Meat and three. It’s an absolute staple when it comes to dining out in the south of America, but most people in Manchester have probably never heard of it.
Simply put, a meat and three restaurant is one where – as the name suggests – you pick one meat and three sides from a selection that typically spans the likes of fried chicken, beef and pork chops, vegetables, potatoes, green beans and macaroni and cheese.
This is southern food at its best, taken straight from the heart of America’s barbecue tradition.
The term is thought to have originated nearly 100 years ago in Nashville in the 1930s, at the employee cafeteria of May Hosiery Mill.
Back then diners were served a choice of meat and vegetables, plus bread, for just 25 cents, and whilst prices have definitely gone up since then, in essence, the food remains the same.
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This is hearty, home-cooked food that feels like a warm hug on your lowest day – and now, it’s landed right here on our doorstep in Manchester.
Enter Kong’s Meat and Three, the newest concept from the team who brought us fried chicken burgers with chicken skin crackling, not to mention Manchester’s favourite fried chicken roast dinner.
Founded by fried chicken head honcho Tom Potts, who in a previous (pre-pandemic) life was the bar manager at Oldham street’s fusion ramen spot CBRB, dishes like BBQ ‘pit beans’, mustard seed potato salad and collard greens all feature as regular sides.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Elsewhere, you’ll find a creamy three-cheese macaroni, flatbreads, red cabbage house mayo vegan slaw and hunks of corn on the cob slathered in butter, chilies and more. Boiled broccoli and carrots? Get out of here.
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We cannot stress it enough: this is pure comfort food.
A significant upgrade on the British ‘meat and two veg’, the beauty of meat and three, in part, lies within its rules.
Anything that’s not meat counts as veg (yep, really) meaning that gravy, mac and cheese, and even bread must all bow down and submit to reclassification. Some things you just have to accept.
Even better, everything on the menu here, with the exception of the tater tots, is made in-house, from scratch, with a whole lot of love. That includes house sauces like mustard and madras mayo, Korean hot sauce and big jugs of gravy.
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Using thigh meat, Kong’s signature buttermilk chicken is brined for three hours, rolled in a secret spice mix, then double-dredged for a crispier texture. Brisket is slow-cooked overnight for a minimum of 12 hours until it’s ultra-tender and falling apart.
Pork belly is steamed, scored then oven roasted for a final hour until it is so crisped up and crunchy you can almost hear it crackling as you pore through pictures of it on Instagram. It’s a meat eater’s heaven – but also sells vegan tendies for those of the plant-based persuasion.
As well as offering up daily meat and three plates (or, rather, should we say trays), Tom has also just added new sandwiches to the menu – taking his three staple meats and folding them into chunky baguettes or brioche, with a fulsome heap of tater tots on the side.
This is not so much in the meat and three tradition – but it’s very on-brand for Kong’s. The original signature chicken sandwich features, only natural as the dish that launched the brand and Tom’s new life as a fried chicken impresario.
There’s also a relatively traditional Vietnamese-style pork belly banh mi, stuffed with pickled carrots, pate, crispy pork and coriander, and a beef brisket french dip that combines everything we love – crusty baguette, slow-cooked brisket and a sweet, homemade onion chutney with a jug of gravy to dip it all in.
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All said and done, this is pretty close to sandwich perfection.
Open Wednesday to Sunday at Northern Monk Refectory between 12 and 10pm, get yourself down for a solid scran. Trust us, you won’t regret it.
Feature image – The Manc Eats
Manchester
The 5 best places to go for a matcha in Manchester
Daisy Jackson
Matcha fever has the nation gripped at the minute – it feels like half the country has turned its back on flat whites in favour of the popular green tea drink.
This pretty Japanese beverage might have been around for centuries, but it’s having a bit of a new moment here in Manchester and finding a whole new wave of fans.
With the global success of brands like Blank Street, you can barely walk down the street without passing someone sipping something green.
So we’ve decided to pull together five local spots in Manchester who are doing the very best matcha in town, from the very traditional to the very playful.
Know of somewhere we’ve missed? Drop us a DM on our The Manc Eats Instagram page HERE.
Ohayo Tea, Chinatown
Matcha bubble tea and soft serve at Ohayo Tea in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
This adorable bubble tea cafe in Chinatown has a Shiba Inu dog as its mascot, and you’ll find his face carved into the walls, waffles in the shape of his head, and a giant dog statue bursting out of the wall.
Ohayo Tea serve a complex take on a matcha drink that plays into their bubble tea expertise – expect your matcha to come layered with tapioca pearls, cheese foam, pistachio foam, and plenty more options too.
These drinks come with instructions – tilt your branded cup (the Shiba is back) it to at least 45 degrees to get every layer at once, or, if you insist, use a thick straw to mix it all together.
You can also get matcha soft serve here with shards of honeycomb stuck to it. Delightful.
Just Between Friends, Ancoats and Northern Quarter
Matcha drinks at Just Between Friends, Ancoats. Credit: The Manc Group
If you’re someone who actually likes matcha to taste of matcha, rather than of all sorts of syrups and other add-ons, turn to one of the city’s best coffee shops.
At Just Between Friends – which has locations tucked into an old mill in Ancoats as well as right on Tib Street in the Northern Quarter – matcha is whisked properly with a traditional bamboo whisk, before being added to steamed or chilled milk.
The result is either a warm, smooth drink served in an earthenware cup, or a refreshing iced matcha.
