Greater Manchester is a great culinary destination, currently boasting 13 listings in the most prestigious and well-known of guides, the Michelin Guide.
These now include two Michelin Stars, thanks to Skof nabbing one less than a year after opening, plus three Bib Gourmands.
Bib Gourmands celebrate ‘high-quality food at reasonable prices’ – though they’re still not something most of us can afford to visit every week.
These are the very best restaurants in Greater Manchester, and come with a price tag to reflect that, and while they’re worth every penny there are ways to go and sample these establishments without spending your entire week’s food shop on one single dish.
We’ve pulled together a list of how you can try some Michelin-recommended restaurants in Manchester for less.
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You can see the full list of all the Greater Manchester restaurants included in the Michelin Guide HERE.
Topping the list of Michelin-recommended spots is Mana, which became the first restaurant in 40 years to bring home a Michelin star for Manchester, thanks to its incredibly technical, creative tasting menus served from its stunning space in Ancoats.
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The Michelin Guide says: “The personality and experience of chef-owner Simon Martin shine brightly at this stylish, modern restaurant, where every one of the well-spaced tables has a view of the kitchen.”
The normal ‘complete’ tasting menu will set you back £175 plus service – a VERY special treat for most – but if you want a little taste of what they can do, go for their ‘Extracts menu’ at £95, which will show you in nine courses a little of what chef patron Simon Martin and his team can do.
It’s very special.
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Skof, NOMA
Michelin-recommended Skof scooped a star in its first year. Credit: Cristian BarrettChef Tom Barnes inside his restaurant Skof / Credit: Cristian Barrett
This relative newcomer to Manchester has already scooped itself a Michelin Star, mere months after launching – and we can’t stress enough how well-deserved that accolade is.
With a real Michelin-tinted CV, including honing his skills at three-star L’Enclume, chef Tom Barnes is destined for great things.
And you can try it for yourself at lunchtimes for a very reasonable £50, where you’re given a few courses to show off their links to Our Farm for fresh produce, fantastic desserts, and locally-sourced meat.
Of the two full tasting menus, one is priced at £120, the other at £165. Don’t scoff at me when I say they’re worth it.
Another Hand, Deansgate
Jaan by Michelin-recommended Manchester restaurant Another Hand
Another Hand is one of those restaurants that’s just quietly getting on with it and doing a fantastic job, serving, according to the Michelin Guide, ‘eye-catching’ small plates.
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Another Hand has a little sister site too, in Jaan, tucked into one of the kitchens at the beautiful Exhibition food hall.
Here you can get a taste of their fantastic cooking along with dishes from other traders, with a lot of Persian flatbreads.
Higher Ground, New York Street
Higher Ground is officially one of Britain’s best local restaurants. Credit: The Manc GroupHigher Ground in Manchester has been awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand
It’s not just the Michelin Guide that’s been impressed by Higher Ground – it’s also one of Rick Stein’s favourite places to eat in the UK, which is the kind of high praise we can get on board with.
Every dinner at Higher Ground is different, with a menu that rolls with the seasons, whole-animal butchery, veg from their own Cinderwood Market Garden and excellent wines.
You can order a la carte, but they recommend putting yourself in their hands with a sharing menu, which is only £40 at lunch times (compared to £58 in the evenings).
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El Gato Negro, King Street
Another restaurant that’s earned itself a Bib Gourmand is Simon Shaw’s El Gato Negro, the brilliant, multi-storey Spanish restaurant right in the heart of King Street.
Famed for its great-value tapas and gorgeous interiors, they also have a decent deal that allows you to try this Bib Gourmand-level Spanish food for less.
Every weekday between 12pm and 5pm, then again all day on Sundays, you can get three tapas dishes for £20.
And if you’re feeling really patient, they also do tend to pop up at the Manchester Christmas Markets with Spanish sandwiches and street food.
