A sprawling converted Victorian building might not be the first place you’d look during a search for a proper meal. But that’s just one of the many surprising things about Ducie StreetWarehouse.
Sat on the edge of Manchester’s northern quarter, a stone’s throw from Piccadilly station, DSW is a laid-back sort of place despite its impressive frontage and airy lobby – filled with cool-looking professionals tapping away on laptops or sipping on iced coffees.
There’s been plenty of fanfare around Ducie Street’s newly erected terrace, strategically positioned to soak up as many rays of sunshine as possible – and the venue is now also home to three different menus (for the bar, restaurant and terrace).
A selection of the small plates on offer at Ducie Street Warehouse
Pre-covid, the restaurant here was occupied by London hotshots Bistrotheque but they have since been replaced, bowing out after only six months in the city.
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Now heading up the kitchen is chef Andrew Green. A bit of a legend on the Manchester food scene, prior to being at Ducie Street he ran Hotel Indigo’s Mamucium for over two years, and was at The Lowry for quite some time before that.
He’s got a bit of a reputation for taking his team with him wherever he goes, having built up a loyal group of chefs – some of whom have worked with him since they were just young lads.
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Andrew tells us that, earlier last year before they made the move over to Ducie Street, it was “heartbreaking” seeing people on his team made redundant and not being able to do anything. Apparently, the hotel was £1.3 million in debt.
“There was no future for us [there],” he says.
It’s completely the opposite here though, he enthuses, adding that the company is looking to the future and plans to build something big.
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We have to say, it feels like it. Unlike some other venues we’ve visited since reopening – everything feels super slick here.
The 800g porterhouse steak sharer at Ducie Street Warehouse comes medium rare as standard
There’s not too much pressure on pushing the restaurant like you find with some hotels – it’s all very chilled, with bits on the menu for everybody.
“For me, the menu is full of favourites,” says Andrew, who joined in February and has put together all the new menus himself.
Best-sellers, we hear, are things like calamari, fried chicken and hummus – all relaxed, snacky sharers, elevated by being made entirely in-house, fried to order and perfectly enjoyed with a few drinks.
When we visit, though, we can’t take our eyes off the larger sharers and end up devouring a huge 800g Porterhouse steak and a 1kg wheel of baked camembert. No mean feat on the hottest day of the year, but we never got to have it when it ran at Mamucium and were desperate to give it a go.
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“We became a cheese restaurant for a month, we were pulling cheese out of our hair,” Andrew laughs.
We also try some of the more out-there small plates, like the lobster mac and cheese which blows us away for being so light and refreshing. It’s actually a perfect summer dish, made using sharp bright cheese with pink flecks of lobster streaked throughout.
The lobster macaroni cheese is unlike anything we’ve ever tried before – a perfect summer dish.
Lamb koftas with beetroot hummus and hench ox cheek croquettes also feature, the latter coming out with a pot of dipping gravy (the side sauce of the moment in Manchester).
Everything feels quite seasonal, and Andrew assures us they will be switching things up to keep it so. For example, there’s currently a wild garlic aioli on the menu that will soon switch to French, given that wild garlic is on its way out of season.
Because Ducie Street has been around for a while, it’s easy to forget that this is a new restaurant that’s been pulled together in the midst of a pandemic and lockdown. When you take that into account, it’s even more impressive the level to which everything has been done.
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At a time when many hospitality venues are scrambling for staff, the calm yet fun atmosphere here says it all.
Newly launched on 17 May, Ducie Street Warehouse is open throughout the week with dining available in the bar, restaurant and on the south-facing terrace.It also has a stylish adjoining aparthotel, Native, upstairs.
Eats
Marco Pierre White praises Manchester restaurant serving ‘the best pizza’ he’s EVER had
Danny Jones
Legendary chef Marco Pierre White has given his verdict on where he thinks does THE best pizza not just in the UK but perhaps in the entire world, and it’s right here in Manchester
Rudy’s, Nell’s, Double Zero and now this – we really are spoilt for slices in 0161, aren’t we?
Pierre White, who was not only the first Brit to ever win three Michelin stars but the youngest person to achieve the feat in history, recently visited the restaurant in question and was more than happy to share his bold claims, dubbing it “the very best I’ve ever had in my life”.
