Eats

Popular Leeds ramen spot House of Fu confirms Manchester opening date

The hit Leeds ramen restaurant will open in Manchester this October.

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 19th September 2023

After much anticipation, a popular Leeds ramen spot has confirmed the date it will open in Manchester.

House of Fu will open their doors in Manchester on Friday 20 October 2023, serving up classic and inventive bowls of ramen, vibrant rice dishes and homemade gyoza, all paired with carefully selected cocktails, craft beer, sake and wines.

Located on Manchester’s Portland Street within the walls once occupied by the Architects Society, House of Fu is set to bring their modern ramen, rice bowls and small plates to Manchester from 11:30am every day.

The venue also boasts a late-night party spot, state-of-the-art karaoke rooms, and a private dining room, offering a brand-new feasting menu for parties of up to 30, alongside their everyday menu.

Ahead of the opening date, House of Fu will be holding a one night only soft launch with 50% off the entire bill for the lucky ones who catch a booking.

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The story of House of Fu begins in 2014 as a smash hit pop-up at Belgrave Music Hall which was awarded ‘Best of the Best’ at that year’s British Street Food awards.

The brand then popped up at various venues and music festivals as the team continually developed the concept, testing out ideas collected on inspirational trips to New York, Tokyo, Portland and Los Angeles.

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The first site opened in 2021 on Leeds’ The Headrow, going from strength to strength and gaining a loyal following for their innovative flavours and creative takes on Japanese favourites such as gyoza, katsu and tonkotsu broth.

Owners Simon Stevens and Ashley Kollakowski said of finding their ideal Manchester site: “Manchester is home to some of our favourite restaurants and shops and it’s been great getting to know the city a little more whilst looking for a home for House of Fu.

“There’s such an exciting food scene in Manchester and there seems to be more great openings announced every week, we’re really excited to be part of it.

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“We’ve developed some incredible new dishes for the Manchester menu which we can’t wait to share with you alongside the obvious hits like our spicy tantanmen and the sleeper fave, the cucumber salad.’

Ben Iley, a long-time collaborator of the team who formerly ran the kitchen at Michelin-recommended restaurant, Ox Club, is the engine driving forward a creative kitchen team and will oversee Manchester operations.

Read more: Budget fast fashion brand SHEIN is coming to Manchester with Klarna

Many years ago, after planning to visit Tokyo for one month, a trip which turned into 10 years, Ben worked at some of the country’s most popular restaurants including Aquavit, The Tokyo American Club and Fujimamas (where he met his wife, Masayo).

Ben cut his teeth working alongside world-renowned chefs including Marcus Samuelsson, Bill Granger, and most notably Ivan Orkin, the chef behind the internationally acclaimed Ivan Ramen.

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Ben remarked: “Going for a bowl was the thing to do in Tokyo, it was almost a competition amongst friends to take the group to their newest find or introduce them to their favourite neighbourhood Ramen bar.

Read more: M&S is replacing plastic Bags For Life with paper ones at all UK stores – and this is why

“It’s that excitement and love for a good bowl we want to bring to Manchester. Whilst the core menu will consist of some firm favourites, each week the kitchen team will be challenging their creativity, producing their own specials to serve up so our guests can enjoy something different and new every time they visit.

“We want House of Fu to be somewhere chefs want to train as much as they want to eat.”

House of Fu Manchester will support EatWellMCR, the local collective who are working towards the eradication of food poverty in Greater Manchester. 

Eats

Inside the underground Manchester noodle bar serving Chinatown’s spiciest scrans

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant noodle alley

Over in Chinatown, there’s a relatively new little noodle bar that’s been making a big, spicy stamp on the city’s dining scene.

Its owner, Wendy Ren, hails from the Chinese province of Sichuan – a region that’s home to giant pandas, traditional Sichuanese opera, and some of the spiciest food going, thanks to its famous Sichuan pepper.

Also known as the Chinese prickly ash, the citrus-like peppercorn leaves a tingly numbness in the mouth and on the lips that you’ll either love or hate.

It’s an acquired taste, by all accounts – but those who love it can’t get enough. In fact, on my visit during a packed-out Wednesday lunch service, Wendy stopped to chat with an Italian family holidaying in Manchester who had been in to eat three days in a row. Now that’s an endorsement if I ever heard one.

