Across the world, one app has been uniting strangers in 235 cities, matching six lucky diners for an evening meal at a surprise restaurant table and now Manchester is the latest city to open its taste buds to this pseudo-Come Dine With Me concept. Only this one involves less cooking.
Guests are expected to partake in an evening of food, booze and plenty of interesting conversations between six total strangers, only with hopefully less drama than the hit Channel 4 show. Strictly no Jane’s spoiling anything…
The concept is being pushed by French entrepreneur Maxime Barbier and his company ‘TimeLeft’. He has a lengthy career in the nightlife industry behind him and now wants to further strengthen good food and good times via this app.
And it’s clearly working: according to the company’s official website, 96% of dining groups consider themselves compatible meaning their carefully selected pairings are pretty accurate.
All curious diners have to do is download Timeleft and take a personality test before they’re whisked away for a night of entertainment and lush catering picked out by the pioneering new app.
Fear not, there will be a ‘Break the ice’ game where you can get to know the like-minded and compatible strangers you’re spending the rest of the evening with.
Once the table fills up and the evening is well away, everyone round the table will receive a notification to continue the night at a nearby bar chosen once again by this new dining concept app.
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This new mealtime experience is a really good way of making connections, especially for newcomers to the city who are looking to expand their friendship group and navigate Manchester with some similar fresh-faced companions. There’s crucially much less cooking involved too, by which we mean none.
Throughout their website, the company shares a range of blogs breaking down everything from ‘6 tips for smoothing over a heated conversation’ to ‘the ultimate guide to Timeleft’.
In a standout piece entitled, ‘The 10 types of strangers at your table‘, they discuss the different types of personalities that you may come across during your meal.
From the simpler and recognisable labels like the introvert and extrovert to the more complex like the contemplative and the humourist, these little excerpts are handy to anyone who may have any nerves ahead of the meeting.
So, anyone located in Greater Manchester who might be interested in this new dining concept can participate by downloading the TimeLeft app and seeing where the night takes them.
You might not go home with £1,000 in cash but you’ll certainly create some memories and come pretty close to living out your Come Dine With Me fantasy – there really is an app for everything.
Where to drink game-changing non-alcoholic aperitivo Botivo in Greater Manchester
Daisy Jackson
Whether it’s Dry January, a hangover-free night out, or total sobriety, there are a lot of options for non-alcoholic drinking these days.
But they don’t come much better than Botivo, a game-changing aperitivo that’s 0% alcohol but 100% tasty.
This delicious small-batch drink has been carefully crafted with just as much attention as you’d put into an alcoholic cocktail, from the hand-picked thyme leaves to the bottles hand-dipped in a buttercup yellow wax.
Founder Sam Paget Steavenson said: “I wanted to bring the true craft and depth of flavour we all see in the alcohol category, to the non alc category. This meant using real ingredients, no flavourings and low intervention techniques.”
The result is Botivo, a bittersweet, citrusy, herbal drink that can be added into summer drinks, winter warmers, after-work concoctions and just about anything else you can think of.
And if you do love an alcoholic drink, Botivo is still a great addition to your boozy cocktails.
It’s popping up on shelves right across Greater Manchester – here are 10 places you can drink Botivo locally.
Reserve Wines – Didsbury
Reserve Wines in DidsburyReserve Wines in Didsbury
This fantastic local wine bar and bottle shop is one of the best spots in Manchester to get your hands on rare and unusual drinks – and also, Botivo.
The Didsbury institution serves theirs simply with soda and a delicious kick of ginger, or with blueberry and ginger kombucha.
Tawny Stores – Stockport
Tawny Stores in Marple Bridge. Credit: The Manc GroupBotivo at Tawny Stores. Credit: The Manc Group
Tawny Stores is a lovely little cafe, restaurant and grocery store right on the water’s edge in Marple, where you can do everything from having a romantic candlelit dinner to scoffing a morning pastry to grabbing a loaf of bread to take home.
