MANCHESTER, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

As culinary icons go, this fine, Grade II space at the heart of Manchester’s most famous ‘dowager’ hotel is certainly up there – an impressive, high-ceilinged chamber where Mr Rolls met Mr Royce on the road to creating the UK’s most famous industrial company in 1904; and until 1957 an early recipient of the city’s first Michelin star. In recent times, Great British Menu winner, Adam Reid, has done his damndest to regain its premier ranking and some fans agree that his “excellent cooking deserves some special recognition as it is stronger than some Michelin star places”. All the menus here are in a tasting format and highly ambitious – there’s the twelve-course ‘Tipsy’ menu for £145 per person or a longer ‘Signature’ menu at £215 per person. The odd reporter considers it “expensive” but custom doesn’t seem to be in short supply. With its “bangin’ soundtrack”, moody lighting, 1970s-metal album menu typography and pared down table settings the seeming aim is to do everything possible to crush the idea that you’re eating somewhere stuffy.

“Always delivers and you can rely on excellence every time!” – the Deansgate outpost of this super-successful steakhouse chain occupies a late-Victorian former courthouse, next to Spinningfields, and is celebrating its tenth year in the city in 2025. As at all its siblings – which are increasingly international with the expansion of the group – its core offering is a mouthwatering variety of well-matured, top cuts from grass-fed beef sourced around the world, all expertly prepared and washed down with the “varied and interesting, if pricey” selection of wines and cocktails. It’s a reliable way to spoil yourself, but “the evening can get very expensive”. Top Tip – “Set lunch on a Monday when you can bring your own wine for £5 represents excellent value”.

You step into history at this Manchester institution, founded in 1868 and with a menu of Victorian chop house classics (steak ’n’ kidney, Barnsley chop…), a “great wine list and good ale, too” – you can also rub shoulders at the bar with L.S. Lowry, who dropped in every day for lunch during his lifetime and is now a permanent fixture in the form of a life-size statue cast in bronze by Preston-based artist Peter Hodgkinson. Top Menu Tip – you have to try the corned beef hash.

2024 Review: TV chef James Martin’s over-18s-only, industrial-chic flagship shares a home in the historic Great Northern Warehouse with Manchester235 Casino; the location is “slightly odd”, to be fair, “but once you’re seated in the restaurant you forget about it” – and can focus on the “absolutely delicious food” (be it an “excellent tasting menu” or slap-up afternoon tea).

Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan was – as of mid 2025 – rumoured to be on the verge of buying a £1 billion stake in Richard Caring’s restaurant empire, of which this famous brasserie chain is the crown jewel. Presumably, he’s more interested in ‘rolling out’ the brand in The Gulf and beyond rather than dropping by for a Salmon Fishcake and ‘Ivy Chocolate Bombe’, but if he’d asked the opinion of our annual diners’ poll, we’re not sure that he’d sign on the dotted line. “How can a restaurant with this heritage produce such uninspired, tick-box food?” is a question merited by its poor ratings, ditto what explains the “very slow and disinterested service”? The answer may be that “you don’t come here for the food, obviously” but for the “gorgeous” interior design and “picturesque” locations that continue to underpin their appeal. Let’s hope for the Sheikh’s sake that the middle classes of the Arab World are as undiscerning as those from the UK!

2022 Review: “An amazing bar and signature cocktails” are hailed in early reports on this two-year-old haunt in the characterful arches beneath Manchester Central station, from the people behind the successful Manchester Gin brand. Though its selection of small plates is not the main point, nor is it an afterthought.

“Spectacular views (Manchester weather notwithstanding)” are the headline event at this “fashionable restaurant and celeb bar in Manchester’s vibrant Spinningfields district” – the city’s highest dining room, no less, and part of the glam London group, recently re-christened ‘Evolv’. While it has been dismissed in the past as a one-trick pony, what feedback there was this year was very positive, with one reporter commenting that, “so often the view is the attraction and the basics suffer — but not here, where the service and food match the view”.

“Much more than a pub!” – this once abandoned Victorian boozer was resurrected in 2021 after a decade and a half in the doldrums; now a globetrotting and “high-quality” restaurant out back (‘The Glass Room’), plus a front room offering more casual but “solid” grub, it’s “worth walking out to” the borough of Salford, in the Greater Manchester ‘burbs, to enjoy – and if you take your friends along for the ride they’ll be “duly impressed”.