Where The Light Gets In, Stockport
Sam Buckley’s incredible restaurant over in Stockport put the town firmly on the culinary map and earned itself a ‘green’ Michelin star a couple of years ago, recognised for its sustainability practices.
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Over there, its full tasting menus start at £125 per person, but the team are currently running an exciting pop-up series in Manchester, including a bistro pop-up with four courses for £50.
They also hosted a fast food-inspired diner earlier this year, with every single burger made from just one cow – once the beef ran out, the restaurant closed.
The Marble Arch is increasingly becoming much more than a pub – it’s now a brilliant Manc bistro
Danny Jones
If you’ve been to The Marble Inn in Manchester before, you’ll know it’s always nailed cosy Northern pub vibes; to tell the truth, the food has always been pretty good, too, but their new menu is really something to write home about.
So we did.
The historic old boozer located on Rochdale Road has sat there in some shape or form since way back in 1888, and naturally, things have evolved significantly over the years – decades, certainly.
But the latest iteration of food and drink at the increasingly forward-thinking Marble Arch Inn is a cut above, bringing together a fusion of current culinary trends and contemporary takes on pub classics.
No. 73 enters a new chapterOne of the best pies we’ve probably ever hadCredit: The Manc Eats
Now just over a month into its run at the home of Marble Brewers just beyond Ancoats, it feels rather fitting that this place has always sat on the cusp of surrounding districts in somewhat of a Manc no-man’s land, as there’s something about this place that feels like it’s dancing on the line of a scene.
Recently installed head chef Adam Shatarsky is still self-admittedly pretty green in comparison to lots of other local chefs, as he’s only been cooking for around five years, but his spells at Mackie Mayor’s Taiko and Cardinal Rule in NQ have already proved he’s got to grips with how the city eats.
His food just keeps getting better and more confident in experimentation, it would seem – as proven with this approach to Marble Arch classics like fish and chips, their pies, burgers, the treasured Sunday roast and so on.
The difference is now that some of these mainstays and undeniable British favourites have been levelled up quite significantly. Now there’s bone marrow in the mince used for those oh-so-juicy patties; toast is fried in beef fat to dovetail with a tartare dish, and the chips are some of the best you’ll find in a pub.
Seriously, they even use the Brewery‘s new cult favourite Earl Grey keg flavour to make their rarebit recipe. In fact, when one local punter saw that the staff were enjoying a posh chip butty with wild garlic and mushrooms for the staff, they couldn’t help but ask for one, and now it’s a special menu item.
A familiar faceThree small plates for £25Credit: The Manc
This is the kind of ethos they’re trying to keep across the board: attempting new things and trying to be more modern when it’s appropriate, but still holding onto their traditions and looking after their regulars.
Adam’s only ever trained in British kitchens, so he admitted doesn’t know any different really, but he does know the global variety offlavours and textures he likes and is not afraid of trying to find ways to make even the most contrasting ones come together.
Case in point: freezing and shaving feta over lemon ricotta and fresh beetroots. Stunning.
He’s even brought over a variation of his popular fried chicken sando from Taiko, though this one has nowhere near as much of that Eastern heat, and instead focuses on the theme of making hearty and filling comfort food.
For instance, there’s an undercurrent of just that extra little bit of richness running throughout the menu, from the bone marrow that makes already satisfying dishes even more indulgent, to the tallow, truffle and drippings that are used to great effect.
The same goes for the use of cheese, as well: even in the simply incredible mixed mature cheddar and red Leicester curd that surrounds that singular 72-hour caramelised onions (wow doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of our for this one.
All of them are big top-note flavours, sure, but none of them overpowers the overall taste, whether it be brining and curing chicken in dark brown sugar and soy, or a 16-hour low and slow braised beef that literally melts in the mouth from the bread and the butter to the eventual meaty bite.
We can’t speak highly enough of what is now being served out of The Marble Arch Inn’s kitchen, and truly believe what Adam and the existing pub team are now doing is brilliant and very much worth shouting about.