Here, Botivo is added to a warming spiced apple drink, reminiscent of a mulled cider. You can even have it served in a takeaway cup to take it on a walk down the neighbouring canal, if you so fancy.
Bundobust – Oxford Road
Manchester Indian street food restaurant Bundobust. Credit: The Manc GroupBotivo at Bundobust Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Vegetarians and meat-eaters alike love Bundobust, a Leeds-founded Indian street food restaurant that now has two sites in Manchester city centre.
Among the long benches and beneath the skylights (weirdly, both sites have similar ceilings), you can pair your Indian small plates with a tasty glass of Botivo and soda.
Delve – Delph
Delve in Delph, Saddleworth. Credit: The Manc GroupDelve in Delph, Saddleworth. Credit: The Manc Group
Delve is a gorgeous restaurant and bar that’s recently opened in the Saddleworth village of Delph, inside an old bank building.
They’ve come up with a suitably sophisticated Botivo serve, the Pink Lady, made with chilled fruit tea.
Something More Productive – Withington
Something More Productive in Withington. Credit: The Manc GroupBotivo at Something More Productive. Credit: The Manc Group
This is a lively neighbourhood bar and cafe, as famed for its sturdy sandwiches as it is live music nights.
Tuck yourself away inside with a Botivo, served here with delicious ginger and yuzu kombucha from Cheshire-made Hip Pop.
North Westward Ho – city centre
Botivo at North Westward Ho in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Easily one of the city centre’s best watering holes, North Westward Ho is a charming pub operated by the same team behind Pomona Island brewery.
A perfect alternative to their massive beer selection, Botivo comes with soda and a wedge of fresh orange.
Caravan – St John’s
Botivo drinks at Caravan ManchesterCaravan in Manchester city centreCredit: The Manc Group
Caravan is another huge newcomer in Manchester city centre, where it has an all-day menu inspired by the vibrant flavours of New Zealand and Australia cafe culture.
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Get cosy in the huge, light-flooded space and order yourself a Botivo and soda with a sprig of rosemary to really enhance those herbal flavours.
The Pearl – Prestwich
A Botivo espresso martini at The Pearl, PrestwichThe Pearl in Prestwich has made it onto the list of the Top 100 Local Restaurants in the Good Food Guide. Credit: The Manc Group
You’ve never had an espresso martini like this before – and you’ll never want to drink it another way.
Award-winning neighbourhood restaurant The Pearl has added Botivo to its espresso martinis, for a delicious citrus hit to the classic drink.
Hinterland Bar – Northern Quarter
Inside Hinterland in the Northern Quarter. Credit: The Manc GroupBotivo Elixir at Hinterland. Credit; The Manc Group
Tucked down in a Northern Quarter basement is Hinterland, a proudly alcohol-free bar that is the perfect cosy spot to sample Botivo.
They’ll serve you a Botivo Elixir, made with chai tea, lime, and cucumber – or you can have it more simply with soda.
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10 Tib Lane – city centre
10 Tib Lane in ManchesterInside 10 Tib Lane Manchester
If you’ve never been to 10 Tib Lane, let this be your sign – the three-storey restaurant and bar is a real beauty, serving delicious small plates that pair perfectly with Botivo.
They serve it ice cold, with soda and fresh orange. Delicious.
The restaurant and bar closures that shocked Manchester in 2024
Danny Jones
A sad reality of the world of hospitality is that while we often have loads of fabulous new openings to celebrate, there is also a steady stream of restaurant and bar closures in Manchester.
It’s been another year of blistering food and drink highs and devastating lows, saying goodbye to several very high-profile businesses as 2024 ticked along.
Closures included enormous celeb-studded venues, much-loved independent restaurants and bakeries, the likes of the long-standing Church Street Markets and some of the finest dining establishments in all of Greater Manchester.
We haven’t included them all on this list (a notable absence is Sakkusamba, which shut down to rebrand as Raft, then Raft shut back down to rebrand as Sakkusamba again – you can read all about that weird situation HERE), because that would just be a little depressing.
But below you’ll find a list of the restaurant and bar closures that shocked Manchester city centre and beyond in 2024.
