Eats

Luxurious Manchester bar Sexy Fish named as one of the best in the entire world

It's only been open a few months!

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 10th May 2024

A luxurious bar in Spinningfields has been named among the best in the world in a brand-new bar guide.

Sexy Fish, the Manchester bar and restaurant that’s filled with bold and bright interiors and giant sea creature sculptures, has been named as one of the best on the planet.

The bar was hailed for its ‘down-to-earth gracious service’ and for having ‘premium hospitality with a northern tint’.

Sexy Fish Manchester was singled out in the new The Pinnacle Guide, which labels itself as ‘the drinks industry’s answer to Michelin’.

The guide will award ‘Pins’ (much like how Michelin awards Stars) to bars across the planet, with a maximum of three Pins handed out to truly exceptional establishments.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Pinnacle Guide has been conceived by a trio of talented drinks professionals; Hannah-Sharman Cox, Siobhan Payne and Dan Dove.

Of Sexy Fish Manchester, they acknowledged the ‘wow-factor’ of the bar, helped along by huge artworks by the likes of Damien Hirst, Frank Gehry and Michael Roberts.

ADVERTISEMENT
Inside Sexy Fish Manchester
Sexy Fish Manchester has a huge bar in the heart of the building

They also said: “While the decor sets the tone, the service and drinks at Sexy Fish Manchester are up to the task of continuing it. Drinks menus are a reflection of the creativity and innovation of the team and the cocktail list is a collaboration across the global group.

“Flavours are dreamt up, and trialled and tested by the team before being approved and every drink that makes it to the menu tends to have some form of prep involved which takes place off-site in a group beverage lab, be it infusion, distillation, oleos, sous vide or casein clarification.

“Cocktails across the group are therefore very modern, often innovative and presented with extreme flamboyance.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The guide continued: “Located as this venue is in Manchester, the blend of Sexy Fish glamour with the down-to-earth hospitality style of the north England may feel incompatible but the staff here prove otherwise.

“In a venue that is all about opulence, they are committed to guiding guests through the offering and relaxing them into the high-energy venue.”

Congratulations Sexy Fish Manchester – what a bar!

Read more

Featured image: The Manc Group

Eats

Sora – Manchester’s newest rooftop restaurant offers an Oriental adventure with its afternoon tea

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Afternoon tea at Sora in Manchester

One of Manchester’s newest restaurant openings has been receiving plenty of attention thanks to its rooftop views right across the city centre skyline.  

But even without the incredible setting, the food at Sora is deserving of attention too. 

This beautiful restaurant has a pan-Asian menu of small plates and robatayaki (a Japanese barbecue) dishes, as well as an afternoon tea that’s a little more interesting than your average. 

Sora’s afternoon tea experience promises a ‘sensory journey to the orient’ through perfect bites of sushi, savoury dishes, and sweet treats. 

For just £35 per person, you’re treated to a tower of delicacies, with a free cocktail added in for readers of The Manc (claim yours at the bottom of this article). 

The afternoon tea’s savouries feature tempura prawns with sweet chilli sauce, a cucumber sesame salad, chicken yakitori with tamarind and peanut, and pork belly with burnt apple puree. 

Then there are a couple of beautiful sushi dishes – a spicy tuna gunkan and classic California rolls.

The views from Sora in Malmaison in Manchester. Credit: Supplied
The views from Sora in Malmaison in Manchester. Credit: Supplied
The Manc readers can get a free cocktail when booking afternoon tea at Sora. Credit: The Manc Group
The Manc readers can get a free cocktail when booking afternoon tea at Sora. Credit: The Manc Group

The sweet treats go way beyond your usual scones and Victoria sponges too, infusing exciting flavours from across Asia in this twist on a British tradition. 

There’s a blueberry bergamot roll, a matcha chocolate slice, a mango coconut dome, and dinky miso caramel chocolate tarts.

Oh, there are still scones too – these ones are matcha flavoured, with a kumquat compote and clotted cream. 

Even the crockery is amazing – the afternoon treats are served on a tower of plates arranged around a ceramic golden stork. 

There’s a massive list of cocktails to choose from at Sora, from cherry blossom negronis to passion fruit mai tais. 

Sora’s main menu is packed full of sashimi, grilled meats, crispy fried small plates, and seasonal specials. 

There’s also a set lunch menu, where you can choose one dish from each section of the menu – sushi, robata grill and crispy – for only £25. 