She’s opened the restaurant alongside her Cantonese husband, Ken Chen, but the recipes are all hers – and on our visit she laughs with us about how it has taken him some time to get on board with her spicy food, saying: “he found out pretty quickly that he either eats it or he doesn’t eat at all.”

For big fans of spice, this is fast becoming the absolute go-to spot in Chinatown – and for those who aren’t so tough, don’t worry, because Wendy’s put some things on the menu for you too (and possibly, also, for Ken).

Just taking a moment for the hand-rolled pork dumplings with sweet and spicy chilli oil and minced garlic. / Image: The Manc Eats
Noodle Alley is beautifully decked out in red and green with little nods to the famous wide and narrow alleys of Chengdu. / Image: The Manc Eats

Called Noodle Alley, the restaurant is tucked away underground on Faulkner Street and beautifully decked out in red and green with little nods to the famous wide and narrow alleys of Chengdu.

Formerly home to China City, a real old-school Chinatown legacy restaurant, the space has a special place in Wendy’s heart.

She tells me that she and her husband used to come and eat here “all the time” when they first started dating, so the location really means a lot to both of them.

Chinatown restaurants aren’t exactly known for their glamorous interiors, and China City, Wendy jokes, was one such place – with the same old carpet, and the same old tables that had been used for the past twenty years.

Now the space is her own, though, it’s markedly different – lovingly decked out in cheerful colours, with little green windows, hanging lanterns, and bamboo rattan paneling on the walls.

Hand-rolled dumplings stuffed with mince pork on their way to the kitchen at Noodle Alley. / Image: The Manc Eats
The end result – drenched in homemade chilli oil and topped with crispy garlic. / Image: The Manc Eats

Her story of getting into the restaurant business is something of an unusual one. Prior to opening Noodle Alley, she tells me, she spent nearly two decades working at The Marriott Hotel.

After seventeen years of service and the birth of her second child, she asked to go part-time but her request was refused – so she quit the very next day, and began building her own route to independence.

It was during the Covid lockdown, she says, that she really got into cooking group meals – making meals for her friends and spending hours in the kitchen busying away happily over her stove.

A friend with several restaurants in Chinatown suggested she start her own business, and the rest – as they say – is history.

Dan Dan noodles are out, apparently, and Su Jiao Mian are in. / Image: The Manc Eats
Burning noodles with preserved vegetables and crushed peanuts. / Image: The Manc Eats

Dish-wise, her menu spans a mouthwatering selection of dry noodles, soup noodles, street food, and small plates, including the likes of deep-fried wavy potato chips with chilli and Szechuan pepper and steamed beef strips wrapped with chilli paste, numbing Sichuan pepper, and five-spiced rice powder.

Dan Dan noodles, the Sichuan dish we probably all know the best, don’t feature – they’re a bit old news now, apparently, and Wendy has some cooler alternatives for us to try.

Read more: This blink-and-you’ll-miss-it basement restaurant in Manchester’s Chinatown serves the ultimate yum cha feast

One is her Su Jiao Mian, a mixture of minced pork, sesame sauce, and house chilli oil, the other is the Wan Za Mian, a fiery mixture of spices combined with minced pork, soft yellow peas, and more chilli which Wendy says is “one of the most popular noodles in Sichuan.”

Apparently, if you’re eating with the cool kids in Sichuan, you should order this. Not one to argue, I dig in – and it’s safe to say her food is pretty damn exceptional. Almost immediately, I’m planning my next trip back.

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Two of Noodle Alley’s signature dishes: Steamed beef strips wrapped with five spiced rice powder (back) and ‘saliva chicken’ served cold with special chilli oil, peanuts, and cucumber. / Image: The Manc Eats
Pork knuckle with butter beans in an umami-rich pork bone broth. / Image: The Manc Eats

Other signature dishes here include Wendy’s steamed beef strips, which can be eaten alone or dipped into one of her noodle soups, and a dish of ‘saliva chicken’ – a crunchy, cold, textural dish with steamed chicken, fresh chillis and ribbons of cucumber that sit swimming in a bath of homemade Sichuan chilli oil, so named because it literally makes your mouth water.

