Flat Iron is ready to open the doors to its first-ever Manchester restaurant – and it’s announced a huge Wagyu steak giveaway to celebrate.
The restaurant is famed for having affordable prices but still great quality meat products, utilising the often-overlooked featherblade as well as other cuts of beef.
With prices for a steak from just £14, it’s set to undercut other steakhouses by some margin, working closely with a farm just up the road in Yorkshire to source their meat.
The meat is cured in a special handcrafted meat ageing cabinet (the only Flat Iron restaurant to have one) and can be cooked quickly over a bespoke charcoal grill (also the only one in any Flat Iron restaurant).
The steaks at Flat Iron in Manchester will be served alongside sides like beef dripping chips, crispy bone marrow mash, creamed spinach, truffled macaroni cheese and green salads, plus classic sauces like Bearnaise, peppercorn, and a homemade smoked chilli mayo.
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The new 150-cover restaurant spans two storeys in a Grade II-listed building on Deansgate, formerly home to Blacks outdoor clothing.
Steak and sides at Flat Iron in ManchesterFlat Iron steak and garlic mashThe bone marrow garlic mash
It’s a beautiful space – wooden floors, dark teal walls, huge windows, and orange leather banquettes.
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That’s all tied in with the original features like ceramic tiles and huge iron pillars around the space.
At the heart of the ground floor restaurant is a magnificent marble-topped bar with a stained glass window behind.
There’s a sizeable basement dining room too for a cosy, moody dining experience.
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Guests are greeted with a cup of fresh popcorn on arrival, then handed a tiny meat cleaver at the end of their meal, which can be traded in for an ice cream either on the spot or at a later date.
Upstairs in Flat Iron in ManchesterFlat Iron is ready to open on Deansgate in ManchesterThe basement dining room at Flat Iron Manchester
Rotating daily specials will feature dishes like a truffled triple cheeseburger, Scottish ribeye, and an exclusive 375g rib steak.
Flat Iron’s Head of Beef, Fred Smith, said: “I spend an unusual amount of time trying to source incredible beef and our Wagyu is properly special.
“To celebrate our new restaurant opening its doors, we will be giving away shed loads of this uber-tender beef to the good people of Manchester. Join us on 2nd July and let us know what you think.”
Flat Iron will be hosting a giveaway of 500 Wagyu steaks ahead of its official opening.
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The first 500 customers in the queue from 5pm on Tuesday 2 July will be given a free steak, and a sneak preview of the new restaurant.
Flat Iron Manchester officially opens on Wednesday 3 July.
Plans to open a brand-new pub on the site of the Rovers Return
Daisy Jackson
A brand-new pub is set to open in Manchester city centre net month, with treats in store like complimentary bowls of crisps, an outdoor terrace, and a games parlour.
The Stables Tavern is taking shape in the St John’s district, poetically on the same site that was once home to Coronation Street’s iconic Rovers Return pub.
They’re promising this will be a ‘historic tavern reimagined for today’s lover of a proper pint’.
The pub will come from Shiko Group, which is also behind Courts Club, where you can play tennis or basketball followed by court-side pints, and Side Street, a bar-restaurant-events space with a mid-Century interior.
Neighbouring the Bonded Warehouse, The Stables Tavern will join this rapidly blossoming new creative district, just across the yard from Caravan, The Trading Route and Aviva Studios.
Inside, punters will find multiple beer taps with local beers, served with complimentary bowls of crisps as well as a menu of pub snacks like handmade sausage rolls and local pies.
The pub will be split into three sections – an outside terrace, a main bar, and a parlour area at the back of the pub for live entertainment, old school games, and rounds of whiskey.
This might be a new district but it’s a historic area for the city – the same building was a busy watering hole back in the early 19th century for workers, merchants and visitors who made use of the nearby canals and cobbled streets.
It was then the home of the Rovers Return, back when this area was the home of Granada Studios.
Hayley Sammé, Marketing Director, said: “We’re so excited to bring The Stables Tavern back to St John’s. The area’s extensive historical backdrop and burgeoning hospitality scene provides the perfect landscape for a traditional British pub.
“It’s the perfect addition to the existing scene, and we hope it’s going to become a popular spot in our new creative district.”
The Stables Tavern will open at St John’s on Friday 6 June.
‘Classy, clever, confident’ – New Manchester restaurant receives glowing Guardian review
Daisy Jackson
Winsome, one of the newest restaurants on Manchester’s dining scene, has gone and received a seriously glowing review in The Guardian this weekend.
Legendary restaurant criticGrace Dent said that the British bistro ‘may well be my new favourite restaurant’, lauding chef patron Shaun Moffat’s ‘elegant but plentiful modern cooking’.
She said that there’s even a teeny touch of Toby Carvery in their Sunday offering, with meaty and saucy dishes and ‘cartoon-esque XL yorkshire puddings’.
Winsome opened back in March under the steer of three hospitality heavyweights – ex-Edinburgh Castle chef Shaun Moffat, former Schofields head bartender Tom Fastiggi, and Belzan founder Owain Williams.
It’s a beautiful, stripped-back space at the foot of the Whitworth Locke aparthotel and Moffat’s first venture as a chef patron.
Based on this Guardian review, he’s doing a pretty good job so far…
Grace Dent said of Winsome’s nostalgic yet modern menu (featuring dippy eggs and puddings that sound like school dinner puds): “This is Cool Britannia wearing a napkin bib with a side portion of rhubarb jelly and custard for pudding.”
Novelty crockery at Winsome. Credit: The Manc GroupChef patron Shaun Moffat at Winsome. Credit: The Manc GroupDippy egg and asparagus. Credit: The Manc GroupInside WInsome on Princess Street. Credit: The Manc Group
She also wrote that it’s ‘far from a novelty restaurant’ in spite of its animal-shaped crockery.
And Dent added that while there’s an element of fine dining, it’s unpretentious enough that you’re happy to smear it all over the tablecloths and, indeed, yourself.
‘Deeply nostalgic’, ‘forward-thinking fine dining without any of the faff’, is how she described her Winsome experience.
“This is confident, clever cooking that stays just the right side of earnest, or at least as earnest as a chef can be when he also serves up a dessert that is essentially a 1980s school sponge pudding with a scoop of milk ice-cream flecked with multicoloured sprinkles, or hundreds and thousands as they will for ever be known in my heart,” she wrote.
Grace Dent’s Guardian review concluded with: “Winsome may well be my new favourite restaurant, and it’s the new, big, generous beating heart of Manchester hospitality. It’s classy but come-all – bring your gran, bring your baby, no one need feel conspicuous.
“There’s something about the place that makes me want to use it as a canteen, not least out of sheer curiosity as to what Moffat will put on the menu next. Great cooking, and forward-thinking fine dining without any of the faff.
“Bring your appetite and don’t wear pale colours. Aaah, Manchester, you have so much to answer for. Winsome will seriously impact your waistline.”
Winsome said in a post on Instagram: “It doesn’t get much better than that! We’re over the moon, full of pride and could not be more grateful to the team who’ve worked so hard to help us deliver this dream.”
Daisy Jackson -
27th June 2024 
