Haggis for brekkie, haggis pies, and haggis with copious amounts of whisky sauce
10 minute read
Some people love haggis, others just don’t have the stomach for it, and a good stomach is essential when it comes to haggis. If you didn’t already know, haggis is a savoury pudding made with a load of animal bits, oats, spices and stock, and it’s bloody delicious. You also cook it all inside an animal’s stomach traditionally, but shove that bit to the back of your mind when you’re eating it.
Haggis is a good shout all year around, but Burns night is also in a couple of days, and what better time to eat the national dish of Scotland with a massive wad of neeps and tatties. We celebrate Burns night because Robert Burns is a bit of cultural icon, and Auld Lang Syne is a tune, but haggis comes in many forms in and around Greater Manchester, so get your kilt prepped and tuck in.
Here’s 10 of the best places to eat haggis in and around Greater Manchester.
The Black Friar
If there’s one thing this Salford spot excels in, it’s pies. We’ve had the fish pie, the beef mince pie, and the special haggis pie made Jonathan Schofield think deeply about the connections between Manchester and Scotland. It’s almost like the spirit of Robert Burns himself is baked right into the crust. As part of their festival of pies, The Black Friar are offering haggis pies for a tenner from Wednesday 25 January ’til Friday 27 January, so keep your eyes on the pies. It comes with a load of gravy and you can add some mash and veg for an extra £2.50.
The Black Friar, 41 - 43 Blackfriars Road, Salford M3 7DB
Browns Brasserie and Bar
The Burns Night menu at Browns ticks all of the Scottish boxes in three simple courses. Mussels with warm toast, haggis with aromatic mixed spices, creamy mashed swede and red wine jus, and cranachan with sweet honey and a dash of whisky. Close your eyes and you're in Glasgow with a bottle of Buckfast and the faint hum of bagpipes in the distance. Jokes, you're on York St, but its three courses for £30 so who's the real winner.
Browns, 1 York St, Greater, Manchester M2 2AW
The Didsbury
The Didsbury don't mess about when it comes to haggis, we're talking traditional haggis, veggie haggis, vegan haggis, and a Balmoral chicken stuffed with haggis and bacon that's doused in whisky cream sauce. On Burns Night, you can get two courses for £26, and the option to swill it all down with paired whiskys and a cranachan sundae makes a trip to the burbs all the more bountiful. All traditional haggis dishes come with neeps and tatties, and you get a cocktail on arrival.
The Didsbury, 852 Wilmslow Rd, Didsbury, Manchester M20 2SG
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle not serving haggis on Burns Night would be a god damn crime, but they are, so it's fine. In fact, they're serving a whole set menu for £60 and the Swaledale haggis with Royal Oak neeps and tatties is sandwiched between Pollen Bakery bread with potato and whisky butter and rhubarb cranachan. If all that potato butter and neeps isn't Scottish enough for you, the dinner finishes with an Irn Bru pastille and probably a whisky-induced hangover. It's the closest you're getting to the real Edinburgh Castle in the next couple of days.
Edinburgh Castle, 19 Blossom St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 5EP
The Koffee Pot
This caff’s entire branding is Irn Bru orange, and honouring the Scots with their Big Yin brekkie, you can enjoy some proper MacSween haggis alongside the usual full English contenders of bacon, sausage, egg, tomato etc. The full taste of Scotland is cemented by square sausage, a totty scone, and if you’re feeling full kilt and sporran, have a glass of Irn Bru to wash it all down. Haggis for brekkie is a secret hangover cure, you heard it here first.
The Koffee Pot, 84-86 Oldham Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester M4 1LE
Roti, Sale
As Roti’s website states, you should “expect the unexpected” here, and a haggis pakora is hardly your run of the mill Indian starter. Lightly coated in spiced gram flour and fried until crispy and golden, these pakoras are the perfect spicy, meaty addition to Roti’s Indian/Scottish menu, and belong on every sharing-style dinner table. The batter is crisp, the haggis is subtly spiced and you get three bitesized tastes of Scotland in a little silver dish. The Highlander Burger also features a haggis patty served with apple chutney, crispy poori and rocket salad.
Roti, 24 Stanley Square, The Mall, Sale M33 7WZ
Sam's Chop House
The Chop House aren't cutting corners when it comes to tradition and taste, and for £60 per person you can have a full Burns Night feast on Wednesday 25 January. This haggis helping comes with the classic neeps and tatties, and if you've seen The Crown, servings of venison, Speyside whisky and Scottish king scallop will make you feel all Balmoral for an hour or two. You don't have to shoot the deer yourself, though.
Sam's Chop House, Back Pool Fold, Manchester M2 1HN
The Village Chippy, Stockport
Sometimes you just want your haggis to go, with a portion of chips and lashings of salt and vinegar all wrapped up in a couple of sheets of paper, and that's where The Village Chippy on Green Lane comes in. For £3.60 you can get the battered haggis, which combines all of the rich, meaty flavours of the Scottish national dish with that crisp golden chippy batter that makes everything taste guilty and great. This spot also does Scottish black pudding, and you can eat your battered goods in front of the telly with a can of full fat coke when you get home.
The Village Chippy, 281 Green Lane, Heaton Norris, Stockport SK4 2LZ
The Whiskey Jar
What if we told you that some of the haggis on offer in Manchester is free, like literally free haggis. The Whiskey Jar are having a Burns Night bender from Tuesday 24 January 'til Thursday 26, and there's free haggis from 6pm - 7:30pm across the three day celebration. There's also live music to go with your Scottish nosh and £5 cocktails. Slàinte Mhath.
The Whiskey Jar, 14 Tariff St, Manchester M1 2FF
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