There’s no denying that ‘at home’ kits have really taken off this year, and of course, there’s no denying why that is the case either.
They are the revolutionary new wave dining experiences born out of lockdown.
‘At home’ / D.I.Y kits allow you to become the chef of your favourite restaurant from the comfort of your own home, with the ingredients for delicacies you know and love delivered right to your front door.
And just as England gears up to exit out of its second national lockdown, and Greater Manchester prepares to enter back into Tier 3 restrictions from the start of next month, the good news is that ‘at home’ / D.I.Y kits will be sticking around for a little bit longer.
There’s plenty to get yourself stuck into, so we’ve rounded up 12 of the best on the market.
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Home by Nico
£60
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From the creators of Six by Nico – with a popular Manchester city centre home on Spring Gardens – Home by Nico menus will deliver a restaurant experience that “gives you a taste of culinary delights from around the world in the comfort of your own home”.
Now delivering right across the UK, Home by Nico will explore 12 new cities with 12 exciting menus, so you can expect your home dining experience to be “rich in culture and filled with explosive flavours”.
Up until 31st December 2020, you can experience the Taste of Bangkok for just £60 (x2 people).
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You can find more information and grab your Home by Nico – Taste of Bangkok experience via the Six by Nico website here.
— NORTHERN SOUL GRILLED CHEESE 🧀 (@NorthernSoulMcr) November 10, 2020
Northern Soul is “grilled cheese done right”.
And with the help of the the home-cooked ingredients G.I.Y (Grill It Yourself) kits, isolating Mancs can whip up sandwiches in their own homes and it’s already proved to be a dizzying success – even scooping the award for ‘Best DIY Home Kit’ at the 2020 Manchester Food & Drink Awards.
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Christmas is on the horizon too, so Northern Soul has tweaked the kits to give them some fresh, festive flavour.
As well as the star-of-the-show Crimbo Dinner Pack, there are four other fantastic-sounding festive options, including the Signature Soul Secret Santa, the Classic Flava kit (including roast ham & pickle; caramelised red onion chutney; and ‘Mac Attack’ w/ Jalapenos), the Get Your Goat (with goat’s cheese and chutney), and The New Yorker (with pastrami, pickles and pretzels).
You can find more information and grab your G.I.Y Kits via the Northern Soul website here.
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Wood at Home
£95 – £110
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Wood at Home’s Five Course Tasting Menu is your chance to treat yourself, your family, or a loved one to indulgent night and have a bit of fun plating these beautiful, tasty and carefully-created tasting dishes.
A part of the Autumn offering, the Five Course Tasting Menu for Two – Standard, Vegetarian or Vegan – boxes comprise all the pre-prepared ingredients needed and full cooking and plating instructions, and wines recommended by Wood’s sommelier can also be ordered, as can the hugely-popular cheese board.
Everything you need for a very special ‘night out’ meal at home from £95.
Menus must be ordered for delivery on Friday or Saturday.
Collection is available from the Manchester city centre restaurant on Saturdays only between 9 – 11am.
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You can find more information and grab your Five Course Tasting Menu experience via the Wood Restaurants website here.
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Rudy’s Bake at Home
£6.90
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Rudy’s Bake at Home pizzas have been hugely popular during lockdown.
Believing Neapolitan pizza to be the best in the world, Rudy’s dough is made fresh daily using Caputo 00 flour – which has been left to ferment for at least 24 hours – alongside the best quality ingredients imported twice a week from Naples, including San Marzano tomatoes grown on fields next to Mount Vesuvius, and Fior di Latte mozzarella.
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So of course, the Bake at Home pizzas are hand-made by pizzaiolos using those same fresh ingredients as the award-winning restaurant uses in the pizzeria itself.
The Bake at Home range is available at all Rudy’s restaurants for nationwide delivery, or click and collect.
Grandad’s Sausages’ DIY Boxes are currently available for delivery all around Manchester.
As well as the Classic Edition – which features everything you could wish for from a hot dog box – the real stand-out is the Breakfast Burger Boxes, made up of brioche buns, Olde English sausage meat, Bury black pudding, eggs, cheese, ketchup, mustard, and streaky bacon.
Each box contains enough for two ‘big boy’ burgers or four singles, and they are now available to order directly for home delivery on Fridays and Saturdays.
You can find more information and grab your DIY Boxes here.
