Manchester Food and Drink Festival has confirmed that its annual awards ceremony will be making a return early next year.
A brand-new honour for ‘Takeaway of the Year’ is among the accolades set to be handed out to the most talented businesses in Greater Manchester‘s thriving hospitality industry, as MFDF’s prestigious Awards makes a grand return at a new venue in January 2024.
With Manchester‘s iconic New Century chosen as the ceremony’s new home, and the date of Monday 29 January 2024 now confirmed and in the diary, award nominations are now officially live.
As mentioned, the Awards will recognise businesses in 18 categories – with ‘Affordable Eats Venue of the Year’, ‘Neighbourhood Venue of the Year’, ‘Food and Drink Retailer of the Year’, and ‘Restaurant of the Year’ being some of the heavy-hitters every year.
Other highly-regarded categories include awards for the best bar, chef, pub, coffee shop, and independent food and drink venues across the region.
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Manchester Food and Drink Awards confirms 2024 return and opens nominations / Credit: MFDF (via Instagram)
Businesses are now being invited to submit nominations and put themselves forward to be considered in each of the categories, with the award nomination and judging period running right from July 2022 – which is when last year’s nominees were announced – to 6 September, which is when the self-nomination period closes.
All applications are to be reviewed by the prestigious MFDF judging panel made up of Manchester hospitality experts, and the final awards shortlists is set to be unveiled on 11 September.
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MFDF says the awards are “intended to highlight as many excellent food and drink businesses and talented hospitality professionals as possible”, with the winners decided via a combination of public vote and mystery shopping from the judging panel.
The prestigious ceremony will take place in the new home of New Century early next year / Credit: MFDF (via Instagram)
Speaking as nominations go live, MFDF’s Director Alexa Stratton Powell said: “We are pleased to announce that the awards will be taking place at a new time of year.
“This decision was made after careful consideration around best timing for the hospitality sector [as] separating the Awards from the Festival event itself allows us to focus on each in greater depth [and] we’re really looking forward to this year’s process and ceremony after another amazing year for Manchester’s hospitality scene.
This Manchester bar serves a bottomless cheese fondue with endless beer and wine
Georgina Pellant
There’s a bar in Manchester serving a bottomless cheese fondue with endless wine and beer, and it honestly sounds like the perfect treat.
While it might scream cosy winter night in, with a huge outdoor terrace, The Mews is also a firm favourite during the summer months.
Add in a board of melt-in-the-mouth charcuterie, springy pieces of garlic sourdough and a host of crunchy cheese biscuits, and you’ve got yourself the ideal afternoon if you ask us.
But there’s more. Alongside all that cheese and meat and bread, included in the price of The Mews’ bottomless fondue, cheese lovers can also enjoy 90 minutes of non-stop drinks.
Bottomless cheese fondue at The Mews on Deansgate in Manchester. (Credit: The Manc Eats)
Costing £37.50 each, included in the deal is a huge pot of melted Italian Fontina cheese served with homemade garlic croutons, sourdough crackers, and slices of British charcuterie.
You’ll also get to enjoy an hour and a half of endless pints of house pilsner and carafes of red or white wine to enjoy alongside.
Serving up to six people, the bottomless cheese fondue is available only when you pre-book, so make sure to get in touch ahead of your visit to let The Mews know that you’re coming.
If you’re not on the sauce, you can opt for the cheese fondue alone. Without the booze, it’s quite a bit cheaper at £25 for one, and £2.50 on top for any additional people who want to get stuck in.
Housed up on Deansgate Mews, just behind the main hustle and bustle of Deansgate, there’s plenty of space inside as well as a large, secluded terrace that is quite the suntrap (when the Manchester sun is shining).
Popular Manchester restaurant bar to give out FREE sausage rolls to people called ‘Greg’
Emily Sergeant
One of Manchester’s much-loved restaurant bars is doing a free sausage roll giveaway next week… but there’s a catch.
The catch being you have to have a certain name in particular.
It was only last week that popular high street chain Pret A Manger announced it would be slinging out free sandwiches to any Mancs with ‘Nic’ in their name over the late May bank holiday weekend, and now Tariff & Dale is getting it on the giveaway action, and it’s all to celebrate the iconic event that is National Sausage Roll Day.
In case you didn’t know – which is very likely, let’s be real – next Thursday (5 June) is the day dedicated to all things sausage roll.
So what better way to mark the occasion than with free portions of Tariff & Dale‘s legendary meaty treat?
The popular Northern Quarter restaurant bar is known for its creative comfort food, craft beers and cocktails, and laid-back industrial vibe, with one of the cult-classic dishes on its menu having always been the honey pork sausage roll – which just so happens to be a whopping 15-inches long, by the way.
Resembling something more of a pork wellington than a sausage roll, if you will, the dish is crispy, golden, and glazed with honey on top.
But to celebrate National Sausage Roll day, instead of parting with £9.50 for a portion or £48 for the full 15-inch thing, people with one specific name can actually get a slice for completely free of charge.
Tariff & Dale is giving away FREE sausage rolls to people with this name next week / Credit: Supplied
And that name is ‘Greg’, because if we’re honest, when it comes to sausage rolls, we all tend to think of Greggs.
So whether your surname is Gregory or Gregson, or you’re simply just called Greg, then all you need to do to claim your complimentary slice of sausage roll heaven is head on down to Tariff & Dale next Thursday 5 June from 12pm up until 9pm.
Emily Sergeant -
18th August 2023 
