Eye-catching “Instagrammable” pink restaurant 202 Kitchen has announced the opening date for its new Spinningfields site.
The restaurant first appeared as a pop-up in a vacant plot on Bridge Street last summer, filling the space with pink blooms, neon signs and a life-size Barbie box.
Situated on Leftbank, the huge 7000 sq ft venue will overlook the River Irwell and provide 200 covers to give guests the option to enjoy outdoor waterside cocktails, or the iconic lavish pink surroundings.
The Manchester site – which will be formed by knocking together the two restaurant spaces previously occupied by Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Zizzi to create a huge new venue – will now become 202 Kitchen’s flagship hub.
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The vibrant interiors of 202 Kitchen quickly made it a favourite of social media savvy millennials and the launch of the new venue will take the concept to a new level.
Owners have invested £1 million into transforming the new space – creating over 100 hospitality jobs in the process.
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The venue is promising “deliciously indulgent food”, an atmosphere like no other, and an enclosed outdoor area designed for all weathers, set against the pink backdrop it’s become most known for.
The menu will showcase “colourful cultural foods”, such as mac’n’cheese, waffles, fried chicken, burgers, grilled seafood, and more.
202 Kitchen is moving into Leftbank / Credit: The Manc Group
Speaking ahead of the restaurant’s opening next month, Leon Beckford, Panikos Myrritis and John Sambo – founders of 202 Kitchen – said: “It’s such an amazing feeling to finally be able to reveal our launch date.
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“After the success of our temporary pop-up on Bridge Street last year, we’re coming back bigger and better, and believe us when we say we’ve taken the brand to the next level.
“We can’t wait to reveal what we have planned.
“From the moment you walk in, guests will understand exactly what 202 Kitchen is all about [as] customer experience is our number one priority and whether that be from the quality of the food and drinks or the service, everyone is going to be talking about 202.
“We are proud to have been the first to bring this concept to Manchester last year but appreciate that the hospitality landscape is constantly evolving [so] to provide a unique experience, we have evolved the concept to make sure we’re one step ahead in terms of ideas and concepts.”
Reservations are now open ahead of 202 Kitchen’s grand opening on Thursday 15 July, and you can make a booking here.
Featured Image – The Manc Group
Eats
Ancoats neighbourhood bar shames customers who ran off on unpaid rosé bill
Daisy Jackson
A waterside cocktail bar in Ancoats has slammed a group of customers who left the venue without paying their bill this weekend.
Finders Keepers on New Islington Marina has publicly shamed the trio, sharing CCTV images of them making off from the venue.
The local business has labelled the customers ‘Manchester’s newest girl group, Rosé & The Runners’.
They added that the group had enjoyed a few bottles of rosé wine but left before paying their £160 bill.
Finders Keepers also said that the incident occurred on a ‘record-breaking’ day last Saturday, when the city bathed in beautiful spring sunshine.
Since releasing the CCTV images this afternoon, the bar has been flooded with messages of support – including one very notable one from Sacha Lord.
Sacha has offered to pay off the girls’ tab so that the bar isn’t left out of pocket, AND has suggested providing a £500 reward to anyone who can name and shame them.
He commented: “Everyone knows how tough it is in Hospitality right now…how can anyone want to do this to a small independent business. I’ll settle that bill mate…plus give a £500 reward to name and shame them.”
Finders Keepers bar on New Islington MarinaFinders Keepers shared this CCTV of the customers who left the bar without paying
Another person commented: “foul behaviour! Sorry this happened to you guys.”
Someone else wrote: “Love a good photo shame when folk rip off a business… Hope they pay!!”
Posting earlier today, Finders Keepers said: “We’d like to thank Manchesters newest girl group, Rosé & The Runners. Who enjoyed a few bottles of Rosé wine with us on this record breaking Saturday, without paying.
“If you’d like to come back & pay your £160 bill then we’re back open on Wednesday, alternatively get in touch and we can send you a payment link.
“Next time you fancy a free bar tab perhaps join us for our quiz this Sunday from 7pm. £100 tab to be won!
Brilliant Salford Greek restaurant receives glowing national review
Daisy Jackson
A fabulous Greek restaurant in Salford has received a glowing review from a top food critic, who described its food as providing ‘its own gorgeous kind of sunshine’.
Acclaimed restaurant critic Jay Rayner has heaped praise on Kallos in his Financial Times review.
The modest restaurant has been open for just over a year, but has already earned itself a place in the prestigious Michelin guide – and now a rave national review too.
Operated by couple Ioanna and Ivan, Kallos brings a taste of Santorini to their stripped-back, concrete-filled, light-flooded new space in Salford.
And while Jay Rayner admits in his review that Kallos’s interior hasn’t done much to lift this corner of Salford’s ‘badly organised grid of fast-rising apartment blocks’, the food itself ‘provides its own gorgeous kind of sunshine’.
Rayner heaped praise on Kallos’s phenomenal flatbreads, noting how it’s impossible to exercise restraint ‘in the face of bread this good’.
He also raved about their topped flatbreads (like one with ‘knots of sweet roasted lamb shoulder cooked until it has collapsed’), red prawns the length of a hand, and soft dolmades stuffed with rice and minced meat.
Topped flatbread with lambTinned fishPrawn SaganakiThree of the dishes Jay Rayner loved at Kallos. Credit: The Manc Group
Kallos is part-owned by sommelier Ivan, who is striving to have the largest collection of Greek wines in the UK at the restaurant.
Jay Rayner noted both the selection and the affordability of this carefully-curated wine list, saying that it’s nice to find that ‘outside London, drinking well need not require the sale of a spare kidney or child’.
And then he came to the section of the menu that’s dedicated to premium tinned fish.
“It feels like the UK has woken up only relatively recently to the possibilities of impressively fine foods from a can,” he wrote.
Kallos in Cortland at Colliers Yard, SalfordKallos in Salford has been added to the Michelin Guide
“It is genuinely exciting to see Kallos devote a whole section of the menu to these treasures, even if it is basically the same victory of shopping that results in a good cheese board.
“But it takes both serious knowledge and a brave evangelical enthusiasm to offer a list like this.”
Rayner’s review went on to praise the tinned mackerel, served with a ‘balloon of hot bread’, pickled chillies, and an ‘aioli made with so much garlic, consenting adults should make sure to eat it together’.
Signing off his review, Jay Rayner wrote: “As the plate lands on the table, the sun finally comes out over both Salford and Kallos. Finally, the grey is banished. At last, all the beauty is here.”
Emily Sergeant -
17th June 2021 
