Food charity Eat Well Manchester, which helps support the region’s most vulnerable all year round, is teaming up with local hospitality venues for a crucial fundraising festival this autumn.
As another season of sun-soaked summer dining nears its end, we’re once again reminded of those less fortunate and the struggles that countless people all over the city and beyond face, especially as the colder months start to creep back in quicker than any of us would like.
That’s where important non-profits like Eat Well MCR come in, helping dish out free, nutritious and varied meals to Greater Manchester’s homeless community and anyone in need with the help of some of your very favourite restaurants.
With that in mind, as autumn fast approaches, the organisation has set up the fittingly named ‘Eat Well, Do Good’ festival, which will help raise vital funds and provide thousands of free meals to those who need them most.
Eat Well MCR works to tackle the growing crisis by delivering roughly 2,500 meals per month to individuals facing economic deprivation. By supporting the charity, venues and patrons can positively impact the community more than they know.
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With just £2, a meal can be provided for someone in need, and the collective efforts during this week-long festival have the potential to raise funds to not only unite local businesses but also show people sidelined by poverty in our community that Manchester cares like we know it does.
Eat Well MCR are also obviously encouraging as many hospitality venues as they can to get involved with this important charity initiative throughout the season; food and drink spots can participate in whichever way they find the most suitable – the most important thing is doing your bit.
This aim is not only to bring the Manc hospitality sector close together and help battle its own struggles, but help deliver meals, source ingredients and raise awareness and funds to support underprivileged communities on our doorstep, all with the help of volunteers and kind-hearted people in the industry.
Great North Pie Co.10 Tib LaneMarayJust a few of the names getting involved with Eat Well, Do Good (Credit: The Manc Group)
Will Taplin, Executive Chef for Ramona, Firehouse and Diecast, said of the event: “We’re really excited to be part of this fundraising campaign. We’ll have extra special slices at Ramona and full pie at Diecast on sale throughout October, with a built-in donation from every pizza sold going to Eat Well MCR.”
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Other hospitality vendors can get involved by offering a special dish or drink where a a portion of the proceeds are donated to Eat Well MCR, hosting their own fundraising activities or ticketed events, or by simply adding a £1 donation to every bill.
For instance, there will also be a party featuring DJs and more held at Ramona on 27 October to conclude the week of fundraising, where all proceeds from the evening will be donated to Eat Well MCR.
With stats like £1,000 worth of frozen food alone being thrown away by Mancs every year and that there are more than 7,000 homeless children across the 10 boroughs, it’s time to stand up and make a difference. Those interested can sign up via the Eat Well, Do Good Week sign-up page HERE.
A new restaurant serving seafood boils is opening at Printworks in Manchester
Daisy Jackson
Shrimp Shack is set to open its first restaurant outside London this summer, with a new site in Printworks in Manchester.
The new restaurant will be serving seafood boils, as well as huge £19.95 platters, £10 lunch deals, and cocktail pitchers.
Shrimp Shack is set to open in the former Frankie & Benny’s site, beneath Printworks’ dazzling digital ceiling.
The restaurant is already cult-followed with its London locations, where it’s built a solid reputation for generous portions and bold flavours.
Shrimp Shack favourites include various seafood boils, a dish with its roots in the Southern states of the USA, including their shrimp boil, seafood boil, and the lux lobster boil.
Each boil is loaded with shrimp, seafood, sausages, corn on the cob, boiled eggs, spiced rice and peri chips, in the brand’s signature secret sauce.
There’s also set to be a Shack Savers Selection, with five huge dishes (battered fish and shrimps, a 12oz Wagyu steak, grilled salmon with prince shrimps, surf and turf, and grilled shrimp and calamari) priced at just £19.95, including two sides and a choice of sauces.
At lunchtimes, there’ll be £10 dishes like the Sprimp Rich Po’ Boy sandwich, the double cheese smash burger, and a veggie option (or you can upgrade to a lobster roll for £5).
And there’ll be refillable soft drinks, freshly-blended smoothies, milkshakes, mocktails, and sharing pitchers.
Shrimp Shack opens in Printworks this summer, serving seafood boils and platters
Rish Gola, co-founder of Shrimp Shack, said: “Shrimp shack was born in London to redefine how people enjoy premium seafood; served fresh and fast, where bold flavours are brought together with everyday dishes.
“Shrimp Shack has a strong appeal with ethnic communities, family diners, and groups of friends who come together over big flavours and generous seafood feasts.
“Our accessible pricing and high-quality dishes create apremium fast experience that welcomes everyone.”
Dan Davis, general manager at Printworks, said: “We’re delighted to have secured Shrimp Shack as Printworks’ latest tenant, its first location outside of London and another exciting restaurant to add to our offering.
“Shrimp Shack’s unique and distinctive offering is perfectly aligned with our aim to deliver high quality experience-led concepts right in the heart of Manchester.”
Top Manchester restaurant ‘so chuffed’ after receiving glowing national review
Daisy Jackson
Top Manchester restaurant Skof has received a stunning review from a national critic, with the team saying they are ‘so chuffed’.
The acclaimed NOMA restaurant, headed up by chef Tom Barnes, has rapidly become one of Manchester’s most decorated restaurants.
Not only does it proudly display its first Michelin star – earned in less than a year after opening – but it’s also been named the coveted AA Restaurant of the Year.
And now Skof can add a rave Guardian review to the list too, with critic Grace Dent heaping praise upon the business.
She said that Skof is ‘well worth the hype’, describing it (much like its parent restaurant L’enclume) to be ‘one of those intensely relaxed yet still ferociously fancy restaurants’.
Dent praised ‘hugely scoffable’ snacks like a cheese biscuit topped with broad bean, pike roe and shiso, as well as a lightly set custard with truffle and mushroom dashi (‘a quiche filling on steroids’).
In her Guardian review, she also loved the final course always served at Skof no matter how much the menu changes with the seasons – the tiramisu served from a giant bowl, tableside.
“The final hurrah: that scoop of Tom’s dad’s tiramisu, served from a big bowl,” Grace Dent wrote.
“It’s a clunky, sentimental and, ultimately, glorious end to the meal. Many Michelin-starred restaurants bookend your visit with a gift of seeds, teabags or fancy chocolate, but at Skof they send you on your way with this tiny taste of boozy stodge that’s both incongruous with everything that went before but at the same time is also symbolic of Tom Barnes’ life and everything that went before.”
Grace Dent heaped praise on Skof in a recent Guardian reviewSkof placed 29th in the National Restaurant Awards
The amazing review also said: “Fine dining can at times be truly maddening, and leave diners hungry and hoodwinked, but Skof is proof that this often precarious blend of pacing, staging and portion size can be properly magical.”
She signed off by saying: “Skof is clever and emotional… It’s also well worth the hype, so do try to nab a table, if you can. It’s fancy, yes, but it also fills you up. This is fine dining that even a naysayer would like.”
Skof has said that it’s ‘so chuffed’ to receive the review, which landed in The Guardian on the restaurant’s second birthday.
They wrote: “Our 2nd birthday just got a quite a bit more special with an absolutely amazing review from @gracedent. We’re so chuffed with the write up. Hope the man from the traitors comes down, so we can serve him a crumpet.”
You can read Grace Dent’s full Skof review in The Guardian here.
Danny Jones -
16th August 2024 
