Manchester Restaurants - The essential UK restaurant guide for eating out in Manchester
Manchester Restaurants - The essential UK restaurant guide for eating out in Manchester
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by location
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Select an article from the list below
Anyone who’s seen Tommi Miers on Channel 4’s ‘A Cook’s Tour Of Spain’ can’t help but view Spanish food in a new and very different light. The former winner of Masterchef -- and now restaurateur – travelled around the country sampling her favourite cu...
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One of the best things about Japanese food is that it has not been Westernised in the same way as Chinese, Italian and Indian cuisine. Such authenticity means that it still retains a culinary integrity which may be a little daunting at first. But it ...
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East Manchester is not yet renowned for its wealth of fancy restaurants. But all that could change with the advent of a new £5-million Thai eaterie near the Manchester City stadium. This area is all set for regeneration and apartment blocks are edgin...
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Long the foodie Cinderella, north Manchester and its more rural environs is now giving the south side more than a run for its money. In recent years, areas like Didsbury and Altrincham have become so affluent and proved so popular in the eating out d...
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Mancunians returning to their home city after even a short time away wouldn’t recognise the part of town where the City Inn is these days fast caving a niche as a fantastic place to go for a meal. Until a year or so ago, this completely revamped area...
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Architecturally speaking, the Spinningfields area was until recently a bit of a car crash -- 1960s projects like the Crown Court mixed with concrete horrors like the Education Offices and the old Manchester Evening News building. Now all those buildi...
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Today’s sophisticated revellers just would not be happy with the kind of food served up in the 1970s along with Saturday Night Fever. Thankfully, chicken in a basket, half-cooked chips and burgers and other retro food nightmares are no longer a featu...
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The Eccles cake, complete with flaky pastry and currants, has made this part of Manchester famed the world over. Now there’s another reason to celebrate culinary excellence in this thriving part of the city -- several months ago, new restaurant Read This Article
If you’re bored with the usual combos of pizza, pasta and tapas then it’s worth a trip to the wilder shores of European cuisine. Portuguese eaterie Luso, on Bridge Street, occupies the spot where old-fashioned French bistro Le Bouchon used to be. Fam...
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It’s about 10 years since Manchester’s renaissance as a fine dining destination began. Back in the good old days when people liked Tony Blair and New Labour, movers and shakers like Paul Heathcote and Oliver Peyton moved into the city and opened eate...
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Chaophraya is the latest Thai restaurant to hit Manchester. Pronounced ‘Chow-pie-a’, it’s named after the main waterway that runs through Bangkok and the central region of Thailand, and its sister operation in Leeds is one of the best eateries in the...
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Dining out in Manchester is no longer an easy option if you’re hard up and want to eat well. As the city’s prosperity has grown, so has the consumer demand for swanky places where you can take someone to impress. The trouble, as many top chefs will t...
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The Fat Loaf, tucked away down a quiet street in Sale, has earned a formidable reputation for first-class food at very affordable prices. And the beginning of December saw the opening of a sister restaurant to this splendid enterprise in downtown Alt...
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Fawlty Towers once epitomised the standard fare on offer at British hotels. Maybe John Cleese overdid it a bit as the hapless Basil, but poor food, shabby surroundings and abysmal service were all too common back in the 1970s. Fast forward to 2006 an...
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‘Shiny bar syndrome’, as the pundits tend to call it, makes Manchester punters a tad more fickle than most when it comes to customer loyalty. Fads and fashions in our northern consumerist paradise mean that only the very best bars and restaurants in ...
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Manchester has moved on a lot since the days when the favourite student eaterie was a place called The Plaza in Victoria Park. Run by a rum character called Charlie, its ‘menu’ consisted of delights such as the Kamikaze Curry and the Suicide Special....
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In Roman times, a Bacchanalia was basically a very drunken orgy paying homage to the god of wine. One suspects things will be a little more restrained at this new bar and restaurant in Manchester city centre. The Chapel Walks premises have seen a fai...
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These days, Manchester is positively over-run with trendy restaurants and bars. And if only the quantity was matched by quality then we would be up there with London standards. As things stand, too many of these new places are serving up over-priced,...
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Thirty years is an awfully long time in the restaurant business. Next year, Manchester’s famous Yang Sing restaurant enters its fourth decade of Cantonese cooking .The locations have changed. It started life in what’s now the Little Yang Sing, then m...
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Ask chefs working in the Big Smoke and many of them will concur that great food simply cannot be had outside the metropolis. They do have a point. Mediocre food is still the order of the day at far too many places and cheap usually means anything but...
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Everyone knows that Alderley Edge is awash with money. Sadly, such affluence means it also has more than its fair share of eateries with more style than culinary substance. Not so the Alderley Restaurant. Housed within the elegant environs of the Read This Article
Across the Channel, eating out is still a pretty formal affair. Three courses are de rigueur and it’s usual to spend several hours over lunch and dinner. Here in the UK, we are either less civilised or less precious, depending on which side of the cu...
