From Irlam to Stockport to Bolton, Manchester keeps on innovating
Reports of difficulties in the hospitality world keep on coming, mainly due to the rising cost of literally everything now the pandemic's mostly over. Great, eh?
But that doesn't stop those plucky entrepreneurs from living their dreams. Our new openings round-ups this year have totted up more new places to eat and drink than even in pre-pandemic years. Manchester is still the place to be and everyone, it seems, wants a piece of our current success story.
So read on, food fans, for news of barm-centric caffs, boozy kombucha and Peruvian-Japanese gaffs as well as almost 30 more new places to get your chops around in our great city.
Cheers to the latest raft of new restaurants, bars and cafes for Manchester.
What: ARMR Store
Where: Shude Hill
When: TBC
If you’re on the hunt for vegan West Indian food, look no further. ARMR Store has got you. With a daily changing menu of breakfast and lunch options, sweets and treats as well as health food supplies, dishes might include oyster mushroom burgers with jerk glaze and ackee or potato curry with a cucumber and key lime cooler.
The current ARMR store is on the outskirts of the city in Ardwick (near the Apollo) but you may have seen the team popping up at various events including Eat Well MCR ones. Now, a little birdie tells us the ARMR bods have their sites set on something more central, somewhere around Shude Hill.
What: Balchão
Where: Unit 1, The Square, Hale Rd, Hale Barns, Altrincham WA15 8ZN
When: Open now
Hale is having something of a foodie renaissance at the moment, perhaps following in the footsteps of its neighbour Altrincham. The Embassy’s beautiful dining space and inventive Spanish food is drawing in locals as well as curious visitors from across Greater Manchester, modern Indian restaurants Gupshup and Jajoo are grabbing attention too. Then came Balchão, named after a fiery Goan prawn dish, the restaurant serves “contemporary fusion food”. Expect creative dishes like purple basil paneer, “kurnool kissed fish” and prawn roundels (fritters) with a “signature” blueberry sauce.
What: Bond
Where: 38-42 Moseley Street
When: Early 2023
The name’s Bond - well it’s not actually. That’s just a placeholder until we get more info. Bruntwood has had planning permission granted for a workspace housed in a grand old bank - hence the name Bond.
Bond was built in 1862 to be the home of the Manchester and Salford Bank. Edward Walters, who also designed the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, was the architect.
The development includes plans for a restaurant in the old banking hall, which promises to be quite lavish. Watch this space as Bruntwood has promised to open in early 2023, and of course, their word is as good as their - you know the rest.
What: CAFF
Where: TBC
When: Coming soon
According to CAFF's Instagram, its menu has "NO AVO. NO KETO. JUST BAPS". Sounds a bit like our hungover Sunday diet. This new kid on the block comes courtesy of the peeps behind GRUB, and very soon they'll be bringing "no-nonsense sarnies and no messing breakfast butties" to a tidy city centre location. More news on the ins and the outs of CAFF is coming soon, but the spot is currentlylooking for some new staff to run the butty brigade before it officially opens. We're looking forward to a proper bacon bap.
What: Canvas Kitchen
Where: Circle Square, Oxford Rd, M1 7FS
When: Open now
Canvas Kitchen, the newest restaurant at Circle Square is part of a larger enterprise just called Canvas. It's operated by the team at BeSixth, the "live experience agency and event specialists" founded by Dean James and Gavin Aldrich in 2019. The space consists of a state-of-the-art 600 capacity music and events room and a members’ lounge as well as this ground-floor bar and kitchen from boutique hospitality consultancy Miam Miam Glou Glou (who are also involved in Peru Perdu). The menu takes in a world of influences - find out more on our first look at Canvas Kitchen.
What: Ecco Pizzeria
Where: 31 Wilmslow Rd, Rusholme, Manchester M14 5TB
When: Open now
Ecco has been the home of Neapolitan pizza in Headingley, Leeds for nearly 10 years now, and it’s committed to using a combo of traditional techniques and proper ingredients imported from Italy. Luckily for Rusholme residents, this Leeds pizzeria has moved in on Wilmslow Road with a menu of half-metre pizzas and signature creations. Ecco also does salads, sides and chicken wings and the brand commits to serving “simple, honest, natural and healthy pizza in its purest form” - so none of that frozen supermarket crap.
