HIghgate, Spanish Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: This celebration of Basque cuisine in a Lancashire former mill town is a sibling to Levanter a few doors away, and the two “brilliant” venues effectively operate as one, offering diners the option of Hispanic bar-hopping. The wood-fired Pereruela oven allows for larger dishes to be served, such as sirloin on the bone from 10-year-old Galician oxen, to go with the smaller pintxos and tapas.

Simon Shaw’s well-known “Spanish restaurant goes from strength to strength” – “there’s always a good atmosphere when you walk in, the place is buzzing, the staff are very welcoming” and “the food is really high quality”. “Service can be a bit chaotic”, but it’s “hard to criticise – everything is done really well”.

For 22 years, this pioneer of Hispanic food and wine in Manchester has provided “great tapas, with interesting choices”, while “showcasing the very best in world-class, award-winning Spanish wines from family-run bodegas”. It remains one of the most commented-on spots in town, and now has four branches (in Deansgate, the Northern Quarter, Knutsford and Altrincham). Some would say that “it doesn’t feel like it’s kept up with how Spanish food and flavours have evolved in the City” or note the food is “good but no better than that”. But “it’s big, it’s comfortable” and “even it has been overtaken as the top destination for tapas in Manchester, you can still spend many pleasant afternoons and evenings here”.

2022 Review: Multi-Michelin-starred Barcelona chef Paco Pérez was the marquee signing for Pep Guardiola, Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano, the trio behind Manchester City’s success, when they launched their upscale Catalan restaurant three years ago. The cool interiors – industrial chic for communal eating on the ground floor, minimalist glamour upstairs – are designed to throw a focus on the food, served as ‘tastets’ (small plates with more complexity than tapas). The verdict? definitely Premier League (in both quality and prices), if not yet a Champions League winner.

This tiny spot is “the real deal for Spanish food”, its “authentic and delicious tapas” turning a Chorlton backstreet into “Las Ramblas of Manchester”. So well-known after 13 years that it “fills its tables from opening time to closing time”, it “now takes bookings, with the outside barrel table reserved for walk-ins”.