Manchester's Food Scene

Manchester's food scene earns its reputation the hard way. Mana in Ancoats holds the city's only Michelin star - Simon Martin's tasting menu changes with the seasons, and you'll need to book months ahead. A five-minute walk away, Erst on Murray Street does natural wine and small plates in a room so calm it feels like a different city. Rudy's Neapolitan pizza draws queues down the Cutting Room Square cobbles on Saturdays; the dough is worth it. Bundobust in the Northern Quarter has been doing Gujarati street food and craft beer since 2015 - order the okra fries and a pale ale and thank yourself later. This & That on Soap Street does a rice-and-three curry for under a fiver that has kept the Northern Quarter going for decades. Mughli on the edge of Rusholme is the Curry Mile done properly - charcoal-grilled South Asian street food, dry-aged lamb chops, and a wine list that takes the food seriously. The mile itself runs south down Wilmslow Road through Rusholme: 70-odd restaurants, most open until 4am, mostly excellent. Chinatown on Faulkner Street has proper dim sum at Yang Sing and late-night BBQ at Happy Seasons. Honest Crust does sourdough pizza at Mackie Mayor food hall in the Northern Quarter - a Grade II listed Victorian market with twenty independent vendors under one roof. Hispi in Didsbury is Gary Usher's neighbourhood bistro, seasonal and precise. Where The Light Gets In in Stockport has been quietly producing some of the finest cooking in the North since 2016. Trove on Piccadilly Road bakes the best sourdough in the city. Siam Smiles on Oxford Road does Thai food that makes you forget anywhere else exists. Whether you've got twenty minutes and a fiver or a whole evening and a card that doesn't flinch, Manchester feeds you properly.