Hatch, the indie street food market nestled underneath one of Manchester’s busiest ring roads, has long been a popular choice amongst foodies on the hunt for something new.
With traders selling everything from perfectly-formed traditional Sicilian arancini, to Teesside parmos and a glittery crumble stall with unlimited custard refills, it has a well-earned reputation for housing some of the city’s most interesting food traders.
This month, the kitchen teams have put their heads together to launch a host of globally-inspired breakfast dishes which means we’ve now got another reason to get ourselves down Oxford Road.
With choices spanning Ethiopian and Eritrean-inspired fry-ups, sweet and savoury focaccia breakfast butties, and a special deep-fried French toast from the team at Parmogeddon, there are some really interesting new dishes to dig into here.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Of its more than thirty independent businesses in the village, a total of seven food traders are involved with globe-trotting dishes spanning the regions of North Eastern Africa, Brazil, Texas, Teeside, Australia Sicily, and Mexico.
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As for this weekend, breakfast is now being served every Saturday and Sunday with quality steak shop Block dishing up steak and eggs on sourdough toast with avocado and chimichurri from 10am.
Parmogeddon, meanwhile, is putting its signature chicken tenders on deep-fried French toast with crispy bacon and hot honey for the mother of all breakfasts.
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House of Habesha is delivering its very own twist on the full English complete with scrambled eggs, lamb sausage, fava beans, fried tomatoes, hash brown, and brioche toast, as well as traditional Etrian breakfast Fata (a shredded pitta stewed with berbere spices), Turkish eggs, and egg frittatas.
Meanwhile, T’arricrii has put together a line of breakfast sarnies that sound so good it’s silly. Made on home-baked bread, these new Sicilian butties comprise sweet options like Nutella and pistachio as well as the likes of Caprese and Caponata.
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Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Elsewhere, you’ll find breakfast tacos, burritos and Mexican Breakfast Bowls, classic Mexican brunch dish Huevos Rancheros and buttermilk pancakes courtesy of the excellent Caroline Martins (ex-MasterChef and Great British Menu) and her Rio Mex team.
Add to that fresh and vibrant vegan breakfast bowls made using refreshing coconut water and super nutritious goji berries, as well as overnight oats and cacao smoothie bowls, and nourishing plant-based breakfast options from Herbivorous, and you really are spoilt for choice.
Starting on 19 August, Hatch will now be rising and shining at the earlier hour of 10am every Saturday and Sunday for breakfast.
The new Hatch morning experience is rounded off with a new collection of breakfast cocktails served at the Hatch Bar, alongside soft drinks, coffee, tea, and a selection of pastries and cakes courtesy of ASAP Coffee.
Featured image – The Manc Eats
Eats
Faulty Towers The Dining Experience is returning to Manchester next month
Daisy Jackson
One of the world’s silliest and most-loved experiences is returning to Manchester this year, offering people the chance to step inside the world of Fawlty Towers.
Faulty Towers The Dining Experience sees immersive theatre blend with a three-course dinner, bringing Britain’s most infamous hotel to life.
Fans of the hit 1970s comedy will enjoy two hours of mayhem led by Basil, Sybil and Manuel, all while tucking into a delicious era-appropriate meal.
Faulty Towers The Dining Experience has become an immersive dining phenomenon, scooping awards and selling out venues across the globe since launching almost 30 years ago.
In the years since, it’s welcomed more than one million guests, celebrated 13 years of its West End residency in London, and hosted celebrations for 50 years of the original BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers.
And now it’s Manchester’s turn, with the event returning to our city between 3 and 15 February.
Faulty Towers The Dining Experience is returning to ManchesterThe event is hosted by actors playing Basil, Sybil and ManuelAround 70% of the action is improvisedGuests are served a three-course 70s-inspired meal during the Faulty Towers experienceCredit: Rosie Powell
Faulty Towers The Dining Experience will be taking over the Voco hotel on Portland Street for a limited run, starring Aaron Millard as ‘Basil’, Rebecca Norris as ‘Sybil’, and Simon Hourihan as ‘Manuel’.
You can definitely expect two hours of theatre, chaos, and a 70s-inspired three-course meal, but with around 70% of the performances completely improvised, we can’t tell you much more than that…
Producer Jared Harford said: “It’s such a joy to be bringing Basil and the team back to Manchester. After such an incredible 2025 celebrating 50 years of Fawlty Towers, we can’t wait to continue sharing the laughter, chaos and community spirit that make this show so special.”
Faulty Towers The Dining Experience in Manchester:
Tuesday 3 February to Sunday 15 February
Tuesday to Saturday – doors open 6.45pm, seating and show starts 7.30pm
Saturday and Sunday – doors open 12.45pm, seating and show starts 1.30pm
Ticket prices, all including three-course meal and two hour immersive experience:
Tuesday to Thursday dinner, and Saturday or Sunday lunch – £67.50 pp (including fees) Friday or Saturday dinner £71.50 pp (including fees). Bookings can be made via the box office on (+44) 020 3700 3138 or online at www.faultytowersdining.com
We’ve found some of the best Chinese food in town – being served out of a snooker hall
Danny Jones
Yes, you heard us right: we’ve stumbled across one of our favourite new places for Chinese food just on the outskirts of Manchester city centre – it just so happens to be served out of a best-in-class snooker hall.
And that really is just the tip of the iceberg here.
Some of you may have heard about and/or seen it already, but we’ll admit we were a little late to the party when it comes to Club 200, a.k.a. the pool, snooker, darts, mahjong club and more, which has so many different things rolled into that it’s really more a Russian doll than a Chinese restaurant or sports venue.
The hook speaks for itself: a place where people spend just as much time practising with chopsticks as they do their cues, as it really isn’t a gimmick, as some pessimistic folk would have you think – the food is banging and so are the vibes in general.
Not only is this quite literally the best snooker club in Manchester – complete with everything from classic American billiards and Chinese 8-ball to king-size snooker tables that the Ronnie O’Sullivan has played and won on, to a special AI system you won’t find anywhere else – it is SO much more than that.
Whilst the backroom was packed with everyone from casuals to those looking to get their pro certification via the official Q Tour, and lads in the front were practising their arrows, as co-owner Simon admitted they get almost just as many darts regulars these days, a storm was cooking up in the kitchen.
It would be unfair to say this place doubles as a bar and restaurant, because we really couldn’t get over how well put together this menu was.
‘Café 200’s food offerings involve classics like fried rice and chow mein dishes, to the kind of sides you could expect from your local Chinese chippy, but it’s even more authentic exports that really impress.
For instance, the beef ho fun seemed to be a big hit with everyone; we loved the salty seafood udon as well (a great chew on those noodles), and we know plenty of people still searching for proper Hong Kong-style French toast – they might just find it here.
Speaking of the special administrative region, which has a twisting and turning but nevertheless rich culinary culture all of its own, that last dish had us hopping with joy.
You’re looking at baked Portuguese rice: a Macau speciality rooted in the region’s colonial history.
We’ve never quite had anything like it before, even in all of our years eating this kind of cuisine around the 10 boroughs, but we haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
And then there’s everything else they do, from karaoke and bingo nights to catering for birthdays and other functions, or even just serving as a cool, somewhat tucked-away spot to watch the footy and other live sport come the weekend.
You can tell this place has built up a real community over the last 18 months or so, and while the food speaks for itself, it’s the sheer abundance and variety going on that makes it especially charming to so many.
Speaking of jack-of-all-trade venues, we stumbled across a similar multi-talented one over in Salford not so long ago, too…
Georgina Pellant -
14th August 2023 
