Rochdale Restaurant Guide

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.

Dark greige and blond wood abound at this ‘Scandinavian Neighbourhood Bar & Restaurant’ in the boonies of North Manchester, which is celebrating its fifth year in 2025. It’s run by chef Danielle Heron and business partner Sofie Götberg, and even those who say “it’s not in a very prepossessing location and has a fairly plain interior” feel “the food is worth a visit”. That’s the least enthusiastic report! Feedback from locals suggests it does exactly what it sets out to: “with a changing weekly menu, the food at Osma is fantastic. Danielle and her team work really hard to bring creative dishes in taster-style portions to my local area. Front of house service is professional and welcoming, with staff knowledgeable on the food and wine they serve”.

This “fabulous” veteran of vegan cuisine in Manchester pleases all-comers – “I don’t miss meat at all when I’m eating here, the food’s that tasty” – and has its origins in a Gujarati grocery store in Ashton more than 50 years ago, when PG Sachdev and his wife Lilawat (Lily) started selling homemade snacks and sweets to families watching Indian films at the cinema across the road. Several expansions later, it’s a slick modern operation run by their grandchildren.

“Almost like a speakeasy to get into”, and based in a railway arch, but once inside you’ll find a “totally charming place” that makes for “the perfect cheap ’n’ cheerful night out”. The MO is “fabulous” and “slightly bonkers”: spätzle (a Swabian, noodle-like pasta dish) is the star of the show, with William Sitwell in his June 2025 review – one of many journos to rave about what he called this “Manchester institution” – claiming that “all seems well with the world as you guzzle them”; also on the menu, other “great-value Polish and Eastern European food”, all of which is “wonderfully presented” too. No wonder fans “love everything about this place”.

2022 Review: “Busy”, huge and gaudy Cantonese that sits over the Wing Yip Oriental supermarket, where you can choose from over 300 dishes on the menu. It’s one of the few places left in town (in the country?) where dim sum still comes on trolleys.

“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).

“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!”).

This Ancoats spin-off from tapas-champion El Gato Negro is “good on its own terms, and a model of consistency”, with Portuguese influences from Porto-born head chef Carlos Gomes. “Set-price menus are good value”, including the ‘Tipsy Tapas’ offer of three dishes and 90 minutes of unlimited booze for £40. Top Menu Tip – “salt cod fritters are a highlight”.

“It’s basically a food hall” where you dine in “noisy” surrounds at communal seating, but this converted Victorian venue (the name is a clever inversion of Mayor Mackie, who opened it in 1858 as a fresh produce market) is a “really great place” nonetheless (and hugely well regarded locally). The offering has extended since it launched in 2017, and “you could come here many times and not eat the same thing” – working your way patiently from Pico’s tacos to Honest Crust’s sourdough pizzas, via New Wave Ramen and a craft beer from Blackjack Brewery.

Forget Napoli, forget NYC – for “fabulous pizzas” look no further than Ancoats, where you’ll find the “original branch and still hands-down the best” of the brand that has taken the UK by storm in recent years (2025 openings in Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge and West Bridgford, Notts brought the total to 35 branches). Jim Morgan & Kate Wilson immortalised their dog Rudy when they launched here in 2015, joining Manchester’s Mission Mars stable a couple of years later to fund expansion. Top Menu Tip – don’t fill up on pizza because “the Kinder Bueno cheesecake is to die for (if there’s any left)”.

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!”