One of Manchester’s most iconic restaurants has been reborn, with Cibo now ready to open its doors in the former Rosso sitehere in the city centre.
Rosso was a firm favourite for famous faces and a popular spot for a high-end Italian meal before it suddenly closed its doors last September.
It had been owned by footballing legend Rio Ferdinand since 2009 and was famed for its luxurious interiors.
But the incredible space at the top of King Street is ready for a new lease of life as part of the Cibo restaurants group, who have spent millions refurbishing it.
Cibo has transformed the already decadent Manchester city centre dining space into something even grander (Credit: The Manc Eats)
The new-look Italian restaurant is now filled with decadent materials like marble, gold and leather.
ADVERTISEMENT
It’s a jaw-dropping space, thanks in part to the building’s Grade-II listed pedigree, which comes with a huge domed ceiling and marble pillars.
Cibo has added some lovely ornate olive trees to the doors and built a curved wall of wine that towers all the way up to the ceilings.
ADVERTISEMENT
Brown leather chairs, embossed with Cibo’s logo and gold studs, plus marble tabletops only add to the opulence.
Gorgeous, right?
The huge restaurant will have space for 165 diners in the main restaurant and 20 downstairs in the private dining room.
ADVERTISEMENT
Cibo is a well-established name on the North West restaurant scene, already operating restaurants in Wilmslow, Hale and Disley.
Click or swipe through the gallery below to see inside Cibo Manchester:
It was originally meant to open this city centre venue last November but has instead spent several extra months (and almost £3m) carefully restoring the building’s original features.
Cibo Manchester’s menu will be filled with crowd-pleasing Italian dishes, including pizzas, pasta, grills and seafood.
After round-the-clock work since September, the restaurant is finally set to open on Saturday, 6 April.
One of Manchester’s grandest restaurants has finally reopened TWO YEARS after fire
Daisy Jackson
One of the most historic restaurants in Manchester has reopened at last, two years after a fire forced its closure.
Mount Street Dining Room & Bar – which many of us may remember as Mr Cooper’s – stands within the Grade II-listed Midland Hotel.
The grand dining room dates all the way back to 1903, when it opened with the hotel as the Grill Room.
The restaurant was at the epicentre of the Industrial Revolution and was frequented by railway travellers, perhaps best-known for hosting a lunch between Charles Rolls and Henry Royce in 1904, who went on to form the world-famous Rolls-Royce brand.
The Midland’s restaurants has gone through several changes in the decades since, undergoing a major £14 million refurb in 2020 to relaunch as Mount Street Dining Room & Bar.
Its interiors are inspired by the hotel’s early 1900s art deco and railway heritage, with a menu that focuses on locally-sourced British produce.
But the restaurant has been shut since early 2024, when a fire damaged the entrance and trellising around its main entrance on Mount Street.
The beautiful bar areaA glimpse of the menu at Mount StreetCocktails and British food
The Midland has finally managed to get the restaurant back open again this month, with a new food and cocktail menus, which aims to offer refined but simple British dining.
Expect dishes like pork and black pudding bonbons, white onion soup with crispy potatoes, smoked British salmon with lemon gel and dill mascarpone, and slow cooked beef daube with confit garlic mash.
Plus desserts such as rice pudding with Anise glazed pearsand Bakewell pudding with cherry syrup.
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen inside this beautiful, storied dining room – and it looks just as beautiful as we remember.
Daisy Jackson -
5th April 2024 