You can wedge yourself into a window seat or even sit on the cobbled archway outside and imagine you’ve transported yourself to a Tokyo backstreet.
We’d love to tell you the opening hours and location of this pop-up matcha hotspot, but it tends to shift around Manchester a bit.
It’s worth tracking down though – Matcha Kyoto is importing speciality ingredients all the way from Kyoto and doing everything as authentically as possible.
With matcha whipped cream, matcha lattes, matcha desserts and matcha toppings it’s a dream come true for matcha lovers… Is the word matcha starting to sound like gibberish to anyone else at this point?
Track their latest movements on their Instagram HERE.
Sipp, Ancoats and Deansgate Square
Sipp matcha in Ancoats. Credit: The Manc Group
If you’re new to matcha, or just know that you like yours with a little sweetness and fun, you must get a sip of Sipp’s.
These guys are based in General Stores around town, with their own coffee shop soon to open in Chorlton, and they have a whole list of ‘Matcha Cloud’ drinks.
Their best-seller is the raspberry and coconut, which tastes exactly like a lamington, or there are always specials cropping up (currently, it’s a mango and passionfruit).
This is gateway matcha – and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Tsujiri, Chinatown
A selection of matcha items at Tsujuri in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Not satisfied with simply serving matcha you can drink, Tsujiri is a Japanese tea house using this powerful ingredient in cakes, ice creams, cheesecakes and more.
Tsujiri was founded all the way back in 1860, before bringing the finest matcha lattes and infused desserts to British shores.
In Manchester, you’ll find them in the heart of Chinatown, tucked up an anonymous flight of stairs, where there are cabinets full of green sweet treats like a matcha basque cheesecake, matcha sundaes, and classic iced lattes.
A Salford student has made history as BBC Radio 1’s newest presenter
Danny Jones
A University of Salford student has made history after becoming the latest radio presenter for mainstream national station BBC Radio 1.
And he’s only 20 years old.
Matt Hallsworth from Harleston in Norfolk has become the first ever Salford student to sign a contract with the station whilst still studying, and is now set to join fellow alumni such as Vicky Hawkesworth and Katie Thistleton in working for the BBC’s biggest radio station.
If that isn’t hitting the ground running in your career, then we don’t know what is.
👏 We are delighted to share that BA Television and Radio Production student Matt Hallsworth has made history as our first current student to sign as a presenter for @BBCR1!
— School of Arts, Media & Creative Technology (@UoS_ArtsMedia) March 27, 2025
Set to host the spin-off online stream ‘Radio 1 Anthems’ – available via BBC’s digital Sounds platform, which hosts live and pre-recorded broadcasts, podcasts, music playlists and more – Hallsworth will be taking charge of several shows in the coming weeks.
The BA Television and Radio Production student, who is currently Head of Radio at the University’s in-house station Shock Radio, has already won a number of awards in his fledgling broadcast career and is now set to present a total of 16 shows through next month, starting from 8am on Tuesday, 2 April.
Matt has already had a glimpse of life at the BBC, having joined in as one of their Christmas Presenters back in December; he won the coveted slot after being crowned winner of ‘Best Presenter’ at last year’s Student Radio Awards (SRAs) and was the youngest out of a total 27 guest hosts that got the chance.
In addition to that accolade, he also collected the Gold Award for ‘Best Chart Show’ at the 2024 SRAs, with his on-air partner and fellow student Issy Brand also joining him in earning the title of ‘Best On-Air Team’ for the second year in a row in the International Student Broadcasting Championship.
Since then, he’s already enjoyed experience as a freelance presenter for nearby Hits Radio, working and is now the lead host officer for The Student Radio Association’s annual conference over in Salford.
Speaking on the unbelievable opportunity, the rising radio star said: “I am so excited to be joining the BBC Radio 1 Anthems family across April! Since the stream’s launch in October, it’s been evident the BBC is using it as a platform to nurture new presenters, and I feel thrilled to be able to join that.
“I was working on some university assignment work in January when I got the text and call from Aled [Hayden Jones, Head of Station at BBC Radio 1], with feedback from my Christmas show and offering the opportunity.
“The shows have the best playlists, full of songs that I grew up with, forgot about, and play anyway. I can’t wait for people to hear them.”
As for UoS‘s Programme Leader for BA TV and Radio Production, Louise Ready-Syrat, she says: “I’m hugely proud and pleased for Matt, he is such a lovely person and a huge talent that will be amazing in every capacity.
“Watching his development over his time with us on the BA Television and Radio Production course has been a privilege and a real inspiration to his fellow students.
“Always quick to help out on our Open Days, award shows and as Head of Shock Radio, he has proven himself to be a true professional and a genuinely great guy! Super pleased for him, he will smash this!”
Lyndon Saunders, Senior Lecturer and Subject Group Head for Broadcast Media, went on to add: “As soon as we heard Matt take to the student airwaves at Salford, we knew he would be snapped up by somebody big before too long. It’s just amazing to discover that he’s going national on BBC Radio 1.
“He’s so hard working, so determined, but so humble about his on air talent. I’ve worked with Matt in a producer capacity as well and he has an incredible work ethic – a gift for the journalism and storytelling side of radio too. In short, radio is in his veins, and we’re thrilled he’s making his dream a reality.”
You’ve done your department, Salford and Greater Manchester as a whole proud, Matt – we look forward to hearing you on the airwaves for years to come!
As far as universities go, UoS continues to be a brilliant proving ground for up-and-coming media talent.
Georgina Pellant -
18th February 2022 