13 Greater Manchester restaurants and bars that closed in 2024
Greens – Didsbury and Sale
2024 was only two days old when celebrity chef Simon Rimmer announced the closure of his vegetarian restaurant, Greens, in Didsbury.
It had been part of the suburb’s restaurant scene for more than 30 years but was ultimately felled by rising costs, including a rent increase of a whopping 35%.
Rimmer kept the sister site over in Sale up and running, but not for long – that also closed in September.
His restaurant portfolio includes Rudy’s and Albert’s Schloss, but the loss of Greens was a real blow to Greater Manchester.
Cottonopolis, then Lamb of Tartary – Northern Quarter
The site reopened under the same team as Lamb of Tartary, a beautiful pub and restaurant inspired by the success of its sister site, the very successful Edinburgh Castle over in Ancoats.
Sadly, Lamb of Tartary wasn’t long for this world either, and that quietly shut down in September after only six months.
Who will try and take on this landmark unit next, we wonder?
Trove – Ancoats and Levenshulme
Credit: The Manc Group
One of Manchester’s original independent bakeries shut down in the summer of 2024 after a turbulent few months.
Trove had started life in Levenshulme where it was quickly hailed as one of the region’s best neighbourhood food spots, then it branched out to Ancoats with a cafe too.
But both shut down in dramatic fashion in June, with the modern Ancoats site repossessed by landlords.
They finally broke their silence on the closures a few days later with an emotional statement that said: “We have been struggling mentally, physically and financially for a while.”
Formerly known as Luck, Lust, Liquor and Burn, the popular Northern Quarter bar and restaurant is sadly just the former in general now after closing back in August 2024.
The Mexican food spot and late-night watering hole was known not only for delicious and pretty affordable scran with Californian influences but also for one of the best happy hours in town.
It may have started out as a spin-off courtesy of, Almost Famous, but it truly grew to take on a life, reputation and style of its own for just over a decade.
Sadly, it wasn’t to last forever and while they didn’t provide much detail as to what caused the closure, we can assume they were facing the same challenges most local businesses have been in recent years. They bowed with one final happy, messy and very emotional hour – thanks for the memories.
Speaking of Almost Famous, the dirty burger masters still have a wonderful empire here in Greater Manchester and, indeed across the North but one spot did sadly have to admit defeat.
Their Withington outpost started off so good and looked to be not only one of their most handy locations for students and those on the outskirts of the city, but the room itself had undoubtedly the unique aesthetic they’d stumbled across to date.
As pretty as the room and as reliable as the food always is, opening during a cost-of-living crisis was never going to be easy and they came out to thank their loyal customers on multiple occasions for helping to keep going.
Sadly, they couldn’t feasibly keep going and though AF remains 0161’s most iconic burger joint, the Withy experiment didn’t work out – fingers crossed they get another go at it again in the future.
Rigatoni’s (formerly SUD and Sugo before that) – Ancoats, Sale and city centre
Another closure saga was the unfortunate story of Rigatoni’s, once considered one of the best Italian restaurants in all of the boroughs during its days as Sugo Pasta Kitchen before having to change its name to SUD following a rather confusing lawsuit threat.
As if all that wasn’t enough, the pasta specialists then suffered four closures across Greater Manchester and ended up undergoing another rebrand to relaunch as Rigatoni’s in December of 2023.
However, it seems whatever name they went by, they just couldn’t make it work and sadly Rigatoni’s went on to shut its restaurants in Ancoats, Sale AND in Exhibition food hall, leaving only Altrincham behind.
You can backtrack through the full sequence of events HERE and see what it’s now become down below:
Another one that hit us hard over the past 12 months was the news of Manchester city centre’s beloved Pie and Ale closing its doors after a little over a decade.
The NQ cult favourite was known for its legendary pie and pint for a tenner deal, years of unique takes on pastry-encased flavour combinations, a great booze selection across the board and being of the best-kept secrets when it came to finding a quieter pub to watch live sport.