That’s saying quite something, not only from one of the most famous chefs in the world, but given his own family heritage. He even saw fit to sign the menu and write the man in the kitchen a thank-you note.
A recent London export, which only just launched in spring 2025, the 63-year-old chef, entrepreneur and TV personality says that Forbici is now his number one, stating simply: “Let the pizzas do the talking.”
Noting that he’s been all over the world and eaten at some of the most highly-rated venues in the world (especially given the fact that he is of Italian heritage on his mother’s side), including some of the most authentic you’ll find in the likes of Naples, Rome, and so on, he still seemed confident in his declaration.
Citing other famous names in the world of cooking, like Nancy Silverton of Pizzeria Mozza fame, as well as fellow TV chef and restaurateur Mario Batali, he says that the creative takes on Neapolitan ‘pies’ that master baker Davide Argentino is currently cooking up are nothing short of “delicious.”
Having first become famous down in the capital for its name, which simply translates as ‘scissors’ – also the chosen utensil given to diners for cutting up their pizzas – it proved a smash hit when it made its way up North, garnering massive opening day queues outside its restaurant on the corner of Cross Street.
Better still, you can now order it to take away, too… Game-changer.
Now, it goes without saying that we’re lucky enough to have many restaurants serving some of the authentic food from various regions all over Italy, not to mention a plethora of incredible pizza spots in the city centre and the wider boroughs.
It’s no exaggeration, therefore, to say that we struggle picking our absolute favourite from week to week at this point.
What we will say is that we bloody love Forbici, too, and are glad to see them getting so much recognition since arriving in the region.
You can get 25% off your bill when eating out at this well-known Italian restaurant with a secret code
Danny Jones
Fancy going out for tea but still trying not to spend too much money at this time of year? Well, Manchester, you can get 25% off your bill at an already affordable British restaurant chain by simply saying a special phrase.
This deal is only available this week, though, so we wouldn’t wait around.
We’ve all been there: you’re fed up of getting home after working and having to cook, so you start trying to justify ‘just one‘ night out, but it can be a real pull between enjoyment and ease versus trying to save those pennies – especially with the festive period looming.
Luckily, well-known Italian restaurant group Carluccio’s, who have a site right here in central Manchester, is offering a significant discount by simply asking for the bill in Italian. Simple as.
As a recognisable name on the UK high street, the authentic Italian eatery dates back nearly three and a half decades, the London-born deli and food shop going on to open its first-ever sit-down venue called Carluccio’s Caffè back in 1999.
In addition to their long-standing Manchester location in Piccadilly Station, the brand was also a shop-window establishment for the Trafford Centre, sitting front and centre as one of the first places to eat as you walked in the Orient entrance.
Now, as for how you access this welcome bit of money off your bill, it’s very straightforward and can be secured as fast as you can say “The bill, please”; well, actually, you need to ask for it in Italian, as it is this phrase that Carluccio’s has dubbed the ‘secret code’.
Following a study by language learning app, Preply, which recently carried out research into menu anxiety and struggling to make a decision when dining out, they’ve teamed up with Carluccio‘s to help push people to feel more confident ordering dishes not in their native tongue.
They found that almost half (49%) have felt embarrassed about not speaking another language, with one fifth of those surveyed lacking the confidence to try and pronounce foreign words, while one in six worried they’d be judged for getting it wrong.
Well, there’s no getting it wrong in this instance, as the Carluccio’s and Preply are giving you the specific keywords not only to ask for the bill in Italian – “Il conto, per favore” – but to unlock the bonus of a quarter off the final sum.
Anna Pyshna, spokesperson at Preply, says: “People may know how to say gnocchi in theory, but when the waiter’s standing there, confidence can vanish. We want to show that getting things wrong is part of learning and sometimes, even worth a discount.
“By turning a simple phrase into a real-world reward, we’re helping people take that first, brave step to speak up. It’s a reminder that the language learning process doesn’t start with perfection, it starts with the willingness to try.”
So, that really is it: dine at any of their restaurants across the country (including here in Manchester) and ask for the bill in Italian to get 25% off your bill; once again, the offer is only on until 9 November. You can find your nearest Carluccio’s location HERE.
Georgina Pellant -
11th June 2021 
