Didsbury Restaurant Guide

“Long Live the Lime Tree!” – where “the best food, impeccable service and great wine is why we go time and time again”. A chic brasserie in posh West Didsbury, it was launched in 1987 by chef-owner Patrick Hannity, who has always been ahead of the game with seasonal modern British cooking using locally sourced ingredients (he invested in a 20-acre smallholding in Macclesfield Forest 17 years ago to be self-sufficient in eggs and rare-breed beef, lamb and pork). “It’s been my favourite restaurant for years even though it’s quite a schlep to get there, and it rarely disappoints in any department”.

“You really do feel like you’re in Spain” at this “lovely little tapas bar”, a fixture on a Chorlton back street since 2010. “The first time I visited, I wasn’t convinced, the second time I totally was! Can’t wait to go back”.

“Scandi, seasonal, local foraging vibes; small plates, fermentation and natural wines… all may be ten-a-penny in London, not so much in Stockport”, which has helped win massive ongoing acclaim for Sam Buckley’s hipster outpost, whose launch eight years ago has helped put the seal on the area’s emerging reputation as a haven of cool North Western vibes. It helps that it occupies a “nice space too” – an airy, brick-walled former coffee warehouse with large windows and high ceilings – in which is presented a no-choice menu for £110 per person (for which you are advised to allow two-three hours). All who report rate it do so extremely highly – its ratings would be even higher were it not for the fact that the volume of feedback we receive in our annual diners’ poll is always much lower than its phenomenal reputation might suggest. From November 2024 to March 2025, Sam and his crew will be aiming to take Manchester by storm with a pop-up ‘Where The Light Gets In: A Play in the City’. Till December 21 2024 this will be at the Altogether Otherwise community centre in Hanover Street – from January 7 2025 at The Bungalow at Kampus, a former security cabin on stilts in Aytoun Street. Whether this is part of a plan to shift longer-term to Manchester city-centre remains to be seen.

This Manchester tapas pioneer of two decades’ standing is “still good after so many years” – with a “vibrant atmosphere” and “food and wine of a high quality”. “The Altrincham branch is sadly no more (having closed down at the end of 2023), but the Deansgate original still flies the flag”, along with branches in the Northern Quarter and Knutsford. The business developed out of an enoteca importing wine directly from family-run Spanish vineyards, so “the wine list is especially strong”. Top Menu Tip – “excellent paella”.

This “lovely space in the Midland Hotel” is part of the city’s heritage in many ways: a famous Grade II listed chamber that was already sufficiently well-known that Charles Rolls first met Henry Royce here in 1904 on the path to establishing Rolls Royce. Later in the 20th century it held Manchester’s first Michelin star, only to lose it in 1957. Great British Menu winner Adam Reid is currently the head chef, having arrived at the stoves in 2013 when the dining room was run by Simon Rogan, and then staying on in his own right as chef-patron in 2016. Under Adam, it has won an impressive four AA stars… but not one from the tyre man as yet. Choose between the ‘Signature’ menu for £160 per person, or the ‘Signature Experience’ at £230 per person. Fans say it’s “absolutely stunning and brilliant!”.

“A real gem in the city”, Warren Yeung’s Chinese in the heart of Chinatown – the original home of its famous sibling Yang Sing, run by his cousin Harry – “remains the best” locally thanks to its “superb and authentic” dim sum, plus other “wonderful” Cantonese dishes (and it’s also sparkling after a recent refurb’). (With the ongoing closure of the Yang Sing itself – which shuttered in 2021, and whose website has disappeared – this is now the dynasty’s sole survivor in Chinatown).

This “great lively place” is certainly something a bit “different”: a Bavarian-style beer hall where the food (bacon kroissants with a ‘k’, schnitzel, spätzle and funky pretzel donuts) is more reminiscent of something you’d get up the Alps than in Manchester city centre. Much like an après-ski bar, it’s also all about entertainment, with regular cabaret and DJ nights amplified by further insanity during Oktoberfest. The local Mission Mars group who run it now has outposts in Birmingham, Liverpool and (as of early 2024) a ‘600-cover pleasure palace’, as an impressed Grace Dent put it in the Guardian, on London’s Leicester Square, which has taken over the old Rainforest Café site.

“Every time I go it is always such a lovely experience”, say fans of this Deansgate outpost of this phenomenal steakhouse chain, atmospherically located in a late-Victorian former courthouse, next to Spinningfields. Known for its mouthwatering steaks (and also, somewhat, for its recently introduced selection of seafood), many reports say its performance is “still solid” (and that “the burger is a good tip for a good-value feed”). Disappointments are on the up though, with some indifferent meals reported and also the same concerns about the final bill as at the group’s venues in London and other cities: “good-value set lunch and early evening; and they still do £5 corkage on Mondays (the wine club idea is brilliant). Otherwise the cost mounts up”.

“Stunning food in a stunning setting with St Paul’s as a to-die-for backdrop…” (in EC4); “the superb atmosphere of the very colourful room sets the mood…” (in SW3): – Praise isn’t short on the ground for these maximalist pan-Asian venues. They are easy to diss, but most reporters actually feel that, OK, they’re “a bit pricey” for their hotch-potch of pan-Asian “classical dishes”; seem “slightly tasteless”; are “very noisy”; but, for all that, overall are “still a lot of fun”. There is also though, a minority of diners that loathe them for a variety of reasons; and feel that “the prostitution of the Ivy brand continues apace”. (“The western siblings are fine, but this faux-Asian set-up is a travesty – the worst sort of western cultural appropriation and arrogant corruption…”; “opulent surroundings and extravagant presentation cannot disguise overpriced and underwhelming food…”; “it’s all flashing lights and selfies. We will not be going back!”)

What does it say about the culinary tastes of the British middle classes that this spin-off chain, with about 40 locations based on the original Theatreland icon, has been such a rip-roaring success? True, there’s some “great people-watching” at the “always buzzing” Chelsea Garden venue (which has one of SW3’s best gardens). And, without doubt, those branches in Kensington, Tower Bridge and Kingston also particularly stand out amongst the rest for their “super atmosphere”. In general though, the knock-off look of their locations “isn’t a patch on the original on West Street, yet pretends to be exactly the same”. And when it comes to their brasserie dishes: although its many followers tout them as “acceptable, albeit nothing special”, their rating-average identifies them as “underwhelming tick-box fare”; all offered by service that’s very “indifferent”. And yet they are “always busy”! In June 2024, it was announced that billionaire Richard Caring had successfully sold his entire Ivy restaurants stake. Now that he is laughing all the way to the bank, it will be interesting to see if ratings reverse, continue or deepen their southward trend.

“A six-course themed taster menu, that changes every six weeks!” is the “playful idea” at Nico Simeone’s national chain, whose two London branches (in Fitzrovia and Canary Wharf) are “great for special occasions, but also affordable for a regular monthly meal out to experience the different cuisines”. At such keen prices, it’s unreasonable to expect perfection and most diners acknowledge this: it’s “a clever, and obviously very popular, concept, albeit one where the experience can seem a bit manufactured”; “although it doesn’t always live up to expectations, when you get the right menu everything clicks into place”; so while inevitably it’s “hit and miss, it’s also great value”, and “for a fun evening it does the job well”.