The London-based burger chain have opened their first northern outpost on Bridge Street

Honest Burgers, the London-based burger chain with 32 outlets spread across the south, has just opened its first northern restaurant in Manchester Hall on Bridge Street.

Taking over the space formerly occupied by Garage Bar in the grade II-listed former Freemasons Hall, the former Freemasons parking lot has been converted into a three-storey restaurant boasting a craft beer tap room and roof terrace by local brewers Runaway.

Local is a big deal for us, which is why we invited Runaway to take over the top floor...

Speaking to Confidential, co-founder Philip Eeles - who founded the brand in Brighton in 2010 alongside friend and business partner Tom Barton - said: 

"The really unique thing about Honest Burgers is that we have our own butchery, which means we're one of very few restaurants to make our own burgers. We can do that because we have LTTC (less than throughly cooked) certification, which sounds fancy but just means that we can serve our burgers pink, which is very important for flavour."

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"We've been looking at Manchester for awhile, this site has been in the pipeline for about eighteen months to two years. It's a really, really great building with so much character, but it's also listed which slows things down a bit," he said.

"Local is a big deal for us, which is why we invited Runaway to take over the top floor and run the tap room. We've never done something like this before, but we wanted to push it to the next level when we came to Manchester. At the same time we weren't going to come up here and plaster Hacienda signs on the wall and play Stone Roses all day, we're going to come up here and be ourselves."

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To celebrate the Manchester opening, Honest have created a special Manchester Burger with Runaway beer cheese sauce, Bury Black Pudding and mini roast potatoes (£12.50 with fries).

Honest Burgers join DishoomMasons and Vanitas in the renovated Manchester Hall, following it's multi-million pound reopening in 2017.

Take a look at the video above for a tour around the new restaurant and bar.

Honest Burgers is open now, seven days a week, at Manchester Hall, 36 Bridge St, Manchester M3 3BT.