Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Manchester
Hardens guides have spent 31 years compiling reviews of the best Manchester restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 104 restaurants in Manchester and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Manchester restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Manchester Restaurants
1. WOOD Restaurant
British, Modern restaurant in Manchester
Jack Rosenthal Street - M15
MasterChef 2015 winner Simon Wood opened his debut open-kitchen concept two years later, offering only tasting menus. It is achieving solid ratings now that the initial hype has died down, with fans largely agreed that it’s “expensive, but great for a special night out”. A data manager from Oldham before his TV triumph, Simon is still refining his venue, most recently converting its private dining room into ‘Homage’ (rhyming with ‘fromage’), a tasting bar to pair cheeses and chutneys with wine and beer. A spinoff restaurant ran in Chester for two years, and the WOODKraft daytime café operates in Cheltenham.
2. Tattu
Chinese restaurant in Manchester
3 Hardman Sq, Gartside St - M3
This glossy, 2015 take on Chinese cuisine from brothers Adam & Drew Jones has been the launchpad for a national chain, with branches in Leeds, Birmingham, Edinburgh and (scheduled for 2022) London. Inspired by body art, the impressive interior is its star turn, with the “pricey” food taking second billing – making it very much a place to see and be seen.
3. Indique
Indian restaurant in Manchester
110-112 Burton Road - M20
A “buzzy West Didsbury place, recommended by the S. Manchester Indian community” (and no stranger to the British Curry Awards); their “amazing starters” – street food-style, or from the grill – are the prelude to what fans inevitably call “The. Best. Indian. Ever”.
5. San Carlo
Italian restaurant in Manchester
40 King Street West - M3
“Overall good… but pricey” remains the verdict on this long-standing Italian – opened in 2004, and long renowned as one of the city-centre’s more glitzy haunts. It serves a menu of classic, traditional dishes.
6. TNQ Restaurant & Bar
British, Modern restaurant in Manchester
108 High St - M4
“Always dependable, good cooking and excellent value to boot” – this neighbourhood spot “seems to have tweaked things up a notch” in the last year or so, serving “mostly fancy bistro-type dishes but covering a good variety of modern British cuisine, executed very well”.
7. Bundobust
Indian restaurant in Manchester
61 Piccadilly - M1
“This place could convert me into a vegetarian!” “Cheap ’n’ cheerful” non-meaty Indian street food washed down with craft beer has proved to be a marriage made in heaven for this hip Manchester outfit, which has now opened branches in Liverpool and Leeds as well as, in September 2021, a cavernous brewery-restaurant in the St James building in Oxford Street. Top Tip: “the option of everything on the menu for under £100 is good value if there are 5 or 6 of you”.
8. Albert Square Chop House
British, Traditional restaurant in Manchester
The Memorial Hall, Albert Sq - M2
2019 Review: An “always vibrant” spot, in Thomas Worthington’s iconic Gothic Revival Memorial Hall, run by the people behind Sam’s and Mr Thomas’s, aka the Victorian Chop Houses; the British pub grub hits the spot and there’s “very good service” to match.
9. Tampopo
Pan-Asian restaurant in Manchester
16 Albert Sq - M2
This handy street-food operation has raided the cuisines of East Asia to provide a range of “informal dining at its best – authentic food with friendly and helpful service”. The Albert Square original now has three spinoffs in Manchester and one in London.
10. Wing’s
Chinese restaurant in Manchester
1 Lincoln Sq - M2
Wing-Shing Chu’s high-end Cantonese venture in modern city-centre premises has won an enthusiastic following since it opened in 2004, and attracts a steady crowd of footballers and other celebs.
11. Croma
Pizza restaurant in Manchester
1-3 Clarence St - M2
“It’s only pizza – but it’s a good one”, agree fans of this Manchester niche pizzeria (one of four in the city), who “keep coming back for the most inventive pizza”. “Think PizzaExpress with attitude” – is pretty close to the mark, given that Croma is run by ex-PE staffers and has interiors by Enzo Apicella, a cartoonist and designer with more than 80 PE venues to his credit (and who would have turned 100 in June this year, had he not passed away in 2018).
12. Peter Street Kitchen
Fusion restaurant in Manchester
Free Trade Hall, Peter Street - M2
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!”
13. Adam Reid at The French
British, Modern restaurant in Manchester
Peter St - M60
“Adam Reid’s food is consistently top-notch – modern, but with lots of classic technique, and there’s often a witty note to the dishes” in this updated version of the classic, grand-hotel dining room where Mr Rolls first met Mr Royce many years ago. For several years now Mancunians have complained that it has been “unfairly overlooked” for the restoration of the Michelin star it lost in 1975. There’s also the bonus of a “brilliant sound track – not least for the way it is so at odds with the grandeur of the dining room!”
14. El Gato Negro
Spanish restaurant in Manchester
52 King Street - M2
“The best tapas around” (“salt cod croquetas are little spheres of happiness!”) and “quality wines” (“there’s always a new one to try”) help fuel the “great buzz” at Simon Shaw’s multi-level townhouse: nowadays the city’s most commented-on destination in our annual diners survey. It’s a “charming” place, but one that’s also often recommended for a vibey business meeting.
15. Albert's Schloss
East & Cent. European restaurant in Manchester
27 Peter Street - M2
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.
16. Kala
British, Modern restaurant in Manchester
King Street - M2
“Another of Gary Usher’s triumphant bistros”, this city centre two-year-old offers “great modern British cooking at a fair price, with excellent service” – the signature of the chef’s growing Elite Bistro chain. It’s casual, too. Top Tip: “the candied beetroot and sheep’s ricotta tarte fine was superb”.
17. Tast Cuina Catalana
Spanish restaurant in Manchester
20-22 King Street - M2
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.
18. Six by Nico
International restaurant in Manchester
60 Spring Gardens - M2
Chef Nico Simeone’s “amazing-value set-meal” concept, launched in Glasgow in 2017, has now opened in Fitzrovia and Canary Wharf, offering “a six-course tasting menu for only £37” – a “clever formula” with “well thought-out feasts that entice a bubbly audience”. “The menu changes every six weeks”, and is “themed around an experience” – ‘the circus’, ‘the Amalfi coast’ and ‘the chippie’ have all featured – with the cooking winning high praise for “variety, skill and quality”.
19. Grill on the Alley
British, Traditional restaurant in Manchester
5 Ridgefield - M2
2018 Review: This slick city-centre joint, on the proverbial alley off Deansgate (and with a sibling on New York Street) remains a popular spot locally for steak, burgers and sharing cuts – plus cocktails and seafood.
20. Katsouris Deli
Sandwiches, cakes, etc restaurant in Manchester
113 Deansgate - M3
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.
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