Manchester, East & Cent. European Restaurant Guide

“Always busy and buzzing,” not least when it lays on dedicated Oktoberfest antics, this raucous Bavarian-style beer hall serves up “great food” of a heavy Alpine bent, from schnitzel, spätzle and fondue to other rib-coating fare. Manchester-based Mission Mars, which owns the joint, is clearly in an expansive mood: following siblings in Birmingham and (as of December 2022) Liverpool, another Schloss is due to take over the former Rainforest Café site on London’s Leicester Square, in Spring 2024.

2023 Review: This “unusual and unique find” – “hidden away in a railway arch near Manchester’s Victoria Station” – offers “a wide selection of pasta and dumplings from south Germany, Switzerland, Alsace, Austria and the German-speaking parts of northern Italy”, washed down with an interesting variety of beers, wines and Japanese alcoholic drinks. Even the occasional critic who finds it “not entirely to my liking” concedes that “the very interesting menu has good and unusual food”. The same team is scheduled to open a sake bar and shop called Suzume.

“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”.