Harden's says

On Bridge Street in Spinningfields, a 'fire-cooking' specialist from the team behind Trof in the Northern Quarters. Sunday Times critic Charlotte Ivers loved the food – and the theatrical cooking – in her January 2025 review.

survey result

Not enough people have commented yet

Our reviews are based on an annual survey of ordinary diners which runs in Spring each year. But this establishment has not yet gathered enough feedback for our editors to write it up.

Do you think it deserves to be better known?

Write a quick review now using our restaurant diary service. That way it might catch our attention. Next survey, you can transfer your diary entry into our survey system. Everyone who contributes 5 or more reviews in our survey will qualify for a free guide.

For 34 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).

Have you eaten at Stow?

62 Bridge Street, Manchester City Centre, M3 3BW

What the Newspaper Critics are saying

The Sunday Times

Charlotte Ivers was enthralled by a tiny new spot where all the cooking is theatrically done on “a coal-fired grill, a pizza oven and one of those Green Egg barbecues that every middle-class bloke in Britain salivates over”.

It is from Matt Nellany and Jamie Pickles of Northern Quarter burger and pub classics restaurant Trof, but “what they’re cooking here is far more exciting”. Dishes ranged from scorched milk bread and beetroot with honey and ricotta to Tuscan-style borlotti beans and pork and fennel sausages and more French-influenced brined chicken in buttery tarragon sauce.

Best of all was a side of potatoes with garlic, shavings of Corra Linn sheep’s milk cheese and “enough butter to throw your health indicators off for a year”. “On my deathbed I will think not of those I love or those I have wronged, but of these long, crunchy ratte potatoes,” Charlotte insisted, reworking a line she used a few months ago.

Charlotte Ivers - 2025-01-26
62 Bridge Street, Manchester City Centre, M3 3BW

Best British, Modern restaurants nearby

Hawksmoor
Steaks & grills restaurant in Manchester
£89
 ££££
3
Good
4
Very Good
3
Good
The Ivy Spinningfields
British, Modern restaurant in Manchester
£93
 ££££
1
Poor
1
Poor
3
Good
20 Stories
British, Modern restaurant in Manchester
£97
 ££££
3
Good
3
Good
4
Very Good