Eats

Arndale Market favourite Hong Thai is opening a new Manchester restaurant after a devastating fire

Honestly, great news all round.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 23rd May 2024

Hong Thai – a firm favourite of all the traders in the Arndale Market – has finally found a new home after a devastating fire shuttered its first Manchester location.

The beloved Thai business now has its very own bricks and mortar restaurant just a short walk away from its original spot in town.

Now based on Oldham Road, a strip often referred to as Little Vietnam, Hong Thai is back with a vengeance and ready to open on Friday.

Their cosy new restaurant has been decorated in sunny yellow and colourful wall art, matching the sunny welcome that all diners are greeted with.

While it’s a brand new location, they’re sticking to the winning formula that gained them so many loyal fans in the Arndale.

That means huge portions at low prices, warm-hearted service, and vibrant dishes that will warm you from the inside out.

Thai and Hong Kong dishes and snacks start from just £3.50, and absolutely nothing on the menu will cost you more than £12.

Lilly and the team at Hong Thai
Lilly and the team at Hong Thai
Hong Thai's new home in Manchester is on Oldham Road
Hong Thai’s new home in Manchester is on Oldham Road

House favourites include their menu of hearty Thai curries, always packing just the right amount of heat and singing with fresh flavours.

Hong Kong beef buns have a satisfyingly crisp base from their meeting with the frying pan, but are soft and juicy inside.

There are classic stir-fries like a crispy chilli chicken, coated in a sticky orange sauce, and a Thai green curry packed with perfectly-cooked veggies.

A highlight is the Khao Soi, a northern Thai take on a laksa – it’s a gigantic bowl loaded to the brim with a coconut curry sauce, chicken balls, prawns, tofu and egg noodles.

Vegetable dumplings
Vegetable dumplings
Thai green curry
Thai green curry
Tricolour coconut and red bean ice
Tricolour coconut and red bean ice
Khao Soi from Hong Thai in Manchester
Khao Soi from Hong Thai
Soft beef buns
Soft beef buns

Posting about their new home in Manchester, Hong Thai wrote: “After a long six months of plenty of hard work, sweat and tears we are finally happy to announce that Hong Thai is back!

“Our doors open to the public on Friday 24th May. We know the anticipation has been high so we will do nothing other than fulfill our customers expectations.

“With a new-improved menu with our classics still making a feature, we are ready to serve up our heartwarming customers.

“Our new home is located in Ancoats, 140 Oldham Road. Across the road from Wing Yip Supermarket. Just a 6 minute walk from Shudehill Bus Station.”

We couldn’t be happier for them.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

Eats

The first new tenant of the old Debenhams department store on Market Street has been confirmed

Danny Jones Danny Jones new food hall opening in Ryland building old Debenhams department store Manchester

The first new resident of the Rylands Building on Market Street in central Manchester has been revealed, and it’s a foodie one.

Set to be the maiden opening inside the old Debenhams department store, which closed after more than three decades back in 2021, Rylands’ debut won’t be for another year or so, but it will soon welcome Mancs with an increasingly popular food hall operator making its way up north.

Simply called Market Place, the ever-growing brand is fast becoming a well-established name, with four venues in the capital already and a fifth coming soon.

Rylands will be their first location outside of London, and with 1,300 sqm of space at their disposal, Market Place Manchester is set to make a significant splash on the high street.

market place food halls london
A look at Market Place Peckham.
market place food hall manchester city centre
A rough idea of what the Manchester branch could look like.

Developers managed to green-light plans for the Grade II-listed building last November, sharing the first details and glimpses of their vision for the instantly recognisable city centre spot, including a whole new rooftop terrace.

Currently earmarked for a late 2026 launch, the former department store (previously Paulden’s) consisted of seven floors but is now set for a four-storey extension that promises to be a massive and varied retail, leisure and business destination that makes the most of the expansive structure.

Not to be confused with the famous John Rylands Library – a much older, more gothic, historic and hallowed hall over on Deansgate – this task of ‘revitalising a Manchester icon’, to quote property firm AM ALPHA, is a huge undertaking.

In charge of the redevelopment since 2023, the group have been outlining a pretty complete overhaul, with plans to convert the upper floors into premium office space, and the creation of a retail arcade at ground level, on which Market Place Manchester will sit.

This particular Manc corner was a bustling food, drink and shopping complex for the longest time, but has been derelict and covered up by boards for what feels like forever, with urban explorers even roaming the large, abandoned building.

rylands building market st manchester
Credit: Supplied

Now, though, the new long-term 15-year lease agreement will see the latest food hall kick off a new era for Rylands, delivering socially focused venues and the range of flavourful, vibrant choices of scran that Market Place have become known for.

With sites in St Paul’s, Vauxhall, Peckham, Harrow and soon Baker Street – as well as their eventual Manchester outpost, of course – the chain is getting bigger and better, meaning its arrival in the North West is an exciting one.

AM ALPHA manager Paul Hodgkiss said in an official statement: “Manchester is a city with a vibrant cultural scene – the perfect environment for forward-thinking concepts like Market Place Food Hall…

“The early commitment to Rylands is no coincidence: it reflects the strength of our strategic and forward-looking approach to development. We are not just creating high-quality space – we are setting new standards for urban mixed-use concepts. Interest from further prospective tenants is strong.”

It was only last week that Greater Manchester’s latest market hall, Campfield Studios, said hello to the general public and with House of Social also opening this summer, among several other similar projects, soon you won’t be able to move for more social hospitality scenes like this:

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Featured Images — Press shots/CGIs (supplied)

Eats

Hotel Chocolat to open viral chocolate Velvetiser Cafe in Manchester

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Hotel Chocolat to open viral chocolate Velvetiser Cafe in Manchester

Hotel Chocolat is set to open a Velvetiser Cafe in Manchester city centre, and it’ll be absolute paradise for chocolate lovers.

The popular chocolate shop, which has stores across the UK selling delicious chocolate bars, boxes and more, is now preparing to branch out in town.

Hotel Chocolat then hit a new level of fame with its Velvetiser, an invention that creates velvety smooth hot drinks at the touch of a button.

They’ve been so popular, Hotel Chocolat is now opening Velvetiser Cafes across the UK – and Manchester is up next.

If it follows in the footsteps of the Meadowhall cafe in Sheffield, visitors will be able to customise their perfect hot chocolate from thousands of combinations.

There are 18 flavours, different milks, and a whole variety of toppings available.

Then you drink can be served hot, over ice, or as a choc shake.

Colourful hoardings for the Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser Cafe have now appeared on Cross Street, just next door to the new Joe & The Juice.

A planning application has also been lodged with Manchester City Council.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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