DECIDING on a place to eat in Chinatown can be a daunting task. Dazzled by the neons, the logograms and the sheer volume, before you know it you've ended up in a All-You-Can-Eat buffet. Fear not. There is plenty of good stuff to be had. You just need to know where to look.
In the last couple of years the solidly Cantonese nature of Chinatown has fractured and new waves of Mandarin-speaking immigrants, together with a large Chinese student body, have brought new life.
A bit of background first. Manchester’s Chinatown really got going in the 1970s, as the textile warehouses in the area gradually became redundant the restaurants moved in. This in turn led to a corresponding growth in the services developed to serve them and their customers.
This became more pronounced with the arrival of medicine shops, health centres, financial and legal service providers, shops, supermarkets and Sunday schools.
Thus Manchester’s Chinatown has become the Chinese village for the north of England: a role enhanced with creation of several old people’s homes in the city centre.
There had been signs of decline recently in Chinatown as huge Chinese supermarkets developed on the city fringes. But in the last couple of years the solidly Cantonese nature of Chinatown - reflecting Britain's colonial links with Hong Kong - has fractured and new waves of immigrants from Mandarin speaking areas together with a large Chinese student body, have breathed new life into the area. Thai and Japanese food has become a feature too.
'Nuff of that though, let's get eating...
Chinatown Manchester
Happy Seasons
Happy Seasons is a typical red and gold gaff, with those strange seats made out of bronze aluminium and faux-velvet seats and backs that seem to be standard issue up and down the Chinatowns of the world. The art work doesn’t disappoint either, stampeding horses that have been spending time getting a tan in Liverpool gracing walls that could, quite frankly, do with a lick of paint. The clientele are 95% Chinese, 4% Manchester Confidential and on one lunchtime visit 1% Oz Clark. On our visit we had ‘prawn and meat dumplings’, scallops, shot through with fresh ginger, and from the vegetarian menu (extremely well catered for, those veggies) three types of Chinese vegetables, all crunch and promise of sorting out your wrinkles. The stars of the show here though are crispy duck and the belly pork dishes. Very lovely. Cooked beautifully. These make the trip and the stampeding Scouse horses well worth it. MG
Happy Seasons, 59-61 Faulkner Street, Chinatown, M1 4FF.
Happy Seasons
Ho's Bakery
Ho's Bakery is at once the best and the worst kept secret in the whole of Chinatown. Marshalled by the wonderfully neighbourly matriarch (Mrs Ho, you'd imagine), Ho's is a Chinese Gregg's with infinitely better tucker and much lower prices. Her Roast Pork Bun's for only £1.30 are things of Manchester legend: hot, doughy, sweet, rich and more moreish than a cheese and chive Pringle. This bun is perhaps summed up best by one Confidential employee: "The truth is I had a problem, I was honestly struggling to come into the city centre without buying one." Spot on. DB
Ho's Bakery, 46 Faulkner Street, Chinatown, M1 4FH.
Ho's Roast Pork Bun and a cheeky pork dumpling at the back
Hunan
Stairs off George Street lead precipitously to a handsome space, bar on one side, partitioned booth on the left and then further round the main room usually packed with diners. Hunanese cuisine reflects its south western Chinese origin in a sub-tropical region of the country. It's hot, occasionally very hot, and it's exotic and colouful too. The hotpot buffet at £18 a person will demonstrate the heat but also the sheer verve of the food while pork dishes are exceptional, and the dumplings a real delight. Kelp with garlic and soy sauce was a simple and chilly not chilli winner, while salmon heads covered in chilli's were the opposite and spectacular. The vegetarian offering is also exceptional. JS
Hunan, 1st Floor, 19-21 George Street, Chinatown, M1 4HE.
Hunan
Little Yang Sing
Nothing to do with the other Yang Sing, the bigger one, apparently. Something to do with a family feud. Regardless, Little Yang Sing is the best dim sum we've polished off in awhile. Trudging down into the restaurant's deeply claret underbelly (with mental asylum walls and a thousand tiny terracotta soldiers) you'd think you were in any humdrum Chinese gaff with naff tingling tangly background music. Wrong. Before you've even glance at a menu you should order the steamed prawn and pork dim sum with black truffle - three bite-size Chinese dumpling dreams for only £3.80. If you don't follow that with the salt & pepper baby squid (£4.95), crunchy with a forgiving crisp on the outside and perfect levels of salty chew on the inner (one of Manchester's great starters, by the way), they you're a fool Sir/Madam/Both... a damn fool. DB
Little Yang Sing, 17 George Street, Chinatown, M1 4HE.
Salt & Pepper Baby Squid - magic
Phetpailin
Seating around 60, this bring-your-own-bottle (no corkage) casual Thai restaurant is accessed via a doorway next to ‘Long Legs’ gentlemen’s bar (afterwards, perhaps). The décor is warm and florid - imagine the lanky blue-peoples’ tree houses in Avatar, and you’re close. The pick is a whole steamed sea bass (Pla Neung Ma Nao) served in a fish-shaped ceramic bowl, with a verge of coriander, parsley, small, red chillis and diced celery on top, lemony stock around the side, it warms the bones and the heart for £16. For those who like it hot, the salads are a draw, spiced to a south Asian standard. Some say 'too hot', but give 'em a chance, you wuss. RA
Phetpailin, 46 George Street, Chinatown, City, M1 4HF.