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Location, they say, is everything. And the site which is now the Yatra Lounge, has a pretty chequered business history. Most recently, it was the Colour Bar, a strange place with a concept that never really took off. Before that, the similarly short-...
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Rebranding can be a great way of kick-starting things when a new image is desperately needed. That's why over the past 10 years millions of pounds of public money has been poured into what is now referred to as Manchester's ‘Northern Quarter.’ Previo...
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There was a time when every large department store worth the name had an extensive food emporium, But then the supermarkets and out-of-town precincts took away most of the customers and places like the late, lamented Lewis's and Debenhams ditched the...
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Yes, the party season is here and every year it seems to get longer and longer. From here on in until the beginning of January, it's relentless scoffing and quaffing. The do least likely to please anyone is the annual office party. Best viewed as an ...
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Style is all in Wilmslow. Long before Footballers' Wives hit the TV screens, this place reeked of money. A local vicar some years back denounced the good folk of the parish as being a little too obsessed with the material things in life – and he prob...
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Lotus is a very simple concept. Indeed, it’s a surprise that no one has done it before. This newish operation on fashionable King Street occupies the site once held by the ill-fated Mumbo, which tried to make tea-drinking fashionable again. It failed...
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A panacea is a remedy for all medical disorders; they haven't found one yet but this excellent restaurant and bar in the middle of Manchester will do nicely in the meantime. It's sited in what was the Lloyd Davies shop (and before that Habitat) and t...
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Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is the stuff that TV producers' dreams are made of. The man's charisma aside, there is something that is absolutely fascinating about why some restaurants do or don't work. Let's face it, Ramsay is unlikely to run o...
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Ho Hos is truly a one-off sort of place. Swanky Chinese restaurants may abound in places like Manchester 's famous Chinatown -- there are even one or two top-class eateries in affluent suburbs like Didsbury and Cheadle. But, with the best will in the...
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Heald Green and Handforth share many suburban attributes. Originally leafy little villages on the edge of the Cheshire countryside, they were built mainly after the Second World War as the nearby Ringway Airport (now Manchester International) grew in...
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Millions of pounds have been spent in a bid to make the Piccadilly area more attractive to visitors. But to be frank, it’s still a bit rackety and very much in need of decent places to eat and drink. One exception to the rule is the fine food and win...
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Spring is in the air and, if you're lucky, so is romance. Being brutally honest, Manchester is not exactly up there with Paris or Venice in the amorously-inclined eating stakes. But things are improving fast and the city is full of places which make...
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Family-friendly restaurants fall roughly into two categories. The first, usually to be found out in the suburbs, is to be avoided at all costs. Some big brewery bright spark will have thought up a “concept” for bringing in more punters which usually ...
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Manchester’s newest hotel, the Radisson Edwardian, has brought five-star contemporary luxury to the city centre on a site that was once the Free Trade Hall. Already it’s bagged Cheshire Life’s Best Manchester Hotel Award 2004/2005 but the Radisson is...
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Salford Quays is an amazing example of urban regeneration -- just over 20 years ago this was unlovely and very derelict dockland. Now, this rapidly expanding area looks like a bit of modern America that somehow ended up on the banks of the River Irwe...
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Not so long ago the idea of a food and drink extravaganza in Manchester would have been greeted with hoots of derision. Yet only five years or so since it started in fairly modest fashion, the Manchester Food & Drink Festival is an eagerly awaited an...
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September is now officially Heritage Open Day month. Across the country, thousands of buildings are opened to the public. Churches, public buildings, open spaces, they are all part of a trend which has seen more people than ever latching on to the fa...
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It takes some courage to open a new Chinese restaurant in the heart of Manchester. The city already has dozens of decent and one or two superlative places to go, catering for all kinds of budgets and appetites. Newly opened Wings, housed in what us...
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Whereas soaring property prices and new bars and restaurants have made the East and West parts of the Didsbury equation beyond the reach of all but the very well-off, Withington still has a slightly shabby edge which gives it a less aspirational air....
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This singularly upmarket wine shop/deli and restaurant, is the latest addition to a part of Manchester that's rapidly becoming VERY Spanish in ambience. Opposite its recently opened Deansgate premises is the Instituto Cervantes, where you can imbibe ...
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Pizza Express is launching what’s billed as the biggest change to its menus since the much-loved national chain first got going in 1965. Apparently, it's because customers are being tempted away by their newer, flashier rivals and worried restaurant ...
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In the past 10 years, Manchester has changed almost beyond recognition. Take Rusholme. The lure of the ‘curry mile’ was frankly the only reason for dropping in to an inner-city area otherwise pretty much down-at-heel and often verging on the dodgy. N...