Amongst the newly cleaned and polished dark satanic mills of Ancoats sits The Edinburgh Castle – an early 19th-century pub rescued and skillfully restored with a large bar on the ground floor, and a dining room on the first floor serving pub food with a thoroughbred touch. Try the Sunday roast – “this pub has never done it better in its 200 years!”

“Surrounded by regenerated mills and terraced houses, from the days of the industrial revolution”, Richard Withington’s “trendy but likeable” Ancoats favourite “serves small plates to be shared” at “a perfect pace” in a “relaxed, modern dining room” and is nowadays in our Top-100 most commented-on UK restaurants in our annual diners’ poll outside London. “The kitchen knows how to cook and manage to consistently keep the standard up” – “the conception and execution of each dish is faultless” and the whole enterprise “manages to feel both forward looking and familiar, while offering exceptional value for money”. (“I was made so welcome as a solo diner that I wouldn’t hesitate to eat here alone again, but will definitely be bringing friends!”).

“Great to have a restaurant of this quality in the North West” – Simon Martin won his place in the history books in 2019 when he ended Manchester’s 40 years of pain without a Michelin star with his creation of this award-winning Ancoats champion. By design, there’s a “chilled” ambience created by the large space, where chefs and diners co-mingle naturally as a result of the open plan layout incorporating the kitchen (to ensure that ‘traditional barriers are broken in physical and thoughtful senses’). The cuisine is characterised by its “interesting and innovative approach with some unusual and unique flavours” and enhanced by the “superb” service. Of course, it’s not super-cheap, but no-one seems to begrudge this. The ‘Complete’ tasting menu is £175 per person, with a cut down ‘Extracts’ version available for £110 per person (and at lunch there’s a menu for £70 per person).

“As always, this stalwart remains the best meal you can enjoy in South Manchester”, according to admirers of Patrick Hannity’s classy West Didsbury brasserie, which celebrates its 40th anniversary next year – “they just get everything right without bragging about it”, delivering “delicious food without unnecessary complications”. The venue has a large and longstanding fan club, but also picks up new converts (“I’d never quite got the appeal before but on my last visit each course was excellent”). Top Menu Tip – “save some space for the sublime courgette fritters”.

“Very modern, Scandi-style with much foraging and fermenting” characterise the dishes at Sam Buckley’s famous foodie destination, which occupies the “beautiful”, airy space of a brick-walled former coffee warehouse in central Stockport, complete with bright windows and hip post-industrial vibes. It’s all “very well done and service is very good” too, but it’s never inspired the vast volume of feedback that its illustrious reputation would imply, perhaps due to what has historically been the high expense of dining here. Perhaps that’s all about to change, though, as in September 2025 the venue announced a major change of gear, with a considerably cheaper, new five-course sharing menu for £75 per person, with the aim stated on its website of “a format that feels more open, more generous and more relaxed”. What’s more: “The chefs’ table will always be open to walk-ins, offering wines and cocktails by the glass, along with a bar menu for those who just want a drink and a small bite”. More reports on the new approach please!

2024 Review: “An excellent local restaurant with talent in the kitchen (Miarisuz Dobies) and professional front of house” (his wife); regulars are “never disappointed” by the French- and Central European-inflected food (including five- or seven-course tasting menus), with “every detail wonderful and made in-house”.

2023 Review: Ex-Manchester House chef, Aiden Byrne’s attractive pub is cutely situated opposite said St Mary’s Church in one of the scenic commuter towns on the Cheshire/Greater Manchester borders. Steaks, burgers, pies and the likes of lobster and chips typify its quality gastrofare; and they also serve pizza and snacks from their garden ‘shack’.

2022 Review: “Great food and also a sense that they are putting back into the community” inspires support for this pub-with-rooms on the village green. Run as a youth-focused social enterprise, supporting young people to access training and paid work experience, it has won a string of awards over its almost ten years in operation. In summer, its ‘Incredible Edible Beer Garden’ comes into its own: almost an acre in size and with lots of interest as well as outside seating.

2023 Review: Fooderati insider Thom Hetherington was amongst those sending out an SOS on behalf of this well-regarded neighbourhood restaurant in his hometown, which was gutted by fire in September 2022. By the end of the month it had crowdfunded the money to re-open and restore its mix of funky small plates (typically you would order 7-8 in a meal), plus gins, cocktails and a thoughtful small selection of wines.

2022 Review: Patrick Hannity's decade-old spin-off from his Manchester original is less well known than its progenitor but is “usually excellent”, too; the food is “light, balanced and filled with flavour”, incorporating produce from his Peak District farm.