What: The Flat Baker
Where: 23 Radium St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 6AY
When: Open now
We love a pocket-sized addition to the Ancoats food and booze scene, and this little hatch serving Brazilian bakes has made our hearts happy since it opened at the start of July. Open from 9am - 2pm on Thursdays and Saturdays, The Flat Baker team is self-taught and serves everything from sourdough to booze-filled brioche. On a recent visit, we also tried a churroffee pie (a banoffee pie with mini churros on top), and it only made us wish we lived closer to grab a coffee and a cruffin every week. The natas are pretty noteworthy too.
What: Foodwell
Where: XYZ Building, 2 Hardman Blvd, Manchester M3 3AQ
When: Open now
In the biggest split since Millie and Liam on Love Island (apparently), “free-spirited social dining” restaurant, Firefly, and daytime dining spot, Foodwell have gone their separate ways. But in true post-breakup style, Foodwell has found new digs in Spinningfields for the ultimate glow-up. Now found on the ground floor of the XYZ office building, Foodwell has upped the ante with its menu and is now serving everything from fully-stacked breakfast muffins, artisan coffee and fresh bakes from Half Dozen Other to Detroit-style pizza, cheeseboards and a fresh-as-you-like lunch menu.
What: The House of Books & Friends
Where: Manchester Reform Club, 81 King St, Manchester M2 4AH
When: Autumn
The House of Books & Friends is a new bookshop, café and events space with the admirable aim of combatting loneliness in the community. Moving into Bruntwood’s Manchester Club building at the top of King Street which also houses Grand Pacific, law firm Gunnercooke that's behind the project has set the shop up as a Community Interest Company - one that seeks to benefit the community rather than private shareholders. The team says it will be working with local charities to "combat social isolation” and connect people "including the elderly, new parents, and local schools" through events and pay-it-forward options. Bookshop manager, Naomi Self comes from Waterstones so the book credentials are all there. There’s limited info for now on the food and drink side of things but we're hoping for decent coffee and a bit of nice cake at least.
What: House of Fu
Where: 113-115 Portland St, Manchester M1 6DW
When: Late 2022
We broke the news that Leeds’ hottest noodz would be heading to Portland Street back in June but ICYMI here’s the skinny: HOF’s chef-proprietor Ben Iley spent nine years in Japan learning all about the way of the broth and the noodle at top restaurants like Aquavit, The Tokyo American Club and Fujimamas. Lucky for us northerners, he brought his knowledge back to Leeds and opened to rousing applause from punters and critics alike including our own Simon Richardson. The food is really, really good so we were cock a hoop when we heard it was coming to Manchester. It’ll be moving into the former Leaf cafe spot on Portland street which despite being one of the biggest streets in the city, has very few decent restaurants on it at the mo.
What: Jackalope
Where: 46 School Lane, Sale M33 7XE
When: Open now
Jake Wilson found his passion for kombucha while on a sojourn in the US. While the 'booch isn't uncommon here, especially among healthy types (kombucha is a kind of fermented tea that is good for gut health), the alcoholic kind was almost unheard of. So, he started making his own and that led to the birth of Jackalope, a bar specialising in hard kombucha.
Jackalope also does brunches, coffees and snacks so it's not just for health nuts on the razz. Other suppliers are quite the constellation of Trafford stars, including Isabelita Bakes, Altrincham's Kickback coffee, butcher Taylors of Sale and juices from The Garden in Hale.
What: Khyber Tawa
Where: 591 Cheetham Hill Rd, Manchester M8 9JE
When: Open now
New to Cheetham Hill, this restaurant specialises in food from the Peshawar region on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The menu centres around large sharing plates of meat grilled on the tawa (a large hot plate), with dal, curry and er, French fries - or there is a Kabuli pilau which the team says is exactly like you will find in Afghan capital - none of that "with a twist" here. Decor includes that good old influencer’s favourite, an artificial plant wall but the usual pansies for instagrammability have been replaced by slices of red and green pepper. Drinks are primary coloured mocktails.
What: Las Bombas
Where: Irlam, Manchester M44 5AA
When: September 2022
Bringing a taste of the Peruvian to Irlam, Las Bombas is the work of co-founders James Saadat and Christian Townsend. It will sit in the place of the former Juniper’s Gin Bar and specialise in Peruvian/Japanese nikkei-style cuisine as well as Latin American-style street food. Think ceviche, empanadas and tacos. Aside from having some of the coolest branding outside the M60 ring road, Las Bombas is hoping to bring a real community feel to the area. Let’s hope it brings a bit of sunshine as well.