Sora is the crown jewel in the stylish Malmaison Deansgate hotel, Manchester’s newest luxury hotel. 

To book your Sora afternoon tea, head here. And to add a cocktail to your afternoon tea free of charge, simply quote TheManc in the booking comments. 

Read more: A guide to the brand-new Co-op Live Arena: drinks prices, how to get there, capacity and more

Featured image: Supplied

Eats

Rigatoni’s in Ancoats – formerly known as Sugo – is closing for good

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson

Rigatoni’s has announced the shock closure of its pasta restaurant in Ancoats, saying ‘we have failed not just ourselves, but more importantly our customers and our staff’.

The restaurant used to be known as Sugo Pasta Kitchen, later rebranding to Sud and then on to Rigatoni’s.

At the time of its latest rebrand the restaurant group had four locations around Greater Manchester, but closed its sites in Sale and then at Exhibition food hall.

Ancoats had been Sugo’s second restaurant and was a key part of the neighborhood’s regeneration.

In a statement shared online today, they wrote that the last year had been ‘brutal’ and a ‘massive uphill battle’.

They wrote that Rigatoni’s had been an attempt to ‘create a more affordable, accessible, but still quality product that could be replicated across many sites’ – but added: “I/we now have to accept that we have failed in this mission.”

Rigatoni’s in Ancoats will close its doors for good on Saturday 25 May.

As for their final restaurant over in Altrincham, it sounds as though the team will be bringing back in a little bit of the Sugo DNA that made them so loved in Manchester – ‘Pugliese crockery / the small, ever changing and considered menu will be scrawled all over our chalkboard / deliveroo will no longer be a part of what we do’, they wrote.

Rigatoni’s statement in full as they close Ancoats restaurant

I know you all must be sick of the sight of yet another announcement from us, and I can definitely understand why.

The last 12 months (and even going back to covid) have been brutal to say the least. We’ve been on a constant mission to try to make our restaurants sustainable – for us, for our customers, and for our staff, in what has felt like a massive uphill battle, in the midst of conditions that obviously have not been unique to us.

Rigatoni’s Ancoats is closing for good. Credit: The Manc Group

The latest attempt to do this was in the guise of going all out to create a more affordable, accessible, but still quality product that could be replicated across many sites. I/we now have to accept that we have failed in this mission. The hardest part is that we have failed not just ourselves, but more importantly our customers and our staff, and for this we are truly sorry.

What this means is that unfortunately our Ancoats restaurant will be closing this week, with the last day of service being Saturday the 25th May. We’ve an incredible and talented team of people there, who I know will go on from us to do great things – a huge thank you to them for doing there absolute all in trying to make work whatever we have put before them.

After the journey of the last few years, we’ve really spent time recently considering what the most important values were to us that we held closest when we first started out.

Quite honestly it was simply to create unique, high quality southern Italian inspired dishes, with a small, deeply passionate and committed team, that cannot be found elsewhere. And this is what we want to breathe back into our Altrincham restaurant – to give you a product and a service that you and us can be proud of. We’re not going to be trying to compete with anyone else – we will simply endeavour night and day to be the best possible version of ourselves that we can be, offering a unique experience that will only be found in the walls of our small Altrincham restaurant.

To give you a feel for what I’m talking about – we’ll be bringing back our Pugliese crockery / the small, ever changing and considered menu will be scrawled all over our chalkboard / deliveroo will no longer be a part of what we do / we’ll be committed to the principle of offering nothing ‘standard’. Oh, and our Dad is coming up to help us make this happen!

We won’t be changing our name (we’ve done this way too many times plus we want to focus all our attention on delivering the above), but I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear that the red will be going! This mission begins in Altrincham from 5pm on Wednesday the 5th June. Until then we will run a normal service.

Read more

Featured image – The Manc Group

More Eats

Sunday roast at Albert's Schloss

Eats

Albert’s Schloss – Manchester’s busiest nightlife hotspot is also serving some of the city’s best roasts

Moor Hall in Ormskirk, the best restaurant in England

Eats

Moor Hall – What it’s like to eat at officially the best restaurant in England

Wholesome Junkies has announced some 'major changes' after struggling with the rising costs of running the vegan restaurant

Eats

Vegan restaurant in Manchester pleads for ‘understanding and support’ after sharing ‘heavy news’

Audio

Clint Boon takes us around Manchester's iconic Deaf Institute

Eats

We go meatballs deep with Mira's traditional Neapolitan sandwiches