Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Altrincham
Hardens guides have spent 31 years compiling reviews of the best Altrincham restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 104 restaurants in Altrincham and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Altrincham restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Altrincham Restaurants
1. WOOD Restaurant
British, Modern restaurant in Manchester
Jack Rosenthal Street - M15
MasterChef 2015 winner Simon Wood opened his debut open-kitchen concept two years later, offering only tasting menus. It is achieving solid ratings now that the initial hype has died down, with fans largely agreed that it’s “expensive, but great for a special night out”. A data manager from Oldham before his TV triumph, Simon is still refining his venue, most recently converting its private dining room into ‘Homage’ (rhyming with ‘fromage’), a tasting bar to pair cheeses and chutneys with wine and beer. A spinoff restaurant ran in Chester for two years, and the WOODKraft daytime café operates in Cheltenham.
3. Indique
Indian restaurant in Manchester
110-112 Burton Road - M20
A “buzzy West Didsbury place, recommended by the S. Manchester Indian community” (and no stranger to the British Curry Awards); their “amazing starters” – street food-style, or from the grill – are the prelude to what fans inevitably call “The. Best. Indian. Ever”.
4. Sugo
Italian restaurant in Altrincham
22 Shaw's Rd, Altrincham - WA14
“A real asset to Altrincham”, near the market, serving “authentic pasta dishes” with a Puglian slant (plus wines by the carafe) “in a canteen environment”. (In 2018 they launched a spin-off, in Ancoats, that’s double the size and while “both branches are great, the original just has the edge”.) “Some of the dishes, especially the strozzapreti, are just to die for”.
5. The Con Club
British, Modern restaurant in Altrincham
48 Greenwood St - WA14
2019 Review: After the arrival of Salford Quays player David Vanderhook two years back, the former Altrincham Conservative Working Men’s Club is now a brasserie/microbrewery, having had a “fantastic” industrial-chic makeover. The “eclectic” Japanese/grilled meat menu can seem a little “overrated”, and even fans agree it’s secondary to the “highly enjoyable”, “loud and glamorous” atmosphere.
6. Altrincham Market
International restaurant in Altrincham
Greenwood Street - WA14
Run by Nick Johnson and wife, this reinvented Victorian hall embodies “the very best type of market regeneration”, and is now “ringed with excellent, varied food and drink outlets” (not least pizza gods Honest Crust). It has “caused a big restaurant revival in surrounding streets” since launch – the only problem being that the “buzzy” spot is “sometimes too crowded for its own good”.
7. Sigiriya
International restaurant in Hale
173 Ashley Road - WA15
The “clean, tasty flavours” of the cooking at this five-year-old Sri Lankan make it the “best restaurant of its kind for miles around”. For Colombo-born owner Don Buddhika it is a very personal project, celebrating his origins after a career spent in the Middle East and Manchester.
8. Borage
British, Modern restaurant in Bowdon
7 Vale View, Vicarage Lane - WA14
“Dishes – never bad, with some gems – Central European (or French) – emerge from the kitchen of this husband-and-wife team” comprising Mariusz Dobies, former exec chef at Michael Caines Manchester, and his wife Veronika, an “excellent host”. It’s a good tip for a slap-up dinner en route to or from Manchester Airport, though they also do Sunday lunch.
9. La Boheme
French restaurant in Lymm
3 Mill Lane - WA13
Don’t be deceived – “the unprepossessing exterior conceals a lovely French restaurant, with delicious food and good service”. Olivier Troalen’s classic Gallic operation has earned its spurs over 21 years, and “knows how to make a meal out into an occasion”. And, as a French chef on Manchester’s Cheshire fringe, his menu even features a ‘filet Cantona’. Top Tip: “portions are large, but you should always keep room for a dessert”.
10. Bar San Juan
Spanish restaurant in Manchester
56 Beech Rd - M21
“Gorgeous tapas dishes, wine and decor” – it’s “worth the struggle to get a table in this popular little place”, tucked away in a “quaint location in the hip suburb of Chorlton” and a hit for more than a decade.