What: Maya
Where: 40 Chorlton St, Manchester M1 3HW
When: Soon
Rumours have been swirling about this one. We’ve been informed by the PR that Maya is not being operated by the group at Leven (the hip Aparthotel that lives above the site) but is a totally unconnected restaurant. The space promises to be spectacular - we could speculate more but why spoil your fun?
What: MOST Bakery
Where: 3-5 Cross St, Altrincham WA14 1EQ
When: Open now
MOST opened in July, selling slow-fermented bread, sweet and savoury croissants, pain au chocs, cruffins and plump choux pastries, among other baked delights plus coffee by Kickback and various local goodies. It's run by Matt Townley and the name is an acronym of his own initials plus wife Suze and daughter Olivia. Matt had previously been running the Hale franchise of baking school One Mile Bakery and plans to continue offering classes in the new gaff.
What: Mumbai Tiffin Room
Where: 406 Barlow Moor Rd, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 8AD
When: Open now
Tiffins were originally created in India as a sort of afternoon tea in a tiered lunch box (also called a tiffin) to suit the British Raj’s desire for a nibble of light food and drink mid-afternoon. Depending on where you are in India, the meaning of tiffin varies slightly these days but in Mumbai, it’s the packed lunch bit that is key. You may well recognise the cute, stackable metal tins from restaurants like Indian Tiffin Room and Mowgli. While Mumbai Tiffin Room’s name is very similar to the aforementioned ITR, the two restaurant brands are not connected. The no-frills Mumbai one recently opened in Chorlton with everything from South Indian dosa to Indo-Chinese gobi Manchurian on the menu - as well as Mumbai’s national dish: Vada Pav. Its head chef and owner Pancham Singh started with a tea stand in Mumbai and worked in kitchens in Dubai and around the UK before settling in Chorlton.
What: Municipal Bar
Where: 267 Deansgate, Manchester M3 4EW
When: Open now
As the saying goes, as one Instagrammable bar closes, another is sure to open. And sure as shit, here it is. What Exclsve briefly brought to Bridge Street, Municipal is here to bring to Deansgate. Faux flowers, pink cocktails and social media opportunities galore, Municipal is looking to bring a “neighbourhood bar” feel to the Great Northern Warehouse, something that owner David Sharp doesn’t believe is available in the area. Or Spinningfields. Or even the Northern Quarter for that matter.
Municipal Bar, which has taken over the CP Hart bathroom showroom at 265-267 Deansgate cites “quirky Instagram areas”, a lounge, a VIP area and a window seat as some of its USPs. Expect Ibiza jazz, swing and diva vocalists appearing on Friday and Saturday nights as well as a bar that only serves spirits by the double. And a £10k toilet.
What: Nail’d It
Where: 58 King Street, M2 4LY
When: TBC
“Be as picky with your men as you are with your selfies”, “Support your local nail gang”, and “Girrrlll, you better follow yo dreams with yo cute self” are some of the millennial pink neon signs that glow on the fake pink flower walls of Nail’d It salons in London, LA and Doha. Now, the very pink, very fetch nail salon is opening on Manchester’s King Street. They must have heard what a raging success Boujee was. Why's a nail bar in a new restaurants and bars article? Because this one will also apparently do coffee and cocktails, hun. There’s limited intel on the bevvie menus (a Rusty Nail perhaps?) at the moment but we hope they have devised a method of drinking something while your nails dry without taking a chunk out of the handiwork. Currently sitting between two units for let, maybe this London brand can kick start King Street again?
What: No. 19
Where: Regent Park Golf Club, Chorley New Rd, Lostock, Bolton BL6 4AJ
When: Open now
Regent Park Golf Club, Bolton’s sole public golf club, has glammed things up with a new café and bistro, No.19. The space which seats 160 is the result of a £500k refurbishment and will be overseen by Spanish chefs Daniel Lorente and Ismael Sevilla. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be served seven days a week, with the space also catering to events. An ideal spot for people watching, windows look out over half the golf course.
