Manchester’s restaurant scene is thriving, with independent venues serving imaginative dishes and big-name chains pulling out all of the stops to impress. One of the joys of dining in this multicultural city is the range of dishes on offer, whether you fancy a spicy Indian breakfast, an ethically-sourced British pie or a high-end tasting menu with paired wine. And neighbourhoods have their own culinary characters, from trendy Ancoats where innovative independents are constantly springing up to the luxurious business hub of Spinningfields, and the city’s more relaxed suburbs. Manchester expert Cathy Toogood shares her favourite places to eat in Manchester.
For more Manchester inspiration, see our guides to the city's best hotels, bars and things to do.
NOMA
Skof
Chef Tom Barnes has impressive credentials having spent much of his career working in Michelin-starred restaurants – including the Lake District’s L'Enclume and Copenhagen’s Geranium. In May 2024, he opened his first solo restaurant, Skof, serving 12- and 15-course evening tasting menus and a four-course lunch menu. Despite the exceptional quality of the food, there’s no stuffiness in the service or setting. Tom’s favourite songs play in the background, there’s a recommended beer by Manchester brewery Track and plenty of personal touches will make you smile – “Barney’s tiramisu” at the end of a meal is dedicated to his late father and a green leather corner booth, “Bernie’s table”, is dedicated to his mum. Lightly set miso custard is a highlight.
Contact:skofmanchester.co.uk
Nearest Metrolink: Shudehill
Reservations: Essential
Prices: £££
Petersfield
Adam Reid at The French
Behind a curtained entrance in the lobby of The Midland hotel is a fine-dining restaurant with Mancunian pizzazz. The Grade-II listed dining room is grand, with soaring ceilings, elaborate cornicing and dazzling chandeliers, but background music ranging from The Kinks to Pulp gives a relaxed feel.Head chef Adam Reid won the BBC’s Great British Menu with his apple-based dessert Golden Empire, and puddings will be a highlight of your four-, six-, or nine-course tasting menu.
Contact:the-french-manchester.co.uk
Nearest Metrolink: St Peter’s Square
Reservations: Essential
Prices: £££
Civic Quarter
Rudy’s Pizza – Peter Street
Following the huge success and rave reviews of its original restaurant in Ancoats, Rudy’s opened its second base in the city centre in 2018, plus it’s now extended to the suburbs of Chorlton, Altrincham, Didsbury and Sale too. The interiors are industrial chic with towering ceilings, exposed pipes, concrete pillars, and an open kitchen with a huge pizza oven. Pizzas are generously sized but with deliciously light bases (dough is made on site every day and left for 24 hours to double ferment) and high quality toppings, any good intentions of saving a slice quickly goes out of the window.
Contact:rudyspizza.co.uk/peter-st
Nearest Metrolink: St Peter’s Square
Reservations:Recommended
Prices: £
Central Retail District
10 Tib Lane
Start your meal at 10 Tib Lane with co*cktails and oysters by candlelight in the ground bar area (oysters are £1 each between 4pm and 6pm every day). Then move to the first or second floor dining areas to share generously sized small plates such as Jerusalem artichoke, red wine braised lentils and toasted almonds, or sea bream with champagne sauce.Despite the quality of the venue’s seasonal food, natural wines and co*cktails – try the “Bridgetown fizz” with cardamom gin, apricot brandy, velvet falernum, lemon, foam and soda – the feel here is laid back with stripped-back interiors and hanging greenery, plus friendly staff.
Contact:10tiblane.com
Nearest Metrolink: St Peter’s Square
Prices: ££
Reservations: Recommended
Northern Quarter
Mackie Mayor
On the edge of the Northern Quarter, this Grade-II listed former meat market is home to a range of independent food and drink outlets. Long wooden tables sit in the middle of the huge, glass-roofed space, with on-trend distressed brick walls, towering pillars and a mezzanine level to people watch from.Menus are handwritten on blackboards above each vendor and options include ramen, sourdough pizza, steak and tacos. Prices aren’t cheap, but once you’re tucking into a generous portion of spicy ramen with a co*cktail in hand, you’ll gladly hang around for coffee.
Contact:mackiemayor.co.uk
Nearest Metrolink: Shudehill
Reservations: Walk-ins only (unless you’re a group of 12 or more)
Prices: ££
Piccadilly
Bundobust
Down some steps just off Piccadilly Gardens is this informal restaurant serving Indian street food and craft beer. The feel is relaxed – you’ll share long bright orange padded benches and turquoise tables with fellow diners, have to order from the bar and food is served in paper dishes with plastic cutlery. But the food on the entirely vegetarian menu is top-class as are the restaurant’s own beers, which bartenders will gladly recommend to complement your food. The spicy, tangy Bundo Chaat, with crunchy samosa pastry on top, is a must-try.A second site and brewery has now opened on Oxford Street less than a five-minute walk from Central Library.
Contact:bundobust.com/manchester
Nearest Metrolink: Market Street
Reservations: Recommended
Prices: £
Higher Ground
The trio behind Manchester’s popular Flawd wine bar - Joseph Otway, Richard Cossins and Daniel Craig Martin–opened Higher Ground on the edge of Chinatown in early 2023. Here, some of the best seasonal dishes in the city are made from local ingredients – many from their own farm Cinderwood Market Garden in Cheshire. Tasting menus are good value at £35 (lunch) and £55 (dinner) and you can watch chefs in the open kitchen preparing them while sipping a glass of natural wine. Interiors are modern and slick – think a mural of a bird on the exterior, floor-to-ceiling windows, exposed pipes on the ceiling above the kitchen and pops of colour from burnt orange bar stools. Pea fritters with pitchfork cheddar are a must try.