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Buffet restaurants are big news in Manchester -- in more ways than one. Offering gut-busting possibilities for only a handful of pounds, they should be strictly off-limits for slimmers. But for skinny students, and the hard up in need of a treat, the...
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As names of restaurants go, it’s not exactly the most innovative. But happily the same cannot be said of the exciting menu which is now on offer at Chinatown’s newest arrival. Red Chilli stands on Portland Street, just on the cusp of the Chinese quar...
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Tapas have become almost as commonplace in UK pubs and eateries as steak and chips and chicken tikka masala. And sorry, but most of the sad snacks offered in the name of this uniquely Spanish phenomenon are not even ‘tapas’ at all. Many are over-pric...
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Hale, tucked away behind the brasher delights of Altrincham town centre, has managed to retain its ‘village’ identity without becoming twee or losing its very individual style. One of its most famous lunchtime landmarks, the Bleeding Wolf pub, is sad...
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The Bridge, an exciting new addition to the Manchester restaurant scene, used to be the Bridge Street Tavern. It was a cheap and cheerful sort of place where you could get food along the lines of chips, a Cumberland sausage butty, and baked potato wi...
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Do not listen to those who dismiss low-carb diets as fads that fail. If you want to shed some unwanted pounds in the New Year, banning the bread and purging on the pasta is a great way to regain your svelte figure for the sunny months to come. In th...
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There are lots of benchmarks for what makes a decent restaurant. Most famed is the Michelin guide but its remit is so small that very few British restaurants make it onto the list. Not so the AA Rosette system of sorting out the culinary wheat from t...
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You have to hand it to celebrity chef Paul Heathcote -- despite extraordinary success, he certainly is not a lad for sitting on his laurels. Not content with having one of the most prestigious restaurants in the northwest at Longridge -- and the Simp...
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This massive new eaterie on Oxford Road marks a radical departure from culinary tradition for the city’s Chinese community. But then Jackie Lam, who is one of the entrepreneurs behind the new Tai Wu restaurant, is no stranger to the innovative. He al...
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Stockport might only be six miles or so outside of Manchester, but it’s a world apart when it comes to competing with its more glamorous rival in terms of restaurant culture. It’s essentially the difference between city and suburb and when you step o...
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Celebrity chef associations do not always guarantee an easy ride for even the best of eateries and Raymond Blanc’s stewardship of Le Petit Blanc in Manchester is a case in point. It opened with a flourish several years ago but ran into choppy waters....
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Rusholme, the ‘Curry Mile’, call it what you will. The fact is that this vibrantly Asian quarter of Manchester has no counterpart anywhere else in Britain. Bradford may have just as many curry houses -- but they are not concentrated, as Rusholme is, ...
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Tampopo is the name of a cult Japanese movie where the protagonists head off together in search of the perfect noodle restaurant. They never quite find it, but as with most things in life, it’s the journey that counts (and an extremely amusing one it...
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The first fortnight of October sees Manchester once again hosting its very own food and drink festival. This is the sixth time around for an event which seems to grow in stature every year and Gordon Ramsay is just one of the many high-profile guests...
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If you love seafood, there exists a place of pilgrimage where you can truly indulge yourself – Padstein (or as it used to be known, Padstow). Lying on the Camel estuary, this Cornish town remains the perfect little fishing port and despite the influ...
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This month sees the arrival of the Europride Festival in Manchester. It's one of the biggest celebrations of gay life in the world and over 50,000 extra visitors are expected to be converging on the city centre – and in particular what used to be ref...
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In the last 10 years or so, the south Manchester suburb of Chorlton has changed – we were about to say out of all recognition but in truth it's only in affluent pockets (which have been completely swallowed up by supertax incomes and lifestyle to mat...
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When it comes to restaurants, it tends to be the interior designers – not the architects – who have all the fun. These days, very few restaurants are purpose-built. And with those that are, the brief from a suit in corporate HQ is usually a variation...
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We're all familiar with the Michelin stars and Les Routier emblems, which mark out decent places to go for a meal. Now Britain's booming Thai restaurant scene is being boosted by a new quality mark which has been awarded to eateries by the Royal Thai...
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Major capitals like London and New York abound with places where you can scoff in style -- not so Manchester. It's maybe a case of too many chain restaurants, and not quite enough money to make top cuisine as taken for granted as it is in the big smo...
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We've all heard of ladies who lunch -- but there are many blokes who similarly enjoy the chance to sneak away during the day for a proper scoff. There's something really wicked about whiling away an hour or two over lunch, especially if the company i...
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Let's get one thing straight about the Printworks -- you really don't come here for a romantic night out. It's brash, bold and enormously popular with the thousands of young people who flock here - especially at weekends - to have fun until the wee s...
