Freight Island has just announced some massive new arrivals and its biggest-ever spring-summer programme – including the arrival of Ornella’s Kitchen.
Joining Ornella’s Kitchen – a tiny Tameside restaurant which is consistently booked up MONTHS in advance – will be equally massive local names like Gooey and Hello Oriental.
The landmark street food and entertainment venue turns five this year, and is announcing new kitchens, a refreshed dining service, a new look, and a free to attend festival programme.
Set to reopen on Thursday 3 April, this next iteration of Freight Island will include new kitchens for some of Manchester’s best-known and best-loved operators.
Up first will be Ornella’s Little Kitchen – an announcement they already teased last week – where this in-demand Italian restaurant will be serving its pasta-deli specials in a new restaurant setting inside Freight Island. You’ll be able to book a table for Ornella’s Little Kitchen HERE.
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Also opening next month will be a Chinese BBQ spot from MOREJOY, huge French toast brunches from Gooey, and ice cream and desserts from Hello Oriental as they launch Hello Dezato.
Of course, Freight Island will have its returning resident kitchens too with fresh new menus, like chicken shop Patterson’s, Venezuelan food from Mia’s Arepas, smash burgers from the legendary Burgerism, giant pizza slices from Voodoo Ray’s, pan-Asian dishes from FUKU, Greek street food from Mega Gyros, and cheesecake on a stick from Oh My Cheesecake.
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Kantina will be back with curated supper clubs between Freight Island traders and guest chefs from across the country.
Beyond the food and drink offering, Freight Island will have a packed programme of a spring-summer festival programme, featuring Moovin Festival, Wookie, Greg Wilson, Optimo (Espacio), David Rodigan, Luke Una’s É Soul Cultura, DJ Paulette, Congo Natty, Crazy P (DJ Set), Fat Tony and loads more.
And there’ll be official takeovers and celebrations in the UK’s biggest dedicated sports fanzone, including UEFA Women’s Euros 2025 and the Woman’s Rugby World Cup.
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On joining Freight Island, Jamie at Ornella’s Kitchen, commented: “We’re incredibly excited to bring Ornella’s Little Kitchen to Freight Island and be part of such a dynamic food and entertainment space.
“Our pasta-deli specials have found a loyal following in Manchester, and we can’t wait to share our authentic Italian flavours in this new setting.”
Dan Morris, Managing Director at Freight Island, said: “Freight Island was always imagined as a place for innovation and pushing boundaries and this year’s update is about taking us closer to that original vision.
“With the incredible new food, a refreshed dining experience and our biggest Spring/Summer festival line-up yet, we’re set for an unforgettable season.”
Ancoats neighbourhood bar shames customers who ran off on unpaid rosé bill
Daisy Jackson
A waterside cocktail bar in Ancoats has slammed a group of customers who left the venue without paying their bill this weekend.
Finders Keepers on New Islington Marina has publicly shamed the trio, sharing CCTV images of them making off from the venue.
The local business has labelled the customers ‘Manchester’s newest girl group, Rosé & The Runners’.
They added that the group had enjoyed a few bottles of rosé wine but left before paying their £160 bill.
Finders Keepers also said that the incident occurred on a ‘record-breaking’ day last Saturday, when the city bathed in beautiful spring sunshine.
Since releasing the CCTV images this afternoon, the bar has been flooded with messages of support – including one very notable one from Sacha Lord.
Sacha has offered to pay off the girls’ tab so that the bar isn’t left out of pocket, AND has suggested providing a £500 reward to anyone who can name and shame them.
He commented: “Everyone knows how tough it is in Hospitality right now…how can anyone want to do this to a small independent business. I’ll settle that bill mate…plus give a £500 reward to name and shame them.”
Finders Keepers bar on New Islington MarinaFinders Keepers shared this CCTV of the customers who left the bar without paying
Another person commented: “foul behaviour! Sorry this happened to you guys.”
Someone else wrote: “Love a good photo shame when folk rip off a business… Hope they pay!!”
Posting earlier today, Finders Keepers said: “We’d like to thank Manchesters newest girl group, Rosé & The Runners. Who enjoyed a few bottles of Rosé wine with us on this record breaking Saturday, without paying.
“If you’d like to come back & pay your £160 bill then we’re back open on Wednesday, alternatively get in touch and we can send you a payment link.
“Next time you fancy a free bar tab perhaps join us for our quiz this Sunday from 7pm. £100 tab to be won!
Brilliant Salford Greek restaurant receives glowing national review
Daisy Jackson
A fabulous Greek restaurant in Salford has received a glowing review from a top food critic, who described its food as providing ‘its own gorgeous kind of sunshine’.
Acclaimed restaurant critic Jay Rayner has heaped praise on Kallos in his Financial Times review.
The modest restaurant has been open for just over a year, but has already earned itself a place in the prestigious Michelin guide – and now a rave national review too.
Operated by couple Ioanna and Ivan, Kallos brings a taste of Santorini to their stripped-back, concrete-filled, light-flooded new space in Salford.
And while Jay Rayner admits in his review that Kallos’s interior hasn’t done much to lift this corner of Salford’s ‘badly organised grid of fast-rising apartment blocks’, the food itself ‘provides its own gorgeous kind of sunshine’.
Rayner heaped praise on Kallos’s phenomenal flatbreads, noting how it’s impossible to exercise restraint ‘in the face of bread this good’.
He also raved about their topped flatbreads (like one with ‘knots of sweet roasted lamb shoulder cooked until it has collapsed’), red prawns the length of a hand, and soft dolmades stuffed with rice and minced meat.
Topped flatbread with lambTinned fishPrawn SaganakiThree of the dishes Jay Rayner loved at Kallos. Credit: The Manc Group
Kallos is part-owned by sommelier Ivan, who is striving to have the largest collection of Greek wines in the UK at the restaurant.
Jay Rayner noted both the selection and the affordability of this carefully-curated wine list, saying that it’s nice to find that ‘outside London, drinking well need not require the sale of a spare kidney or child’.
And then he came to the section of the menu that’s dedicated to premium tinned fish.
“It feels like the UK has woken up only relatively recently to the possibilities of impressively fine foods from a can,” he wrote.
Kallos in Cortland at Colliers Yard, SalfordKallos in Salford has been added to the Michelin Guide
“It is genuinely exciting to see Kallos devote a whole section of the menu to these treasures, even if it is basically the same victory of shopping that results in a good cheese board.
“But it takes both serious knowledge and a brave evangelical enthusiasm to offer a list like this.”
Rayner’s review went on to praise the tinned mackerel, served with a ‘balloon of hot bread’, pickled chillies, and an ‘aioli made with so much garlic, consenting adults should make sure to eat it together’.
Signing off his review, Jay Rayner wrote: “As the plate lands on the table, the sun finally comes out over both Salford and Kallos. Finally, the grey is banished. At last, all the beauty is here.”
Daisy Jackson -
25th February 2025 
