from national critics, its calling card is the humble European dumpling, which takes on a number of guises and flavours.
Go for the dumplings but stay for the spätzle - a form of fresh egg pasta spanning a vast geographical region of South Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Alsace and Sud Tyrol. European classics, such as delicious Russian style Pelmeni, Polish Pierogi, Italian ravioli and fresh rolled pasta also feature and can be washed back with organic wines, Italian coffee and Swiss craft beer.
16 Red Bank, Green Quarter, Manchester, M44HF
Erst
Modern, seasonal and just very cool, this Scandinavian-esque wine bar and restaurant was launched in 2019 by the same team as Trove bakery. Situated on Murray Street, just behind Cutting Room Square, it’s a restaurant that has been lauded as ‘fiendishly good 'by food critic Marina O’Loughlin and was one of the M.E.N.’s best meals of 2019.
A masterclass in natural wines and seasonal cooking - at a price point that won’t require you to re-mortgage your home - this neighbourhood spot delivers a simple but well executed menu of small plates designed for sharing. Whether it’s grilled flatbread beef fat and chilli, or pork ragu with anchovy and cavatelli, everything has been carefully considered and goes down a treat with a chilled glass of wine.
9 Murray St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 6HS
This & That
Manchester is rich with curry cafes, especially those who specialise in the famed ‘rice and three’ - a generous portion of steaming rice served with three curries on the side. Tucked away on Soap Street, this family-run eatery is well loved for its take on the delicacy, which you order for less than a tenner .
The vegetarian option here will only set you back £6 while the meat option comes in at £8. Serving up the Northern Quarter’s hungry lunch crowd seven days a week, curries here are constantly changing - ensuring even Manchester’s most discerning foodies are kept on their toes.
3 Soap St, Manchester M4 1EW
The Black Friar Salford
This revamped Salford boozer has been grabbing headlines since it reopened its doors back in 2021, with food critic Jay Rayner declaring he would be “rather chuffed” if the pub was his local. The ‘humble’ two-storey red brick building, situated on the corner of Blackfriars Road and Trinity Way, was described as an ‘ambitious play’ by the Guardian writer.
Serving up food that you wouldn’t necessarily expect on the edge of a dual carriageway, menus here have been devised by former 20 Stories head chef Ben Chaplin and span elevated pub grub classics like foraged mushrooms on toast and Cumbrian shredded lamb hot pot, as well pan-fried stone bass, whole herb crusted baked plaice and Scottish-seared scallops.
41-43 Blackfriars Rd, Manchester M3 7DB
Adam Reid at The French
Acclaimed chef Adam Reid took the reins of the lauded Manchester restaurant in 2016, after it was launched just a few years before by chef Simon Rogan. Since then, the chef has been awarded 4 AA rosettes and won the BBC’s prestigious Great British Menu competition with his signature dessert, Golden Empire.
Delivering a clever mix of contemporary dishes and elements of his Manchester upbringing, Reid’s menus feature ‘A warm Northern welcome’ in the form of bread, butter and broth, ‘Little bits of something fancy’, like the surf & turf sausage roll, and ‘Today’s tea', which encompasses dishes like Cumbrian shorthorn loin cooked in its own fat with swede, seaweed and fish eggs.
16 Peter St, Manchester M60 2DS
Yuzu
Cooking traditional Japanese tapas from scratch using only the freshest ingredients, this small Japanese restaurant on Faulkner Street may seem unassuming but its calling card is its ability to get all the classics right. Whether it's he delicately crafted tempura, mouth-watering sashimi, or glorious gyoza, nothing here is an afterthought.
Lets not forget the chicken kara-age too, which possesses a perfect crunch, or the sashimi served "don" style - on top of a bed of rice - warmed to just the right temperature. Yuzu is proof that you don't need to be shouting the loudest to be doing something very special.
City Centre, 39 Faulkner St, Manchester M1 4EE
Flawd
This waterside natural wine bar may only have a small kitchen, but that hasn’t stopped it from producing some of the best food in the city. Based in flourishing New Islington, Flawd boasts an outdoor terrace and Michelin-star food at a fraction of the price.
Run by Joe Otway, formerly head chef at Stockport favourite Where The Light Gets In, Richard Cossins, who has managed renowned restaurants in New York and London and Dan Martin, dishes here are simply written up on a chalkboard behind the bar and read like a list of ingredients - with all produce grown in Nantwich at their own market garden called Cinderwood.
9 Keepers Quay, Manchester M4 6GL
10 Tib Lane
The same team behind the buzzy Northern Quarter hangout Cocktail Beer Ramen + Bun are co-creators of 10 Tib Lane - a candlelit, date-night favourite with a distinct Parisian feel to it - think distressed walls, natural wines and dishes packed full of flavour.
Its menu of sharing plates is designed to be sipped with an elegant cocktail like The Thief - Malfy Rosa Gin, Marendry, Dolin Dry Vermouth, Elderflower Tonic Cordial and rhubarb - and spans Cumbrae oysters, beef shin and kidney rarebit pudding, and rump steak with sauce Diane. Desserts are worth sticking around for, especially the caramel tart.
10 Tib Ln, Manchester M2 4JB
Hawksmoor
One of London's very best steakhouses has made its mark on the city and deserves a place on this list for being the first place many Mancunians and visitors turn to when they need a sublimely cooked piece of meat .
Expect dark panelled rooms, frosted glass and mid-century lighting and you have yourself an upscale steakhouse - one that serves up some of the best cuts in the North, from the shareable T-bone and porterhouse to prime rib and solo steaks for those who want it all to themselves. Cocktails span classics, fizzes and highballs, while a good glass of red isn't hard to find.
184, 186 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3WB
The Jane Eyre
This effortlessly cool neighbourhood joint has become many Ancoats' resident second home thanks to its clever cocktails, craft beers and great tasting food. Built and named in memory of the owners' mother, this spot on Cutting Room Square is totally unpretentious and nailing its small but perfectly formed menus.
Punchy cocktails set the tone, while local beers and wines from around the world ensure there's something for everyone. In the kitchen, a Mediterranean approach to cooking ensues with small plates such as pork chop, charred hispi and pan con tomate, proving simple, but well-executed is best. The roasts, meanwhile, are hands down some of the best you'll find in the city.
14 Hood St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 6WX
Happy Seasons
The only issue with this Chinatown institution is the long queue that forms outside it and snakes around the block, but trust us, it's worth the wait.
You have to experience the roast meats here - the crispy pork belly, sublime duck and sticky-sweet char sui are all showstoppers and are served with Chinese cabbage and a bed of rice. If you have time, make sure to grab a steaming bowl of beef brisket - you won't regret it. Keeping things nice and simple, there's a reason people are more than happy to join the queue here.
59 Faulkner St, Manchester M1 4FF
Read more of today's top stories here.
READ NEXT:
Gary Neville 'incredibly excited' as full details of new Stock Exchange Hotel brasserie announced
Two Manchester restaurants in the running to be named 'best takeaway in Britain'
'I tried the Sunday roast you can get delivered to your house for £5'
Ambitious three-storey restaurant announced at iconic canalside location in Manchester
Manchester hotel named among 'Britain's 100 best places to stay' in 2023
