A group of Caribbean-inspired restaurants in Manchester has just launched a bottomless Christmas party deal with unlimited drinks and plates of fiery jerk chicken, and it sounds like it will be quite the raucous affair.
Turtle Bay, the restaurant group famed for serving a bottomless brunch with every cocktail on its menu included, has decided to play right to its strengths this season – creating an updated version of the offer for partygoers over the festive period.
With two hours of unlimited drinks, a burger, roti or brunch dish all included in the £32.50 price, from now until the New Year, it will run its bottomless deal right through till 5pm – meaning that any festive get together booked before this time can really make the most of their budget.
Turtle Bay on Oxford Road has just had a big makeover. / Image: Turtle Bay
Image: Turtle Bay
There’s also an option to upgrade if you fancy a main with your botomless Christmas deal, choosing from the likes of fiery jerk chicken, Caribbean katsu or chef Colin’s mac and cheese for an extra £4.50.
As for cocktails, indulge in the likes of the Dessert Island (dark rum, Tia Maria, cold brew and salted caramel); Tobago Tea (white rum, vodka, tequila, gin, triple sec, grapefruit, mango and lime); Jamrock Punch (gin, passionfruit, strawberry, apple, grapefruit and lime) and the Tingwray (Wray & Nephew, white rum, grapefruit and lime) over the course of your bookinh.
As well as extending its bottomless deal to make it available to afternoon and early evening Christmas parties, the restaurant group is also planning a NYE bottomless dinner , where fans can ring in the new year in style after a quiet couple of years.
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Here, guests can celebrate the arrival of 2023 with two courses and two hours of unlimited cocktails for £44, or three courses for £49.
The Oxford Road has been refurbished and redecorated ready for the party season. / Image: Turtle Bay
Image: Turtle Bay
It is worth noting, however, that those who want to keep their table until close will need to book their table after 9pm.
As for those who fancy a Christmas party with a twist, but don’t want to go all-in with bottomless drinks, Turtle Bay has another food-only package, with two courses for £18.50 or three courses for £23.50.
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As art of this festive offering, the whole menu is up for grabs – with an option to mix and match starters and small plates if two or three course dining isn’t your thing.
Turtle Bay has three sites in Greater Manchester, two of which are located in the city centre and a third, newly-opened waterside restaurant with a huge outdoor terrace at Salford Quays.
To find out more and book a table for this bottomless Christmas party with a twist, head over to Turtle Bay’s website here.
Feature image – Turtle Bay
Eats
Deansgate bar Simmons closes just over a year after opening
Danny Jones
London-born bar brand Simmons has closed their Manchester site just over a year after opening their first Northern location.
They’ve lasted roughly 15 months on one of our busiest nightlife strips.
Opening on Deansgate back in October 2024, Simmons Manchester wasn’t just their first foray here up in this half of the country but their only other venue outside of the capital.
An otherwise well-established and popular chain down south, they have a total of 15 different bars in central London, but things clearly haven’t quite taken off as planned here in Manchester.
Placing a poster in the unit’s shopfront besides the likes of Be At One, Yours, The Moon Under The Water Spoons and the Deansgate branch of Slug and Lettuce, as you can see, the fellow franchise founded over a decade ago said: “After much consideration, we’ve made the difficult decision to close our doors.
“It’s never easy to say goodbye”, they add, “We’re incredibly proud of what the team built here and so grateful to them, as well as everyone who joined us over the past year.
“We’ve had some unforgettable nights. We love Manchester, and we hope to be back under the right conditions.”
They go on to thank everyone for being “part of the journey”, but for now, it looks like the room has closed effective immediately.
Simmons started back in 2012 when founder Nick Campbell opened the first bar below his flat in Kings Cross, and their presence has grown hugely since then. The closing sign was spotted and shared on social media earlier this week.
Offering everything from stylish cocktails to New York-style pizza, live music and even private karaoke booths, the place had plenty going on.
With rising business rates, energy bills and more dovetailing with the continuing cost of living crisis that is still hampering both hospitality and the nightime economy, they are just one of many to unfortunately close their doors of late.
For instance, it was only earlier this month that we saw multiple well-known names shut up shop here in the city centre or elsewhere in Greater Manchester, including another long-standing late-night favourite, Revolution.
It’s a shame for any business to close, and we certainly hope they’ll return someday with a model that can be sustained in the current climate.
Inside Butter Bird – Ancoats’ hottest new neighbourhood rotisserie with a menu dedicated to butter
Clementine Hall
A new restaurant has opened its doors in Ancoats serving up two of life’s greatest pleasures.
Those two things being chicken and butter. And coincidentally, they go very well together.
Introducing Butter Bird, a new neighbourhood rotisserie restaurant that has taken over the old Counter House site on Blossom Street.
If you’ve been living under a rock or you have a healthy relationship with social media, then you won’t know that rotisserie chicken is very much ‘in’ for 2026.
Images: The Manc Eats
So of course, just like anything, Ancoats is first to hop on that trendy bandwagon.
When simple things are done properly then they’re very satisfying indeed, and that’s exactly what Butter Bird have achieved.
Built around classic spit cooking and time honoured technique, with an impressive Rotisol Millenium rotisserie oven at the heart of the space, the chickens are seasoned and brined in house, then slowly rotated over open heat so the meat self bastes as it cooks.
Images: The Manc Eats
The result? Moreish, crisp, golden skin, succulent meat and deep flavour.
If that doesn’t sound enticing enough, they’ve also got a section of their menu dedicated entirely to their house butters.
Flavoured, complex butters designed to compliment your bird in however you desire.
My personal favourite was the moroccan-spiced Chermoula, but the tarragon with wildflower and mustard was also stellar.
Images: The Manc Eats
Drinks wise they’ve got a great selection of Crémant, chosen to cut through the chicken fat, as well as fun cocktails and decent wines.
Obviously you’ll need some sides to go with your bird which you can order as a quarter or half, and they’ve got everything from rotisserie potatoes which you can douse in chicken gravy to a Caesar salad stuffed with enough croutons it’s probably not classed as a salad anymore.
Butter Bird opens to the public on Thursday 29 January, with a launch offer offering 50% off rotisserie chicken when booked in advance for the first two weeks.
Georgina Pellant -
24th October 2022 