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Blue Caribou Poutine Kits
£11 – £15
👀 We’ve tweaked the look of our kits and our cooking instructions. We love them and hope you will too! 🙏🏼💙 Grab any of our kits and other delicious Québecois treats from our web-shop today! Remember: Spend over £35 and your shipping is free. 📦💙🇨🇦#quebecpic.twitter.com/SbwNYyiHY0
There’s also plenty of sides and extras available to order for delivery as well if you fancy taking your homemade poutine to the next level, and delivery is free if you spend over £35.
You can grab your Poutine Kits from the Blue Caribou website here.
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Proove @Home
£9.50
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Proove @Home kits have everything you need to recreate the restaurant’s signature pizzas yourself.
Each kit comes with a part-cooked Proove pizza dough (vegan and gluten-free options available), and a mix-and-match selection of any toppings from the menu – featuring the finest and freshest ingredients – all boxed up in a convenient little parcel ready to pop in the fridge and cook later.
They couldn’t be more perfect for cosy nights in, weekend treats, or pizza-making fun with the kids.
All you need to do is order online for home delivery, or pick up your Proove @Home pizza parcel from one of the restaurants local to you.
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You can grab yours via the Proove Pizza website here.
The new Elite at Home offering by Elite Bistros – home to Manchester’s KALA Bistro – gives you the chance to enjoy the fine dining experience without leaving the house.
All you’ll need to do is provide the atmosphere and charming conversation, and KALA will deliver the food – which will have been prepared for you to finish simply in your own kitchen – right to your front door. Drinks can also be arranged, and plus, they have made some recommendations for wines that work well with particular dishes too.
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You really won’t be spoilt for choice with this menu, and you can bag yourself free delivery on all orders over £80 too.
Find more information and order your Elite at Home Bistro dining experience here.
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Hawksmoor at Home
£105 – £165
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Hawksmoor has been working hard since lockdown began to bring its unique dining experience into homes nationwide with the Hawksmoor at Home series, offering easy-to-make meal kits and some of its most popular cocktails mixed by bartenders, along with special edition spirits and different products added regularly.
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The original Steak Fillet Box (£125) has proven so popular over the last few months that now, Hawksmoor has taken a Christmas twist.
The Festive Box is now available to order, and inside is everything you need for an easy-to-prepare steak night.
Pre-dinner cocktails are followed by smoked salmon and champagne, fillet steaks with sides, Hawksmoor beers and a bottle of Pulenta Malbec, and finished off with a huge sticky toffee pudding to share. It also comes with easy-to-follow instructions and a bar code to access videos by Matt Brown – Executive Group Chef at Hawksmoor – for anyone needing extra help with cooking.
The Hawksmoor at Home – The Festive Box starts at £105, and you can grab yours here.
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Pizza Punks
Bake at Home, PUNK DoughIY & Xmas Pizza Party in a Box
£16 – £29
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Creating your own sourdough pizza at home has never been easier with one of Pizza Punks’ home-cooking kits.
The Bake at Home and PUNK DoughIY kits includes two 48-hour proofed sourdough bases, San Marzano tomato, basil & garlic Sauce, and mozzarella, plus you can then choose four from the 25 toppings on offer, including some festive specials like pigs in candied blankets, garlic and sage turkey with Stuffing, and shredded sprouts with bacon.
There’s loads of other wacky toppings too, from onion bhajis to chocolate pulled beef.
The Xmas Party Starter kit also features some killer in-house cocktails, as well as Christmas playlist that can be downloaded straight from the pizza box to create the ultimate at home party.
You can grab yours for home delivery nationwide via the Pizza Punks website here.
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Maray at Home
£45
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Maray at Home allows you to experience authentic Middle Eastern-inspired food “from your gaff”.
The Maray at Home Kits are suitable for carnivores, veggies and vegans and generously serve two people, and you can select either Lamb Kofta with Cherry Puree and Green Tahini. or Aubergine Shawarma with Tahini and Date Balsamic Glaze as the main component of your box.
All boxes come with pepper cashews, whipped goat’s cheese with pickled grapes & breadsticks (muhammara for vegan option), hummus and flatbreads, pickles, falafel sharer kit, and tabbouleh fattoush.
Finished off with a lemon & lime posset with candied pistachios (chocolate tart for vegan option).
The Burger & Lobster DIY Kits provide you with fresh restaurant produce delivered straight to your door, alongside all the trimmings to cook to perfection at home.