What: North Brewing Taproom
Where: Circle Square, Oxford Rd, Manchester M1 7FS
When: Winter 2022
North Brewing is adding a ninth venue to its roster (eight currently operate in Leeds) with a new Mancunian spot. Down the (Oxford) road from Leeds-born favourites Bundobust, North’s first taproom venture outside of Yorkshire is set for the shiny new Circle Square development just off Oxford Road. Visitors can expect brewery fresh North beers as well as a curated selection of wines and spirits. Negroni on tap too. Asian Steamed buns courtesy of Little Bao Boy make up the street food offering on-site. A large outdoor seating area will be an ideal spot for supping.
What: Rendezvous
Where: Ann Ln, Astley, Manchester M29 7SG
When: August
If you’ve never been to Astley Point, it's a huge funky-shaped building that houses four restaurants and a wine bar “with a twist”. Now, a new addition is coming to the food and drink complex in Tyldesley. Named after the former Rendezvous Club which was previously known as the High Jump Club and legend has it, inspired Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights, it says it will be offering up a “modern English” bistro-style menu (think chippy tea, chicken, steaks) with a curveball side menu of sushi.
What: Salt & Pepper
Where: 58 High St, Manchester M4 1EF
When: TBC
There has been all sorts of controversy surrounding the Arndale Markets in the past few months, punctuated by the sudden closure of much loved Salt & Pepper in April. Leaving the only place to get your hands on their sticky beef, salt and pepper prawns, fries and dipping sauces in the kitchen at Black Dog Ballroom on Church Street in the Northern Quarter (and Deliveroo, of course).
Well, thanks to our intrepid social team, we can confirm that Salt & Pepper will be opening independently on High Street - directly opposite the Arndale Market in the old Tea 42 spot. Dates and times aren’t currently confirmed, but next time you’re strolling around that way, have a peek through the window to check on its progress.
What: Super Happy
Where: Counter @ Ducie Street
When: September 1
From the team behind baking giants Batard, Super Happy is set to be “a bakery-led sandwich side hustle” with seriously loaded lunch offerings. Super Happy will move into Ducie Street Warehouse to fling exciting sarnies from its The Counter section at the front of the main room 9am-4pm, seven days a week. Super Happy will be ethically sourcing the grain for its breads via Wildfarmed - a regenerative farming company founded by Groove Armada’s Andy Cato and Channel Four presenter George Lamb. Expect Turkish breads, hoagie rolls and their signature choux pastry crullers (crinkly doughnuts). We're gonna need some looser jeans.
What: The Spinn Off
Where: 19 Little Underbank, Stockport SK1 1LA
When: Open now
Taking up a prime spot on Stockport’s Underbanks next to SK1 Records, The Spinn Off is the pun-tastically-named second site from the Corrie-bothering lads behind Gatley’s The Spinn. Furnished in traditional modern craft beer bar attire with open brick and utilitarian bench seating, The Spinn Off serves a range of craft beers as well as organic and natural wine (curated by Stockport Market’s resident wine superhero Wineboy) and the all-important local pies. Yes. You better believe it’s a Patel’s Pies outpost. Repeat after us: Stockport is the new Berlin.
What: Wingstop
Where: The Trafford Centre
When: Coming soon
Supposedly opening before the end of August, you won’t have to wing it when it comes to dining at The Trafford Centre anymore, as Wingstop is coming to The Orient food hall. Occupying a pretty hefty unit with a menu full of seasoned wings and loaded fries, Wingstop UK director, Tom Grogan, is “thrilled" to be expanding their presence in Manchester city centre and we’re excited to tuck into some tenders in between shopping sprees. Tom also quotes that Wingstop is looking to announce “a number of new openings shortly”, and so the Wingstop empire begins in Trafford and beyond.
What: Zumuku Sushi
Where: Unit 17, Stanley Square, Sale M33 7XN
When: Soon
Greater Manchester can't get enough sushi, from the frustratingly exclusive Umezushi to bright young thing Codi's Kitchen in Prestwich. Mini-chain Zumuku is not content with Ramsbottom, Wilmslow, Didsbury and Cheadle Hulme, now it's on its way to Sale's buzzing Stanley Square too. Expect all your sushi and sashimi regs plus we hear bottomless brunch is on the cards.
Read next: A look around the new Greens in Sale with Simon Rimmer: 'I'm loving what we do'
Read again: First look: Ortica plant-based Italian, Urmston
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