An Italian food fair full of pizza, pasta, and more is coming to Manchester this summer, and our mouths are already watering.
If you didn’t already know, Manchester street food market and social hub, GRUB – which is tucked away in the Green Quarter, just outside of the city centre – is home to a wide range of rotating independent food and drink vendors and pop-ups that hook Mancs up with some of the best eats from across the globe.
It’s also known for hosting a jam-packed lineup of events all throughout the year – and the Italian Food Fair is one of the most-popular each time it rolls around.
We all know nothing says summer dining quite like a taste of the Mediterranean, which is why GRUB is bringing a slice of Italy to Manchester for one day only next month – with five of its favourite traders set to serve up Italian-inspired delights.
An Italian food fair full of pizza, pasta, and more is coming to Manchester this summer / Credit: GRUB
You’ll be able to get your hands on some of the best street food Greater Manchester and the North West has to offer.
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Bonnie & Clyde Italian Food will be dishing up Italian street food deliciousness, including Sicilian arancini, mortadella sarnies, and deep fried pasta specials like lasagne and carbonara, while local burger gurus, Burger X, will be putting an Italian spin on their menu for the day, so you can expect plenty of comfort food – including Italian-topped burgers, and chicken parmigiana loaded fries.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an Italian food fair without pizza, right?
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Luckily, one of the best there is – and a firm GRUB favourite – Gatto Pizza will be there on the day to serving a wide range of Neapolitan pizzas, all made with love.
Noble’s Kitchen will be slinging out Fritto Misto and Polpette al Sugo, while Manchester’s most creative cupcake crew, Mary’s Cakery Makery, will be baking a very-special themed menu.
Foodies will be able to wash all the Italian delicacies down with specialty coffees and hot drinks, and if that didn’t sound brilliant enough as it is, Malfy Gin will also be at this year’s event with a special Italian gin cocktails menu for you to sip in the sunshine.
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GRUB’s Italian Food Fair will be making a 2024 return this Sunday 24 July.
The fair is free to head on down to, but as most of GRUB’s annual themed events prove to be pretty popular, it’s advised that larger groups book a table in advance on the venue’s website here.
Featured Image – GRUB
What's On
Manchester venue to host General Election ‘all nighter’ with results streamed live onto a big screen
Emily Sergeant
A General Election ‘all nighter’ where the results will be streamed live onto a big cinema screen is happening in Manchester next week.
Are we about to see the end of 14 years of Tory rule? Could it be a night to celebrate for Labour? May the Lib Dems, the Greens, and ever-growing raft of independent parties across the UK gain themselves some new constituencies? And, most importantly, will Count Binface finally grab that seat in the Houses of Parliament?
All these questions will (hopefully) be answered on General Election day next Thursday 4 July.
And if you fancy following along with all the action live from the second the polls close right through to the final results being revealed, then there’s a popular city centre venue hosing an ‘all nighter’ watch party event especially for it.
Happening at Cultplex – which is one of Manchester‘s favourite indie cinema venues, tucked away inside GRUB in the Green Quarter – politics fans will want to make sure they get themselves down there from 9:30pm sharp so they can grab a seat ahead of the exit polls and make their way through the many, many hours of crushing and dramatic announcements.
A full bar, a stocked-up supply of snacks, and “monumental amounts of coffee” will be on offer as the results are beamed live in 4k onto the venue’s full-sized cinema screen.
In a bid to try and keep everyone awake during the dull moments, the event will have its very-own host throughout the night, and, apparently, there’s also plenty of audience interaction planned too – including polls to enter, and optional tasks to complete, like putting in letters of ‘no confidence’ in the presenting skills of the BBC’s leading political figure, Laura Kuenssberg.
A Manchester venue to host General Election ‘all nighter’ with results streamed live onto a big screen / Credit: Lauren Hurley | Jessica Taylor (UK PARLIAMENT – via Flickr)
There’ll also be a second screen showing all the memes and ‘hot takes’ from social media too, so you won’t miss a thing.
And if you’re one of the brave souls who’s signed up to count the votes at the nearby AO Arena, then you can grab your first pint for free, if want to swing by the venue after your watch has ended.
Fancy it then? Tickets to Cultplex’s General Election 2024 LIVE are now on sale at a ‘pay-what-you-can’ rate, with a suggested donation of £6, and 100% of all ticket sales will go directly to the Trussell Trust.
Onda – inside Manchester’s most in-demand pasta kitchen as it opens its first restaurant
Daisy Jackson
Onda, the modest pasta kitchen that suddenly got so popular it was almost impossible to reserve a table, has branched out and opened its very first restaurant.
They grow up so fast.
The team behind the restaurant had been operating as a pop-up since spring 2023, first from the Exhibition food hall and then later at New Cross on the edges of Ancoats.
It was here in their second location that Onda suddenly hit the big time and found wildly viral fame, thanks to its tiramisu drawer.
Bookings went absolutely wild, to the point that people were waiting entire seasons to bag a seat.
It makes sense then that they have taken the chance to upscale their operation, and it’s time for Onda to open its very first proper restaurant.
They’ve taken up a unit at Circle Square, where similarly popular neighbours include Federal Cafe Bar.
The space is huge, and flooded with natural light, with an open central kitchen where customers can watch the magic happen.
Inside the new Onda restaurant in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Onda is founded by chef Sam Astley-Dean, who, along with his team, carefully makes all their pasta and pizza dough from scratch daily.
The tiramisu might have sent their popularity sky-high, but the quality and prices here prove that it deserves every bit of success coming its way. This place is not a novelty.
Dishes are reasonably priced and include spagetthi with garlic and breadcrumbs for £9 and pici with pecordino and black pepper for £9.50.
Pasta and pizzetta dishes at Onda in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
The menu then goes up to a scallop and Cornish crab agnolloti for a still-very-reasonable £15.
Along with the pasta, there’s a menu of pizzetta, with the option to amp up your crust with a generous showering of parmesan.
And it would be remiss of you to leave this place without having a scoop of their homemade tiramisu, scooped out of that refrigerator drawer that put Onda on the map in the first place.
You can book a table here, or walk-ins will be available from July.