We also opt for a dish of pork knuckle with butter beans in an umami-rich pork bone broth. Not one for the faint-hearted, even Wendy seemed a little cautious to recommend this one, but as fans of ‘the weird stuff’ we insist – and it really ends up being a highlight of the meal.

Read more: Top Manchester chef to host special £250 dinner – but vegans aren’t welcome

We end up needing a little help with it. It’s a slippery bugger and I end up wearing a fair bit of the broth. before she returns with a knife and fork to cut it up properly for us.

That broth it’s in, though, is so beautiful I could happily bathe in it. Some might say I did, to be fair. As for the soft, succulent pork meat? When sliced into tiny morsels and dipped into an extra special Sichuan chilli oil she retrieves from the kitchen, is something else entirely.

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If this is Sichuan heaven, then I’ll happily stay here forever. From plump hand-made dumplings stuffed generously with flavourful pork and drenched in chilli oil, to chicken giblet soup noodles, there’s so much on the menu I will be coming back for.

And for those who really can’t handle the spice, I guess I’ll be recommending the scallion oil noodles with soy sauce and crispy egg. No matter what you order here, I don’t think you can go too wrong.

Featured image – The Manc Eats

Eats

Manchester Coffee Festival returns to celebrate all things caffeine

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson The Extracted Development competition at Manchester Coffee Festival

The Manchester Coffee Festival, presented by Cup North, will make its grand return to the city later this autumn. 

The renowned event celebrates all things caffeine and is a must-visit for anyone in the industry, or just anyone who’s a coffee fanatic. 

You can connect with other coffee lovers from around the UK while doing your favourite thing – drinking loads of coffee. 

Visitors can work their way around the vast event at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre, where there’ll be everything from a Markets Marketplace for shopping, a tasting room where you can sample loads of different coffees, workshops to have a go at, and talks and panels with industry experts. 

As well as that, Manchester Coffee Festival will have live music featuring incredible local artists, and a fun and entertaining LGBTQ+ friendly family program in collaboration with Drag Queen Story Hour UK and The Proud Trust. 

Cup North will be hosting the coffee competition, Extracted Development, over the two days of the event. Baristas and roasters from across the UK will be bringing the real life behind-the-bar scene on stage. 

Unlike the usual competitions, attendees will be encouraged to interact with the competitors and get to taste their delicious competition coffee at a brew bar setting.

There’ll be more than 60 exhibitors joining Manchester Coffee Festival 2023, each bringing their unique coffee products, artisanal treats, and coffee-related products. 

Traders at Manchester Coffee Festival
Traders at Manchester Coffee Festival
Manchester Coffee Festival 2022
Manchester Coffee Festival 2022
The tasting room at Manchester Coffee Festival
The tasting room at Manchester Coffee Festival

And coffee fiends will find plenty of familiar names about, such as Oatly, La Marzocco, Stores, KeepCup, WaterCare and Brew-It Group.

This year, the festival will be going paper cup-free – attendees are encouraged ‘sip responsibly’ and to bring their own reusable cups. 

KeepCup will be on hand with free cups you can borrow for the day too. 

This year, the Manchester Coffee Festival will be partnering with Farmers’ Voice Radio as part of its Community Partner Program, which aims to support different charity organisations who share their ambition to make a positive contribution towards specialty coffee communities and the communities local to their events. 

Farmers’ Voice Radio has a mission to transform the lives of millions of farmers and rural communities through the power of radio. 

It is also working with The Proud Trust to build a more diverse and inclusive event for the local community. 

6% of all ticket sales will be evenly donated to both organisations, who will be on site to chat to attendees too. 

Festival co-founder Hannah Davies said: “The Manchester Coffee Festival is all about celebrating the vibrant world of specialty coffee and creating a welcoming community, not just for the industry but for all. 

“We’re thrilled to be back, bigger and better than ever, with a program that showcases the very best of coffee, sustainability, and accessibility.”

Manchester Coffee Festival will return to Bowlers Exhibition Centre between 18 and 19 November. Tickets are now available to purchase online at manchestercoffeefest.com/tickets.

Featured image: Supplied

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