A new rooftop restaurant is set to open at the top of Gary Neville’s St Michael’s development, bringing one of the world’s most upmarket eateries to Manchester.
Called Chotto Matte, it will bring upscale Peruvian and Japanese cuisine to the heart of the city centre, opening its first UK restaurant in the north on the developments’ 20,000sq ft rooftop space just a stone’s throw from Albert Square.
Part of a global chain, currently Chotto Matte currently only has one UK site in Soho, West London, as well as global sites in locations like Miami and Toronto.
However, that is all set to change when it opens its doors up here following the development’s completion – bringing its famous sushi doughnuts, octopus tentacles and lychee ceviche along with it.
Image: Chotto Matte
The restaurant will feature open sushi counters, Robata and Hibachi grills, and sushi torched right at your table.
Design-wise, it will incorporate inspiration from lava stones and graffiti through its artwork, with live entertainment promised in the evenings too.
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Specialising in Nikkei cuisine, must-tries on the menu at Chotto Matte include delicate ceviche, spicy tuna rolls and salmon tataki tartare.
Elsewhere, you’ll find BBQ edamame, tostada chips with guacamole, Japanese wagyu sirloin (flamed at your table, no less), plus spring rolls and various meat and plant based gyoza.
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The famous Nikkei sushi doughnut, available at Chotto Matte. / Image: Chotto Matte
The restaurant’s menus also span a large range of sashimi, tempura and sushi, as well as tempura dishes and premium meat and fish cooked on its Robata grill.
From the grill, think marinated and smoked lamb chop with coriander, and Peruvian chilli miso, tentáculos de pulpo (baby octopus with yuzu and purple potato), and black cod in a chilli miso marinade with yuzu and chives.
Alternatively, if you really want to go all out, there’s also an option to have tuna belly and top-tier wagyu cooked at your table on a special Hibachi grill.
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Image: Chotto Matte
As for sides, choose from the likes of steamed or fried rice, cassava wedges and truffled purple potato mash. This is the place to go all out.
Sharing a mock up of the new restaurant to the brand’s Instagram today, the Chotto Matte team wrote: “We are thrilled to announce that Chotto Matte will occupy the spectacular 20,000sq ft rooftop at the upcoming St Michael’s development, brought by the Relentless Developments group and @gneville2.”
The £200m St Michael’s development, located at the old Bootle Street police station site, will also feature a nine-storey office block and a new public square.]
Image: Chotto Matte
Image: Chotto Matte
Image: Chotto Matte
Work began on the St Michael’s development earlier this year, with the first phase scheduled to be ready by 2024.
Founder and owner of Chotto Matte, Kurt Zdesar, said: “We are delighted to continue our expansion plans and allow more people to experience the very best of authentic innovative Nikkei cuisine across the UK.
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“I am personally very excited to bring Chotto Matte to such an ambitious place. I have been monitoring the city’s growth for years but never found the right opportunity until now.
Image: Chotto Matte
“It is only when meeting with Gary Neville and understanding his vision, with Relentless, for this first of a kind development that I felt a great synergy with our brand.
“The city is growing at an exciting pace and timing couldn’t be better for Chotto Matte to bring diversity to the local landscape. I see this new opening as an important part of our international expansion plan.”
The Tour de France is coming to Manchester
Danny Jones
It’s official: both the male and female Tour de France are coming to Greater Manchester and nine other destinations across the UK in 2027.
As one of the biggest locations on the list, it’s another big sporting landmark for us Mancs.
Confirmed on Thursday, 15 January, the men’s race and the Tour de France Femmes (TdFF) will be passing through our region next summer.
Revealing the news in an exciting announcement video on social media, you can see the other cities and towns that the world-famous endurance event will be hitting here:
With Greater Manchester boasting not only the National Cycling Centre, but having already hosted the Tour of Britain – which has passed through Altrincham on multiple ocassions – we’re well-versed when it comes to the sport.
It’s been more than a decade since the Tour de France last took place in the UK, with London and Yorkshire hosting three stages of the biggest date on the annual cycling calendar back in 2014.
Fast forward a dozen years, and not only will they both be participating again, but Great Britain will see dual Grand Départs for men and women for the very first time.
Not only are we buzzing that the racing will be returning to our friends in Leeds and Sheffield, but also nice to see other Northern regions lending their roads and stunning landscapes, such as the Lake District and wider parts of Cumbria.
You can see the full route map broken down below.
🇬🇧 Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, London 🇬🇧
💛 Grand Départ Great Britain 2027: in the footsteps of the pioneers!
— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) January 15, 2026
Speaking in an official press release, race director Christian Prudhomme said: “The UK has always welcomed the Tour with passion and pride, and the route details we are revealing today reflect the beauty and diversity of Britain’s terrain.”
“Bringing both Grand Départs here is a testament to the strength of our partnership with British Cycling and the enthusiasm of the UK.”
TdFF counterpart, Marion Rousse, added: “The UK has played an important role in the history of women’s cycling, with champions such as Lizzie Deignan.
“Starting the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in Leeds is a strong choice, closely linked to this heritage and to the enthusiasm of a public that knows and loves the Tour. These stages clearly reflect the race’s ambition: to continue growing women’s cycling and to inspire future generations.”
Manchester Airport to launch seven new ‘exciting’ routes across the world in 2026
Emily Sergeant
Mancs will soon get the chance to travel to some of the most beautiful and underrated places on Earth for the first time.
Now that 2026 is here and well underway, the new year is shaping up to be ‘groundbreaking’ for Manchester Airport – especially with its decade-long, £1.3 billion transformation of Terminal 2 due to be completed in a matter of weeks, and a project to redesign and improve other areas and terminals also rapidly progressing.
But if that wasn’t exciting enough as it is, the promise of seven new flight routes to destinations across the world being added into the mix should do it.
Four of the destinations are even completely brand-new to the Airport too.
Manchester Airport has launched seven new routes for 2026 / Credit: Daphne Richard | Denilo | Henrique Ferreira (via Unsplash)
Already described as being ‘the UK’s global gateway in the North’, Manchester Airport offers a route network that’s unparalleled outside London, with more than 200 destinations served by 50 airlines – but that network is set to widen again this year, with seven new services already confirmed from the likes of easyJet, Jet2.com and Ryanair.
From stunning French cities and Italian islands, to Greek landscapes and even the chance to see one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, there’s so much to choose from on the roster of new destinations.
easyJet’s service to Montpellier – one of the biggest cities in southern France, offering an array of cultural and archaeological sites, museums, galleries, beaches, and more – launches on Monday 30 March, while Jet2 begins flying to the Canary Island of La Palma form Friday 3 April, and the first direct service from Manchester to Palermo, the largest city on the island of Sicily, starts on Friday 1 May.
2025 has brought exciting developments for our airfield and Terminal 2! ✨
Manchester Airport is looking better than ever and there is still more exciting improvements to come.
Preveza and Samos, both in Greece, the Spanish city loved by locals, Castellon, and the ancient Turkish gem of Bodrum round out the list of new destinations.
More routes are also expected be confirmed over the course of this year too, so keep your eyes peeled for announcements.
“Our route network is unrivalled, with more than 200 destinations across the planet,” commented Chris Woodroofe, who is the Managing Director at Manchester Airport.
“Here we have a list here of what we refer to as our biggest unserved destinations – that’s the destinations that we don’t have direct flights to but have the greatest demand, demonstrated by people from the region travelling to them either on connecting flights or from other airports.”
Georgina Pellant -
12th April 2022 
