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.
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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.
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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.”
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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!
One of Manchester’s grandest restaurants has finally reopened TWO YEARS after fire
Daisy Jackson
One of the most historic restaurants in Manchester has reopened at last, two years after a fire forced its closure.
Mount Street Dining Room & Bar – which many of us may remember as Mr Cooper’s – stands within the Grade II-listed Midland Hotel.
The grand dining room dates all the way back to 1903, when it opened with the hotel as the Grill Room.
The restaurant was at the epicentre of the Industrial Revolution and was frequented by railway travellers, perhaps best-known for hosting a lunch between Charles Rolls and Henry Royce in 1904, who went on to form the world-famous Rolls-Royce brand.
The Midland’s restaurants has gone through several changes in the decades since, undergoing a major £14 million refurb in 2020 to relaunch as Mount Street Dining Room & Bar.
Its interiors are inspired by the hotel’s early 1900s art deco and railway heritage, with a menu that focuses on locally-sourced British produce.
But the restaurant has been shut since early 2024, when a fire damaged the entrance and trellising around its main entrance on Mount Street.
The beautiful bar areaA glimpse of the menu at Mount StreetCocktails and British food
The Midland has finally managed to get the restaurant back open again this month, with a new food and cocktail menus, which aims to offer refined but simple British dining.
Expect dishes like pork and black pudding bonbons, white onion soup with crispy potatoes, smoked British salmon with lemon gel and dill mascarpone, and slow cooked beef daube with confit garlic mash.
Plus desserts such as rice pudding with Anise glazed pearsand Bakewell pudding with cherry syrup.
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen inside this beautiful, storied dining room – and it looks just as beautiful as we remember.
Daisy Jackson -
10th May 2024 
