Hale Barns, Pizza Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: The former Deansgate branch of Zizzi – an elegant, Grade II-listed space with 8-metre high ceilings – is set in late 2021 to be home to what is often touted as ‘the world's best pizza’, as made famous by Julia Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love. The city prides itself on knowing its way around a slice – it will be interesting to see how this newcomer stacks up.

“The high-quality, authentic pizzas” are “just the best” – “especially the plain old Neapolitan” – at the “really buzzing” Ancoats original of what has become a fast-growing chain. Founded by Jim Morgan & Kati Wilson nine years ago, it is now has 18 branches around the country as part of the Mission Mars/Albert’s Schloss operation – but is “still very good” by all accounts, and if it “does get a bit noisy in there, that only adds to the atmosphere”.

2022 Review: Any new project involving Sam ‘Where the Light Gets In’ Buckley is news in these parts, and so it will likely be with this new community bakery, pottery and deli – a forthcoming collaboration with potter Joe Hartley and baker Rosie Wilkes. We are promised buns a-plenty, alongside pies, pizza, artisan pottery… and to cap it off, a sound system playing vinyl.