The UK's Michelin Stars were doled out today - the Oscars of the fine dining world, which can set the course for chefs and restaurants the world over.
Gain one, and you’ll be booked up for a year in the blink of an eye. Two, and you can make that a couple of years. Lose one, and the effects can be equally as profound.
Mind you, there are plenty of restaurants which - for reasons of Michelin’s distinct criteria - that will never - ever - see a coveted star above their door.
But that doesn’t mean that they’re not some of the very best places to eat in the city.
Bundobust
Bundobust - or Bundo’s to the regular visitor - hasn’t the hushed reverence required of a Michelin-starred restaurant. In fact, in both the Piccadilly and new Oxford Road branch, noise and life bounces around the handsomely reclaimed, cavernous interiors.
Who cares though, when the food is as spectacular as it is here. We’d list some of the highlights from the menu, but when there’s not a duff dish to be had on the whole thing, there doesn’t seem a great deal of point. Spectacular single every time.
61 Piccadilly, M1 2AG and 61-69 Oxford Street, M1 6EQ / www.bundobust.com
Burgerism
The Michelin judges might object to the trading estate vibe of Burgerism, over the way in Salford. And the fact that you can’t really eat there (it’s a pick-up situation). But that’s very much their loss.
Burgerism’s burgers are bundles of meaty delight - no addition of crushed Frazzles or Vimto ketchup, or any of the other needless ridiculousness that sometimes goes on around this sort of thing. Cheese or no cheese, bacon or no (turkey) bacon, massive or normal person size are pretty much the only options, and all the better for it.
18 West Ashton St, Salford, M50 2XS / www.burgerism.co.uk
Jasmine
The fact that Lebanese spot Jasmine in Chorlton is packed every night of the week means that they’re clearly doing something right, but it has more chance of hosting the next Oscars than winning a Michelin star.
Nevertheless, I defy a smile not to spread across the face of any of the Michelin judges after they swipe a piece of warm homemade flatbread through one of Jasmine’s yoghurt or aubergine dips, and then wrap it around a piece of warm marinated lamb.
You’d have to be made of stone.
569 Barlow Moor Road, M21 8AE / www.jasmine-chorlton.co.uk
Happy Seasons
The mixed roast meats at Happy Seasons. The mixed roast meats at Happy Seasons. The mixed roast meats at Happy Seasons. The mixed roast meats at Happy Seasons. The mixed roast meats at Happy Seasons. The mixed roast meats at Happy Seasons. The mixed roast meats at Happy Seasons.
The point has been made.
59 Faulkner Street, M1 4FF / www.happy-seasons.co.uk
Hispi
Chef Gary Usher could win a Michelin star one day. But it won’t be for Hispi, unless it trades its casual neighbourhood vibe for tweezers, plates with inexplicable pebbles on them, and foraged microherbs.
Relaxed and effortless, this is bistro cooking at its very best, and who wouldn’t rather have that - nearly all of the time - than the often stifling, serious, lazer-focused ambition of your average Michelin-starred establishment.
1c School Lane, M20 6RD- / www.hispi.net
Gerry's on Piccadilly Gardens
Not many Michelin star places require you to take the food away and scarf it down on a bench, and that’s a shame.
Because some of the best food in Manchester finds itself in this category, notably Gerry's, the Jianbing and noodles truck outside the Primark and Santander on Piccadilly Gardens. If you’ve ever wondered about the queues snaking from it, wonder no more. Order the cumin chicken Jianbing (a crisp pancake stuffed with scorching hot chicken, vegetables and various Chinese sauces) and take napkins.
Moseley Street at Piccadilly Gardens, M60 1AY
Kurdistan
This tiny spot off the Curry Mile is more likely to take off and fly to Venus than score an AA rosette, let alone a Michelin star.
But you get an unrequested bowl of warming lentil soup on arrival, and a generous heap of grilled meats or slowly cooked, falling-off-the-bone lamb and a pilaf for considerably less than a tenner, and isn’t that what it’s all about really?
4 Grandale Street, M14 5NS
Buzzrocks
Enough to make a Michelin judge rethink their life choices, the legendary Buzzrocks classic Caribbean cuisine is surely - SURELY! - more likely to bring on groans of greedy pleasure than something which arrives in a cloud of liquid nitrogen and served in a bowler hat.
24-hour marinated jerk, brown stew, the ‘tasty’ fried chicken (they’re not joking), curry lamb, fried dumplings, rice and peas... Enough, we’re off to Hulme.
166 Stretford Road, M15 5TL / www.buzzrockscaribbean.co.uk
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