Contact: highergroundmcr.co.uk
Nearest Metrolink: Piccadilly Gardens
Reservations: Recommended
Prices: ££
Green Quarter
The Spärrows
This cosy continental restaurant is hard to find, with a discreet black door and doorbell to ring under railway arches around a five-minute walk from Victoria train station. But once you’ve tucked into its house specialty, spätzle (chunky fresh egg pasta noodles) topped with a rich traditional sauce such as käse (ementaler cheese and braised onion) or guanciale (cured pork cheek), you’ll be planning your next trip. Pair your comforting main with a glass of the daily sake, wine or pilsner, plus a side of sauerkraut topped with seeds and olive oil, and settle in at your wooden table under high arched ceilings while looking at the vintage art dotted around and cute paper sparrows hanging from branches.
Contact: thesparrows.me
Nearest Metrolink: Victoria
Reservations: Recommended
Prices: ££
Spinningfields
Australasia
Australasia used to be the place to be seen when it first opened in 2011. Despite many of the other venues in the area catching up style-wise, the Pan-Asian restaurant has maintained its cool status and takes being trendy very seriously: the entrance is a striking glass pyramid; there are resident and guest DJs; and the décoris white, bright and very slick. There are two ways to eat the food – go traditional and have a starter, a main and a dessert, or choose from a selection of smaller dishes, including sushi, tempura and oysters.
Contact:australasia.uk.com
Nearest Metrolink: St Peter’s Square
Reservations: Recommended
Prices: £££
King Street
KALA Bistro
Chef Gary Usher’s sixth venue in the northwest made a grand entrance on to Manchester’s restaurant scene after becoming the fastest funded restaurant project in the world, raising £100k through crowdfunding in 11 hours. But it’s not a showy affair – expect subtle, classy décor in its mezzanine-level dining area, with navy and taupe walls, forest green banquettes and an open kitchen.High-quality bistro dishes are on the menu, and standouts include braised featherblade of beef, and parkin with butterscotch sauce. There are also 10 stools at the bar where smaller dishes are served and behind which desserts are prepared.
Contact:kalabistro.co.uk
Nearest Metrolink: St Peter’s Square
Reservations: Recommended
Prices: ££
Ancoats
Mana
Awarded Manchester’s first Michelin star for more than 40 years, this 24-seat restaurant in Ancoats serves some of the city’s most imaginative food in a minimalist space with an open kitchen and tubular lighting hanging from a high ceiling. Chef Simon Martin’s tasting menus deliver playful dishes that are as attractive as they are delicious – think colourful, edible violas covering a malt flatbread served on a bed of moss. Don’t be surprised to use the odd branch to pop items into your mouth either, as is the case with a closing dish of woodruff ice lollies served on myrtle twigs.
Contact:manarestaurant.co.uk
Nearest Metrolink: Shudehill
Reservations:Essential
Prices: £££
Erst
The menu in Erst is minimal – with around 12 small plates to choose from and four desserts – but the punchy flavours in each dish won’t disappoint. A seemingly simple plate of mozzarella with new season olive oil is perfectly seasoned and moreish, while you’ll be fighting with any dining companions over the last piece of grilled flatbread with walnut tarator, brown butter and sage. There’s a predominantly natural wine list to complement the food, plus relaxed industrial interiors with oak tables, concrete flooring, high ceilings and an open kitchen.
Contact:erst-mcr.co.uk
Nearest Metrolink: New Islington
Reservations: Recommended
Prices: ££
Chorlton
Bar San Juan
You’ll need to book a table at this buzzing tapas restaurant in the south Manchester suburb of Chorlton, with options available inside or in a covered and heated area on Beech Road. You could almost be in Spain in this cosy restaurant with bright patterned tiles, mismatched pictures and the day’s dishes in a glass-fronted section at the end of the bar. Individual plates are reasonably priced making it tempting to over-order, especially when options include chorizo and quail eggs on toasted bread, and Seville-style spinach with chickpeas and potatoes.
Contact:barsanjuan.com
Nearest Metrolink: Chorlton
Reservations: Essential
Prices: £
Didsbury
The Lime Tree
The Lime Tree, in the south Manchester suburb of Didsbury, is a long-standing favourite that continues to impress diners – many of whom have been coming for a decade or more. Much of the food on the modern British menu comes from the restaurant’s farm just outside the city, and wines are nearly all from small producers. The restaurant manages to be smart enough for a special-occasion meal without being too formal, and the early-evening menu is excellent value at £15 for two courses.
Contact:thelimetreerestaurant.co.uk
Nearest Metrolink: Burton Road
Reservations: Recommended
Prices: ££
Rusholme
Mughli
With so many innovative Indian restaurants in Manchester’s city centre and beyond, Manchester’s Curry Mile doesn’t have the appeal it once had. But some of the neon-lit curry houses still stand out. Mughli is one of these and the combination of an interesting menu, friendly waiting staff and smart interior makes it the perfect place to sample one of the city’s renowned fiery dishes. Make up your own 'Indian tapas' meal with friends by choosing a number of the smaller dishes or try one of the excellent charcoal grills. The restaurant has its own craft beer from local First Chop Brewery too.
Contact:mughli.com
Reservations:Recommended
Prices: £
How we choose
Every restaurant in this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, who has visited to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of budgets, from neighbourhood favourites to Michelin-starred restaurants – to best suit every type of traveller’s taste – and consider the food, service, best tables, atmosphere and price in our recommendations. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest opening and provide up to date recommendations.
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