11. The Creameries
Italian restaurant in Manchester
406 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton - M21
“A good-value short menu, which makes clever use of seasonal produce, plus an imaginative wine list” have created a strong local reputation for this restaurant, wine bar and bottle shop (named for the Edwardian creamery it occupies), where you eat on benches. Many of the wines are of the hip, low intervention variety.
12. The Lime Tree
British, Modern restaurant in Manchester
8 Lapwing Ln - M20
“The Lime Tree doesn’t change but is still refreshingly energetic”. “A gem” in Didsbury for 35 years, Patrick Hannity’s “really enjoyable” modern brasserie “retains its consistency in all departments year after year”. Key attractions: “great food that’s unfussy but so tasty, from a compact menu with every dish a winner”, plus a “reasonably priced but excellent wine list”. Also, “a nice welcome laid-back ambience, with staff and management on top of their game”.
13. Greens
Vegetarian restaurant in Manchester
43 Lapwing Ln - M20
This “delicious vegetarian restaurant from Simon Rimmer” – self-taught TV chef and author – has become a Didsbury institution over three decades, moving with the times as plant-based cooking has developed. Omnivores are quite happy to eat here, finding it “perfect for lunch with vegetarian friends – there’s something for everyone’s taste”.
14. Great Kathmandu
Indian restaurant in Manchester
140-144 Burton Rd - M20
2018 Review: “I have been a customer for 30 years, and it’s as good now as ever!” – this veteran West Didsbury Indian continues to turn out “fantastic” fare that fans feel is far better than on the curry mile.
15. Five Guys
Burgers, etc restaurant in Manchester
Intu Trafford Centre - M17
2021 Review: “When all you want is an old-school burger”, these US-based arrivals of recent years really “hit the spot” – you can “build your own”, with “tons of accessories”; plus “seriously addictive fries”, “thick milkshakes”, and “more soda flavours than is reasonable”. “The eat-in experience is as depressing as McDonald’s”, though, in fact perhaps more so – “some branches have a strangely gloomy ambience” – but fans feel that “if you don’t mind 1980s-rock, a trip can still be surprisingly fun”.
16. Belle Époque
British, Modern restaurant in Knutsford
60 King St - WA16
2019 Review: “The location is beautiful” – a gorgeous Art Nouveau building dating from 1907 – but this well-known landmark is too often said to be “overpriced and living on very faded past glories”. Nowadays marketed as a ‘Wedding Venue, Restaurant and Boutique B&B’, its food events seem to offer very limited dining possibilities nowadays, so for the time being we’ve left it unrated.
17. The Whitworth Cafe
British, Modern restaurant in Manchester
The Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester, Oxford Rd - M15
2021 Review: “You would not realise you are in Moss Side” at the Whitworth’s “beautiful” and “family-friendly” glass-walled conservatory, overlooking Whitworth Park. Its location (above all) and victuals make it an “excellent place for lunch”, with the “three daily changing salads particularly recommended”.
18. Albert’s Shed
British, Modern restaurant in Manchester
20 Castle St - M3
2019 Review: The eponymous Albert’s old tool shed (he’s the uncle of the owner) is now a stylish, contemporary haunt with a popular canalside terrace – hence why it’s “best in summer” – plus reasonably priced, mostly English grub. (Part of a three-strong local empire, which recently announced plans to add a Standish branch.)
19. Akbar’s
Indian restaurant in Manchester
73-83 Liverpool Rd - M3
2021 Review: This “crazily busy” branch of Shabir Hussain’s Bradford-based group “still delivers great curry and their specialism of over-sized naan”. It’s one of the few places that lists camel (‘on the bone’) on its menu.
20. Fazenda Rodizio Bar & Grill
Brazilian restaurant in Manchester
The Ave - M3
2018 Review: “Incredibly succulent meats carved onto your plate are complemented by an amazing array of salads” at this outpost of the Brazilian ‘rodizio’ (’eat-as-much-as-you-want-buffet’) chain; “normally the expectation would be vast quantities of indifferent food; but not here.” Also with branches in Liverpool and Leeds.
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