Manchester Restaurant Guide

This “family fave” has assembled a greatest hits of East Asian cuisine, from satay skewers, spring rolls and gyoza dumplings to nasi goreng, pad Thai, ramen and laksa. They’re “geared up for a great family experience with a top attitude towards children” – who will always find something to eat on the menu. There are now three branches in Manchester and one in London. Top Tip – “love the secret off-menu chicken options!”.

“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.

2021 Review: Part of the Radisson occupying Manchester’s iconic Free Trade Hall, this fusion two-year-old occupies a glossily designed space on the ground floor with floor-to-ceiling windows; and is one of the ‘Kitchens’ run by London’s Edwardian group. Its unusual offer presents Japanese and Mexican small plates on separate menus, but – even if the prices are not bargain basement – all feedback is positive: “the food is so fresh, the tastes are clean and vibrant, I love it!”

“Located in a grande dame of a Manchester hotel” – don’t let the fact that this bastion of the city (where Mr Rolls first met Mr Royce) is situated in the heart of a classic traditional hotel gull you into thinking that its glory days (it held the city’s first Michelin star until losing it in 1975) are behind it. “Once you walk through the doors of the restaurant, you do feel removed from the hotel” – a “delightful” setting – and ‘The French’ is “worthy of a visit for Adam Reid’s tasting menu food that fully delivers on the hit to the tastebuds”. “It’s not all serious plates, with some playful dishes offering something a little different and intriguing” and – though not as commented-on as Mana nowadays – some diners still hail it as “the best culinary experience in Manchester”.

“Wherever you sit – the downstairs bar, the rooftop terrace (lovely on the top floor in summer), one of the booths – you can hardly go wrong and the tapas remain excellent” at Simon Shaw’s happening multi-level townhouse, which remains one of the more high-profile locations in the city. “It’s hard to criticise anything, everything is just done really well”, and it helps that “staff are well informed”.

2022 Review: Not for the faint-hearted – Manchester's first and only Bavarian-style beer hall (plus bakery), offering what they bill as “mountain frolics” aplenty, i.e. live music, fattening staples like currywurst and copious Pilsner. The hit formula spawned a Birmingham sibling in 2021.

“Outstanding food” at sensible prices hits the sweet spot at this “really enjoyable” three-year-old, the sixth venue in Gary Usher’s crowd-funded Elite Bistros group. “The service was excellent and the standards really high” – “I loved being able to watch what was going on in the kitchen”.

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.

“Such amazing value for a six-course, themed, tasting menu” that changes every six weeks – that’s the USP of Nico Simeone’s national chain, which, over five years, has grown from its Glasgow base to number nine in total (with London having two: in Fitzrovia and Canary Wharf). Of course it’s “slightly gimmicky”, but on the whole it’s “a good effort at a budget experience”: “you get what you pay for, and while not all dishes hit the mark, and service can be a bit hit ’n’ miss (particularly at busy times), it is innovative, has a great buzz and is a lot of fun”.

2021 Review: “Top breakfast butties” are a good reason to head to this “ever busy” fixture, set in a Gothic-style building; others include filling ciabattas, the carvery and “particularly good value” platters.

Quickly established as a “Manchester institution” since its 2015 opening, this Deansgate branch of the hit London chain offers “quite simply the best steak and accompaniments around” – it’s “difficult to find fault as everything is top notch: the quality and cookery of the beef; the exemplary seafood, be it Salcombe crab on toast or lobster; even down to their sides of mac’n’cheese, bone marrow or Caesar salad”. That said, as with its cousins down south, it’s “best if someone else pays!”.

2021 Review: The “lovely Thai food” at these reliable cafés is “impressively authentic given that they are a chain” – “excellent value” and “fast”, if occasionally let down by “iffy service”. Founded in 2008 by Saiphin and Alex Moore, who inherited the name of their first East End site, the group has 18 branches in London and expanded to Liverpool, Manchester, Reading (delivery only) and Leeds following the sale of a majority stake to US investors. The couple also have two spin-offs, Lao Café in Covent Garden and the new Chinese noodle bar Hoh Sek in St Katharine Docks.

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.