Can’t beat a burger and beerSuch a cosy spotMmmmadeleinesCredit: The Manc Group
‘We were so lucky to have it’ – Has Manchester’s hospo scene reached a dangerous tipping point?
Danny Jones
Greater Manchester’s hospitality sector is calling for change and better support, both for the local community and the UK government, following the latest raft of closures.
Various well-known independent businesses have closed in the first quarter of 2026 across the city centre, let alone the numerous others across the ten boroughs over the past year or so.
In truth, this worrying trend has been going on for much longer than the last 12 months, and it seems that it’s not just new openings that are most at risk of closing before they can even get going, but now well-established regional institutions are struggling to stay afloat.
Case in point, our oldest Turkish restaurant – which had been serving central Manchester for nearly half a century – Topkapi Palace, has now closed seemingly for good.
A recent addition to the city centre itself, French-Vietnamese cafe and restaurant Doux Chaton wrote on social media: “This is genuinely so sad to see. Topkapi Palace is part of Manchester’s fabric. Running an independent spot is no joke — it takes everything.
“If we keep letting places like this go, we lose more than food; we lose culture, history, identity. Please support your local independents where you can. It matters more than ever – our representatives need to support our community not only regionally but nationally.”
They went on to tag the likes of Mayor Andy Burnham, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and others to call for crucial intervention sooner rather than later.
For some, it’s unfortunately already too late.
Currently, their Stockport in Hazel Grove looks to be remaining open, but we’ve seen this story before; Almost Famous, Seven Brothers, Greens, and SO many others have sadly had to shut up most, if not all, of their locations.
As of this May, we’ve already had to say goodbye to the likes of Topkapi, KAJI, Climat and House of Fu; Project Halcyon, Örme, the long-standing TNQ, the first-ever Northern Simmons site, a branch of Banyan, just to name an unlucky few.
This is just heartbreaking. We can’t carry on with either this PM or Chancellor. Both need stepping to one side and allowing others mop up their disaster of a tenure.
And that’s just the ones that shut down in the first few months of this calendar year; 2025 was a gut-wrenching year for the food and drink industry, with indies all over the region and beyond having to fight tooth and nail to stay open for even just a few days of weekly trade.
Almost just as concerning has been some of the behaviour by some patrons, even here in our own city.
From more than one or two reports of people walking out on their bills, people even nicking the most petty stuff, such as decorations and bar’s cushions, to a troubling number of no-shows that don’t just mean one less reservation – it can mean the next person missing out on a seat and people losing money.
Another nearby native commented: “I honestly think Manchester is on a tipping point for many people – what was ‘old’ Manchester, which many of us loved, is being slowly erased by the new. People here are saying basically ‘use it or lose it’.
“Fair enough, but there’s very little spare money about, and I hear lots of people saying they don’t go into town for the day to spend that money shopping and for a meal or treat-day because they don’t ‘recognise the place’.”
They go on to add: “Most importantly, they often say they don’t like Manchester now. The towers that are shoved in places where you could see daylight and there was space to walk and breathe are overwhelming.
“I’m not being reactionary – I love New Islington and Cutting Room Square, etc., but NQ has lost its grit, and I find Deansgate really soulless and depressing when once I used to go out every night after work for drinks, and go in every month with the family on a Saturday for culture, shop and a meal.
“No more. Love Manchester, but I’m not in love with it anymore. Topkapi was great once, and it’s sad it’s gone.” A passionate appeal, indeed.
It goes without saying that rising energy bills, untenable business rates, rent, and a general cost of living crisis mean that people simply don’t have enough money to go out for tea, treat themselves to a drink in a nice bar, or even just go to the pub as often as they once did.
We’re by no means experts, but it’s easy for all to see that something needs to be done and fast, as we’d like to avoid seeing any more of our hard-working Manc favourites falling by the wayside and joining the list of those that we’re still mourning to this day.
Daisy Jackson -
19th February 2025 
