City Centre

What Mancunians think of the Christmas Markets’ new home at troubled Piccadilly Gardens

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 12th November 2021

The Manchester Christmas Markets have moved to a new location at Piccadilly Gardens this year, but what to Mancs really think about the festivities being centred in this troubled part of the city centre?

When the news was announced that the Christmas Markets’ main hub would have to relocate this year – ongoing renovation works on the Town Hall have meant that Albert Square is off-limits – the reaction was pretty predictable.

Many people were concerned about the incidents of drug-dealing and anti-social behaviour at Piccadilly Gardens, making quips about ‘spiced’ drinks in reference to the synthetic cannabinoid.

But that was before the markets were actually open, totally transforming the infamous part of the city centre into the ‘Winter Gardens’ and a hub of hive of live music, street food and market stalls.

The ‘Winter Gardens’, the new main hub of the Manchester Christmas Markets / Credit: The Manc Group

Two huge wooden platforms have been built at Piccadilly Gardens, each surrounded by huts selling food and drink.

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There’s a live music stage for the first time, furniture made from repurposed wooden pallets, and walls filled with plants.

A large part of the new site is under cover too, making it far more weather-proof than previous Christmas Markets.

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The Off-Piste Bar at Piccadilly Gardens / Credit: The Manc Group

The festive light trail has even parked up here, including a giant glowing ‘MCR’ sign and an arch of shooting stars you can walk through.

For the most part, local people seem to be pleasantly surprised, with thousands flooding to the comments of The Manc‘s live tour.

John Paul wrote: “Massive improvement on the area. It’s been Manchester City centres let down for decades. Can they stay until Easter.”

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Nancy Morris said: “That’s the best that Piccadilly Gardens has looked since the actual Gardens were concreted over. Well done”

Sue Taylor posted: “I like the idea of using all recycled materials, well done, looks good”

The Winter Gardens the night before they officially opened / Credit: The Manc Group

One person couldn’t believe their eyes, commenting: “Oh my god is that Piccadilly gardens????”

However, many were disappointed at the lack of Christmas spirit, with one person saying it’s “Just a food and drink market.”

Read more: Everything you need to know about the Manchester Christmas Markets 2021

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Most of the traders at Piccadilly Gardens are serving only food or drink, though there are a few gift stalls too.

The bulk of the shopping markets have been moved to the other sites along Market Street, Exchange Square and St Ann’s Square.

One person wrote: “Weres all the gift stalls , and weres the Christmas decor just looks like a giant pallet yard p*ss up ,”

Ali Humphries posted: “Awful. Nothing like the original markets, just a food and drink market”

Featured Image: The Manc Group

City Centre

Manchester steakhouse Gaucho is serving a bottomless brunch with non-stop wine and cocktails

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

Manchester has a new three-course bottomless brunch offer, and it sounds like an absolute beast of a deal – with premium cuts of steak, unlimited starters, and an hour and a half of free-flowing drinks.

Launched by Argentine steakhouse pros Gaucho, the new bottomless deal gives diners 90 minutes to indulge in drinks like citrus negronis, pornstar martinis, spritzes, lager and wine, with a choice of red, white and rose.

Spanning three courses and 90 minutes of drinks, starter dishes are unlimited whilst main highlights include Gaucho’s cuts of free-range Aberdeen Angus beef, reared on the flat grasslands of the Pampas. Think premium wet-aged sirloin with chimichurri and French fries and spiral-cute churrasco de cuadril marinated in garlic, parsley and olive oil.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

On the unlimited starters menu, you’ll find a mouthwatering selection of morcilla, chorizo and picante rojo sausage with a lemon aioli, a selection of empanadas, beetroot ceviche with nasturtium and mango nectar, plus prawn tostadas on Arepa bread.

Read more: Aldi launches ‘adult’s breakfast club’ for families skipping meals so their kids can eat

Add in desserts like chocolate brownies with white chocolate ice cream and apple pancakes with Calvados caramel, Nutella and a dulce de leche mousse, and we’ll be surprised if you find yourself going home hungry.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

Available on the last Saturday of the month between 11am and 4pm at Gaucho’s glitzy restaurant on Deansgate, dine inside a converted church surrounded by crystal chandeliers and deep leather booths whilst the restaurant’s in house saxophonist plays along to the resident DJ’s beats.

Read more: Greater Manchester chocolatier Slattery’s is selling a Hacienda-inspired Easter egg

Priced from £50pp, to find out more view the Gaucho bottomless brunch menu and book, visit Gaucho’s website here.

Feature image – The Manc Eats

City Centre

Guardian critic Grace Dent raves about ‘pointedly bonkers’ Manchester restaurant Musu

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

The food critic Grace Dent has published a rave review of one of Manchester’s new restaurant openings, Musu, bestowing national kudos on the Bridge Street eatery.

Referred to by the Guardian reviewer as ‘very possibly the most expensive restaurant in Manchester’, in a glowing write up she compares it to ‘the Starship Enterprise, albeit one with geishas on the walls and a £110 seven-course menu’.

Already a favourite of Ilkay Gundogan’s notoriously hard-to-please wife (it’s the only eatery she’s praised since famously saying that the Manchester food and drink scene was ‘horrible’), thankfully, Musu has now found a more discerning reviewer to recommend it.

Dent opens by advising ‘all who have already taken terrible umbrage that Musu even exists’ to ‘abandon reading this review here’, before going on to say she, personally, is ‘rather cheered that there are still people north of Watford who have the faith and gumption to open places as pointedly bonkers as this.’

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

The 55-cover restaurant is described as being ‘as dark in places as Adrian Mole’s bedroom’, with plenty of attention paid to its ‘theatrical’ detailing.

A glass-fronted private dining room that, ‘at the touch of a button, turns frosted’, gets a special mention, as does Musu’s bold ‘Japanese murals, globe lighting and […] nakedly open kitchen’.

Read more: Ilkay Gundogan’s wife has finally found a restaurant she likes in Manchester after saying our food and drink scene is ‘horrible’

But the real praise is reserved for the cooking of chef Michael Shaw, formerly of Gordon Ramsay Inc and Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, hailed as ‘minuscule portions of exquisite pleasure that linger in your mind.’

As she reels through the seven-course tasting menu, praising each dish as she goes, things go from great to excellent.

At one point, after digging into Musu’s sashimi (described as ‘ three of the finest pieces of sashimi imaginable’) she proffers: ‘I felt like handing my badge back there and then – it’s over; I won’t ever taste better’, before moving on to another ‘outstanding’ dish.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

If there is a criticism, it’s that upon finishing the seven courses she still finds herself hungry – commenting: ‘Very rarely – in fact, never – do I wish I’d chosen the longer tasting menu, though at £150 plus drinks, that would have been guaranteed to cause a reader revolt.’

This, in turn, leads to some good-natured musing on just who all these people are spending hundreds in ‘mobbed’ Musu on a Friday night, with Dent asking pointedly: ‘Where are they getting their money? None of them seemed to be the type to have Brink’s-Mat gold buried at the bottom of their garden.’

Read more: Historic Salford boozer The Crescent where Karl Marx drank set to reopen

Summarising, she writes: “If you’ve already decided to boycott Musu over the sheer cost, the din and the small portions, I must at this point stress that the food is outstanding.

“Sure, Musu isn’t for everybody, but if someone else is funding your wanton extravagance, then drag them there. It’s unforgettable for many reasons: some of them are hilarious, yes, but mostly they’re just plain good.”

Read more: The best restaurants and bars to open in Manchester in 2022

Feature image – The Manc Eats

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