Hale Barns, Chinese - Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: “A superior mainstream Chinese” – this large, modern Cantonese in the city centre is eighteen years old and fans say it “shows just how familiar dishes should be done”, and with “excellent service” too.

2022 Review: “Delicious, super-spicy” Sichuanese cooking sets the taste buds on fire at this “friendly” Chinatown operation, with offshoots near the university in Oxford Road, in Leeds and York. Top Tip: “the hot poached chicken is fantastic”.

“A real part of Chinatown in Manchester for many years” – Warren Yeung’s long-established landmark (the original home of his cousin Harry’s once-legendary, Yang Sing, which moved onto premises elsewhere, and which is now seemingly defunct) still receives a good report-card from a good number of loyal fans. Some do say that “the place itself, like the rest of Manchester’s Chinatown, is something of a shadow of its former vibrant self” and the odd sceptic says “really people? Not sure this place isn’t living off of the fame of the original Yang?”. More common, though, is an ongoing judgement that “the food is excellent and the staff are charming”.

2022 Review: “Busy”, huge and gaudy Cantonese that sits over the Wing Yip Oriental supermarket, where you can choose from over 300 dishes on the menu. It’s one of the few places left in town (in the country?) where dim sum still comes on trolleys.

2024 Review: Opened in August 2022 in a former Chinese takeaway/chip shop, this ‘authentic Hong Kong’ (their words) venue shot to local fame on the back of an April 2023 review from The Observer’s Jay Rayner, who enjoyed its “profoundly comforting” dishes, with the “textural joys” of both traditionally Asian “slippery foods” and plenty of deep-fried, crunchy ones (including “very good chicken wings”). Reports please!