It was quite comfortable one of the best places to grab a pie in Manchester and a relatively cheap day/night out in general and its closure back in April was a tough one for lots of locals to take.
If you ever visited, you’ll know how cool a spot it was.
Stretford Food Hall – Chester Rd
Heading over towards Trafford direction, the Food Hall that was attached to Stretford Mall was another frustrating closure at the start of last year, especially given the somewhat recent refurb a few years prior.
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On the outside, things may have looked like they were on the up to many but, truth be told, the space had been struggling ever since the pandemic. Businessman Mital Morar opened the Food Hall back in 2019 but by February 2024, he confessed it had “no more left in the tank”.
At the heart of the regenerated Stretford Strip that looked to be thriving at the start of 2020, it housed plenty of popular local vendors including What’s Your Beef?, Egg & Co., Cloudwater Brewery and more.
The Food Hall might be kaput but you can still enjoy Stretford Canteen at least. (Credit: The Manc Group)
PLY – Northern Quarter
From one that had the potential to build a local renaissance around to a city centre institution that students are still mourning to this day, PLY closing marked what felt like the end of an era.
Once the toast of Lever Street just off the corner of Stevenson Square, PLY could always guarantee you three things: cheap and tasty pizza, reasonably priced drinks and a good time.
That being said, it didn’t take long for it to reopen as something new and fairly different – you can read all about it below – and you can still enjoy the fantastic flavours from their stand in New Century Hall.
Manchester, pay attention: The Salmon of Knowledge has some wisdom to bestow upon you — mainly how to pour a proper Guinness and have a grand auld time. 🇮🇪☘️
Sonata, a jazz and piano bar in Manchester, has announced its closure. Credit: The Manc Group
Another hidden gem that quietly closed its doors last year was the late-night piano and cabaret hideaway known as Sonata.
It may never have been the most bustling bar or well-known live entertainment venue in Manchester, but for the die-hards that made it home on so many weekends and what would otherwise have been boring an evening after work, it was a real wound to see it close its doors after a couple of years.
With an entrance off St Ann’s Alley that was marked with a glowing sign and a lightbulb, it felt like a real local secret, and despite building up a loyal following through its New York-style live music nights, Sonata shut down citing ‘near-impossible challenges in the current climate’. See more HERE.
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WOOD – First/Jack Rosenthal Street
Celebrity chef and former MasterChef champion Simon Wood shocked Manchester when he announced the closure of his flagship restaurant, WOOD.
Wood has remained one of Greater Manchester’s most-renowned chefs for the past decade, not to mention a huge advocate for supporting the hospitality industry, especially post-Covid and during the ongoing cost of living crisis.
Sharing an emotional post on Instagram, he wrote: “Sadly with COVID rent arrears now being demanded by our landlord and an increasingly difficult marketplace, energy increases, ingredient costs and soon-to-be spiralling business rates we just cannot make this work.”
Local gem and one of Greater Manchester’s very best food spots, The Thirsty Korean, closed its Chorlton restaurant after five years when its lease came to an end.
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It had hit headlines only months before its closure when Sacha Lord chose to publicly celebrate a series of local business, paying everyone’s bill there for one night only (with suitably long queues…)
Confirming the closure of the Manchester Road spot via Instagram, owner Eunji Noh wrote: “I love you, loved you lots and will love you. Hope to see you soon and let’s celebrate our beautiful and cheerful end of The Thirsty Korean!
“Please stay with us and don’t forget about us. Find me and I will be here with big arms opened to hug you all.”
Black Dog Ballroom – Northern Quarter
Long-standing Northern Quarter bar Black Dog Ballroom sadly and quietly closed for business back in January 2024, after a decade and a half as one of Manchester’s favourite nightlife hotspots.
The rumblings of the Black Dog’s closure slipped somewhat under the radar but were all but confirmed when the city centre bar and pool hall’s website updated to simply read: ‘Black Dog Ballroom is now closed’.
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The site has now become Definitely Maybe, an Oasis-themed bar that even has drinks inspired by the Gallagher brothers.
Thomas Melia -
5th December 2024 