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Alderley Edge is the epitome of Cheshire life at its most affluent. It was the home of David and Victoria Beckham (before the move to Madrid) and counts sundry other Manchester United players amongst its residents. Sir Alex Ferguson lives down the ro...
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A belated Happy New Year to those of you out there who have just celebrated Songkran -- the Thai water festival marking the same occasion which we celebrate in January. Nice timing, too, to visit one of the newest Thai restaurants in Manchester. Jim ...
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It's funny how rising property prices have a tendency to gentrify the areas round about. Take Northenden in south Manchester. Respectable, suburban, but certainly not the greatest of places to go for a meal out. Well, that was the case until a couple...
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About 18 months ago, a new restaurant opened in Manchester city centre. Fish! aimed to bring a simple, successful formula to the city. It didn't work. Now, on the site where that minimalist restaurant foundered, there’s a very different breed of eate...
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In times gone by, Oldham Street and its environs were second only to King Street for fashion shopping. With the 1970s came the Arndale centre -- and the end of the line for this premier thoroughfare. But since the bad days, millions of pounds have be...
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As Manchester gets ever more stylish, we're ridiculously spoilt for choice
at lunchtimes. You may still have a soft spot for the traditional greasy spoon
but truth is that they are fast disappearing under a wave of urban lunchtime
chic. Chains ...
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It's January -- and for most of us all the festive fun and frolics has inevitably piled the pounds on. So what to do? Detox, diets, and a sound programme of exercise can all help undo the damage but constant calorie-counting and no play makes for a v...
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Location, so they say, is crucial when it comes to a successful restaurant. So the very best of luck to the owners of Simple In The City. This new eaterie has just opened on a site in Chapel Walks that, sadly, has been less than kind to its predecess...
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On the face of it, there have never been so many restaurants and café-bars to choose from in Manchester. Yet somehow, the choice isn't as varied as it might be. Compare what’s on offer up north to the cornucopia of delights available in the capital a...
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If you’re serious about your food, then it’s time you jumped in a cab and headed for the suburbs. Why? You’ll find some of the best restaurants Manchester has to offer. You’re less likely to get ripped off away from the bright lights of the city. And...
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Foodie heaven is the only way to describe what's on offer in the new Selfridges in Exchange Square, Manchester. There simply hasn't been anything quite like it before. You can eat in here in style as well as carry home luxury items from all over the ...
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Some people drink to live -- and others live to drink in some of the
hippest bars which Manchester has to offer. These palaces of cool
for the young and beautiful don't come cheap – you won’t get much change out of £100 for a ‘proper’ Friday or Sa...
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At 24, Marcus Tognaccini admits he looks way beyond his years – but after six years working as head chef on the Trans-Siberian railway, who wouldn't! "It was a bit of a nightmare but it was a job I really wanted and it was the experience of a lifetim...
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Studentland in Manchester is bigger than ever -- 60,000 of them at the last count. Time was when the eggheads' eating out market was confined largely to chippies and what were basic, unlicensed, curry houses in Rusholme (just 15 years ago, Curry Mile...
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Back in the days when olive oil was something you bought from the chemist for unspeakable medical reasons and Heinz tinned spaghetti was the benchmark of all things Italian, even the most unambiguous trattoria smacked of glamour and exotic foreign tr...
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There can be few pubs with locations as impressive as the White Hart at Lydgate. It’s only a few miles from the hustle and bustle of Oldham town centre yet its stunning outlook, high on top of the Pennines overlooking Saddleworth Moor, lends it a tru...
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The man credited with being the creative brains behind the hugely successful Pacific restaurant, Chinatown entrepreneur Raymond Wong, has opened a new venue -- East. Wong has teamed up with the Lo family of the Wing Fat supermarket empire to ...
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First the bad news. Chiang Rai, one of the first Thai restaurants in Manchester and rated by many over the years as simply the best, is sadly no more. Having moved on from its Princess Street HQ in the city centre to Didsbury some years ago, ...
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Time was when ‘pub food’ in Manchester meant stale pork pies, ghastly pickled gherkins and the odd curled-up cheese butty lurking behind tbe bar. Thankfully, those days are now long-gone. At worst, most pubs will now offer a perfectly edible lasagne ...
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It’s now two years since Sir Terence Conran made his first foray into the north and since then Zinc has more than proved itself as a stylish place to eat and drink. It’s split over two levels – upstairs, a smallish restaurant; below, a larger bar are...
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Bigwigs from the Commonwealth Games Federation and Association will be staying at Manchester’s flagship hotel, the Crowne Plaza Midland. And chances are they will be tucking in at the hotel's famed French restaurant. Over the years, it's been the hau...
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This summer, Manchester welcomes visitors from all over the world for the Commonwealth Games. The two weeks of competition is expected to attract over one million spectators to the city with many looking for great places to eat. They won't be disappo...
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