Phetpailin sea bass
Red Chilli
This snazzy, sub-street level Chinese restaurant combines some of the area’s finest food with originality and flair. The bright, cheery decorations include bird and flower glass panel lights suspended from above, while square mirrors line the walls. Red Chilli provides classic favourites alongside authentic Beijing and Sichuan dishes and an unusual selection of cold starters, such as Red Hot chilli pork stomach shreds and poached tofu with sesame oil and spring onion. The restaurant specialises in seafood - try the Crispy seabass with sweet vinegar or the entertainingly titled crispy yellow croaker with tomato sauce for a truly individual treat. Vegetables are also exceptional, particularly the Beijing pak-choi. If you’re feeling more chilly than chilli, look no further than the lamb and molly clay pot, a thin yet hearty stew, or for more exotic try the Husband and Wife Lung Slices. JS
Red Chilli, 70-72 Portland Street, Chinatown, M1 4GU.
Red Chilli
Siam Smiles
This half-Thai-supermarket half-Thai-noodle-diner is the most captivating entry on the list by a country noodle. Why? It's just so very unordinary. Siam Smiles is dried fish throat crisps and jellied chicken blood floating in bright magnenta soup, unidentifiable jars of gloop and uranium-powered energy drinks. Ok so you may not necessarily get exactly what you ordered but that's part of the fun (wouldn't bother if you're a veggie, mind). Still, if you can go for the Kuay Tiew Duck - a delicious duck, noodle and beansprout broth with small fishy frisbees for £5.50. Make sure to stir in a squirt of Nam Pla (fish sauce), Thai folk plop it on everything. DB
Siam Smiles, 48 George Street, Chinatown, M1 4HF
Siam Smiles
Try Thai
Now that Try Thai has bolstered up its menu, its efforts to be one of the better South East Asian offerings in the city has been recognised. Confidential appreciates a trier. Long-term fans of the traditional restaurant know that you don’t simply try Thai food here, you get knee deep in the prawn massaman curry (£10.95), get tangled in the noodles in a spice-rich red curry soup (£9.00) and happily see-saw between all the savoury and sweet flavours. Tried, tested, tasty. LB
Try Thai 52-54 Faulkner Street City, M14 FH
Try Thai
Wasabi
The sushi conveyor belt is a cunning little machine. At compact noodle bar, Wasabi, going ‘from the belt’ is to risk hypnosis by slow moving sushi train. Before you know it you’ve fell into a rhythm of see, grab and eat, eat, eat, to the beat of the Japanese hip-hop videos that play on Wasabi’s plasma screen. At £2 per grey plate and £3.50 per red it’s easily done. Restrain yourself with the bargain set menus. For £8.95 (set B) you get three bowls from the belt, plus a pick of nine a la carte meals. Opt for the big pot of steaming and flavoursome grilled chicken ramen noodles. Be warned, it’s a classic case of ‘eyes bigger than the belly’ every time. The bowls soon stack up. That’s how they get you. LB
Wasabi, 63 Faulkner St, M1 4F.
Avocado Sushi Roll - Wasabi
Yang Sing
The biggest of the restaurants and the one with the international reputation. Born in 1977 through the efforts of the Yeung brothers, neither fire nor the occasional claim its standards are slipping have diminished its reputation for top-notch Cantonese fare. Harry Yeung (the older brother) is still here, cooking a storm, while the next generation, Bonnie, Yinhen and Yinting, are all involved. There is a truly epic-in-scale dim sum menu satisfying the lunchtime and shopping crowd; while the night is given over to the a la carte dining, fine wine list and there are even function rooms and banqueting halls. Confidential's Gordo went recently and loved it. 'Harry brought traditional dim sum first; what we call shredded-wheat prawns with a sharp, vinegary dipping sauce. Superb, crunchy with a firm meaty prawn filling, brimming with naughty prawny-ness. Char Sui pork buns were worth a Michelin star for the flawless execution of the dough mix and bake.' For me and a main try the crispy suckling pig with jellyfish. Marvellous. JS
Yang Sing, 34 Princess Street, Chinatown, M1 4JY.
Suckling pig and jellyfish
Yuzu
Yuzu Japanese restaurant in Chinatown is traditional and wonderful. The decor might be austere but is effective. Staples of the menu include sashimi (raw fish – the fish bit, if you like, in sushi), easy-to-pincer sticky rice, cucumber pickles, finely shredded white daikon radish and miso soup. You get all that for £7.95 and it’s typical of a menu that serves simple ingredients, cooked with care. The prawn gyoza (£3.50) were a fine example, little pockets of joy, crafted seared prawn, ginger and shallot in the soft pastry case. Nothing is quite as you expect at Yuzu. Wooden tables and natural light serve up sensory sustainence and healthy food comes your way. But the overriding impression I have is of care – and that care is what makes this the best place in the city centre for fragrant Japanese dishes, cooked with love and respect. JS
Yuzu, 39 Faulkner Street, Chinatown, M1 4EE.
Yuzu