You can become “the master of your own kitchen” using the step-by-step video tutorials that will guide you through getting the best out of your kit, and to accompany these videos, Burger & Lobster has also put together a collection of cooking instruction cards, which you can download and print off to make life even easier.
Both Lobster Roll and Original Burger kits are available from £22 for nationwide home delivery.
Get your hands on them via the Burger & Lobster website here.
Eats
What to expect from Sticks’n’Sushi, the giant new restaurant that will have Manchester talking
Daisy Jackson
One of the largest restaurant sites in Spinningfields is finally getting the tenant it deserves – Sticks’n’Sushi is heading to Manchester.
In recent months, we’ve seen giant fish being plastered into the windows of the massive two-storey building, which has been largely vacant since Iberica closed way back in 2020 (apart for those weird moments it became a Christmas bar, and then the Oasis merch store).
Work is moving at pace to breathe some life and love back into this building, ready for the official launch of Sticks’n’Sushi at the end of this month.
And the giant fish in the windows give you a good hint of what’s to come, with fresh, quality seafood at the heart of the menus, alongside grilled skewers of meat.
Sticks’n’Sushi is, contrary to what the menu might suggest, a Danish brand – and one of Denmark’s most successful restaurant names, with a dozen locations across its native country plus restaurants in London, Berlin, Oxford and Cambridge.
As well as Manchester, Sticks’n’Sushi has revealed plans to open in Leeds, too. It’s a really impressive operation.
The restaurant started life back in 1994, founded by brothers Kim and Jens Rahbek, and Thor Anderson. The brothers called on their half-Japanese, half-Danish roots to combine culinary traditions from both backgrounds to create their menus.
Beef tataki at Sticks’n’SushiShake tatakiEbi bitesMaki, and nagiri Sticks’n’Sushi also makes excellent cocktailsSashimi Deluxe
It’s still a family affair too, with their nephew working in their rooftop Copenhagen restaurant that overlooks the famous Tivoli Gardens.
When Sticks’n’Sushi lands in Manchester, they want to bring that sleek Scandinavian atmosphere to Spinningfields, along with the precise craftsmanship of Japanese cooking.
They’re perhaps best-known for their sharing menus, which show off a mix of both sticks and indeed sushi.
Highlights will include slithers of beef tataki, topped with artichoke chips and miso aioli (the trick to eating this one is to try and fold the beef around the chips).
The miso-marinated black cod skewers are another popular choice, along with melt-in-the-mouth Wagyu yaki sticks and Shoyu Tebasaki chicken wings.
House roll highlights include shrimp, gochujang and avocado maki, soft shell crab rolls, and lobster abokado.
Sticks’n’Sushi Manchester will transform the two-storey corner unit in Spinningfields with glass and timber, with Berlin architects Diener and Diener working on the project.
It’ll also have a sizeable outdoor pergola terrace and bar.
Bookings are open now HERE ahead of its 30 March launch.
The lost but still much-loved Greater Manchester food and drink spots that Mancs miss the most
Danny Jones
Unfortunately, these days, it feels as if we read about another place closing across the Manchester boroughs almost every week at this point – in fact, many of you might find out about those very closures right here on The Manc.
But, like anyone, we often just sit thinking back on some of our favourite bars, restaurants, takeaways and more that have sadly closed over the years.
10 of the most missed restaurants, bars, cafes and clubs in and around Manchester
1. Danish Food Centre
Starting off with the one we saw the most in the comments is the Danish Food Centre on the shopfront of the Royal Exchange on Cross Street, before sadly closing during the mid-1980s.
Exactly what it sounds like, this old Scandinavian spot first opened back in 1965 and was even known for a traditional sarnie known as ‘The Danwich’, as well as an interior lounge dubbed ‘Copenhagen Corner’.
That being said, many people used to nip here on their dinner break, to meet friends for lunch and a brew, or even to buy things to take home. It was eventually shut down by the Danish government, and we still envy those who got to experience it; still, without the original, we’d never have the likes of KRO Bar.
2. Horts/Ronnie’s Cafe Bar
Another one that popped up plenty in the long list of replies was Horts that used to sit on St. Ann’s Square and the attached Ronnie’s.
The former was more of a wine bar and the latter your standard cafe, but together, they were an ideal city centre favourite that served locals day and night.
By the late 80s, both had sadly disappeared, but people still reminisce about “the grand piano sat under a gorgeous glass dome” and how much they “loved the comfy leather Chesterfield sofas.”
Also up there in the trio of most-mentioned places below the post was the legendary Dutch Pancake House – no, not the one that rears its head at the Manchester Christmas, but at least you can still look forward to your annual fix.
The one we’re talking about was the busy corner of Elisabeth House (now 1 St Peter’s Square), which served a giant menu of sweet and savoury pancakes.
We lost it in the 2000s after developers bought the building, and lots of people are still angry about it.
Number four is Blinkers French and Bistro, which held that border between Salford and Manchester, and was owned by Cheshire-based millionaire, Selwyn Demmy.
The Wilmslow-born businessman may have been known for his famous ‘Hunter’s Moon’ in Wilmslow, but he was also the man behind the bar, restaurant and club which used to be on King Street West.
Before that, it was called the Le Phonographe, and it’s also not to be confused with the modern-day Blinker Bar now serving up top-notch cocktails over on Spring Gardens. By all accounts, it was a real ‘if you know, you know’ kind of gaff…
Next up is the old Grinch bar and grill, which used to be on Chapel Walks just off Cross St, and sadly closed back in 2016 after more than two decades.
More than a few Mancs said they “loved” either visiting and/or working here back in the day, and another cited that “their fried chicken was amazing”.
There’s plenty still open around there these days – including the likes of 10 Tib Lane, New Wave Ramen and the ever-reliable Town Hall Tavern – but evidently, there’s still plenty that really miss it. These days, it’s a pretty good Korean place called Annyeong.
6. Dry Bar/’Dry201′
This next one is a location that does still exist and is technically still a very busy bar most evenings, weekends and sunny afternoons if you can get a seat in the window.
However, many will argue that nothing quite compares to the old Dry Bar, a.k.a. Dry201/’FAC 201′, over in the Northern Quarter.
Nowadays, it’s home to the new and improved Freemount, which moved from its previous venue on Oldham Street; nevertheless, countless people still recall the watering hole in “the original format” as one of the best bars in town.
Their social presence still exists. (Credit: Dry Bar via Facebook)
7. UCP
One we’ve heard tales of now and again over the years, but still slightly wince whenever we hear the full name. In case you’re unaware, UCP is an abbreviation of United Cattle Products, which was the name of a company that had a big presence here in Greater Manchester.
To be fair, it was a pretty familiar brand across the region and the North as a whole, but their flagship four-storey shop over at Market Street/Pall Mall was the go-to place for lots of meat products.
We’ll say it, one of the main things people would go there to seek out was that word that still makes lots of people squirm: tripe – but remember, for generations this was a very common ingredient in various meals and for some, still is.
8. Croma
Ok, this one is more of a recent one that we’re sure lots of you still remember like it was yesterday, because in relative terms to most of this list, it kind of was.
Croma in Manchester city centre shut in 2022 after the pandemic, their Didsbury restaurant closed by March 2023, and the Chorlton site followed suit just last year.
However, we still maintain we’ve had some of our best pizza nights in these places.
For our/your penultimate pick, a fair few people noted Henry’s, which also lay claim to being Manchester’s ‘first’ cafe bar back in the day – that, of course, is still up for debate.
The group behind this brand opened up a venue in our city centre back in 1986, near Parsonage Gardens, but only made it to 2007 despite remaining fairly popular for a long time.
It went on to be replaced by another chain in Revolution; however, they are also closing locations all across the UK. Gutting.
It was arguably better known in London, such as in Mayfair. (Credit: Ewan Munro via Flickr)
10. Cornerhouse
Last but not least, the legacy of the Cornerhouse cinema needs no explanation, really, but there’s a lot to be said for the lasting love lots of people had for their memories made in there and the joint bar next door, quite literally spitting distance away.
Still sitting like a bittersweet reminder on the (you guessed it) corner leading up to Oxford Road Station and Whitworth Street, the theatre itself is home to little more than gig posters and an ever-changing rotation of murals these days.
However, you will be glad to know that the bar and visual arts centre across the road is still Manchester Metropolitan’s Arts, Culture and Media Hub, so it’s still alive in some fashion.
We (well, I*) couldn’t wrap up this round-up without paying tribute to one of the best places this city has ever seen, let alone just NQ.
It might not be right at the top of your dream revival list, but we’re sure plenty of you will agree that, for a period of time, CBR+B was the place to be.
Emily Sergeant -
27th November 2020 
