Another month, another list of new Manchester restaurant and bar openings – and what a list it is.
Not only do we have the return this month of Manchester’s Christmas markets, which bring with it a host of exciting and varied food and drink stalls, we also have a host of new wine bars, bakeries, pasta restaurants and food halls to shout about.
Keep reading to discover where to put on your list this month.
The Manchester Christmas Markets, City Centre
Image: Panc Foods
Image: The Manc Eats
This month sees the return of the Manchester Christmas Markets and with it an array of food and drink stalls. Expect all the classics from the Bavarian Bratwurst, beer and Glühwein stalls, to the crepes and mini-pancake stalls to be there as usual.
Old favourites the Pig and Barrel will be making a welcome return to the Winter Gardens offering up their delicious pork barms and cosy seating area with entertainment on most nights, whilst on King Street Habas, part of the El Gato Negro group, will bring its Middle eastern-inspired menu out into the streets.
Market newcomers Parmageddon will join a mouth-watering line-up of food and drink that also includes vegan bratwursts from Panc, plus cookie dough, Amsterdam Frites, and two bars serving a selection of international ales.
There’ll also be appearances from the likes of Northern Soul Grilled Cheese, Great North Pie Co., and Porky Pig — a.k.a. the home of the famous Yorkshire pudding wrap.
10 November
Little Blonde Bakes, Ancoats
Image: Little Blond Bakes
Image: Little Blond Bakes
Cupcake and bespoke cake bakery Little Blonde Bakes is opening its doors in Ancoats this month, taking over the former Lazy Tony’s Lasagneria kitchen with sweet treats like sticky toffee blondies with hot custard, school cake and Cadbury caramel cookie cubes.
November, TBC
Exhibition, Peter Street
Image: Supplied
Image: Supplied
New food hall Exhibition is set to open on Manchester’s Peter Street this month, adding three new kitchens and two new bars to the area’s already thriving food and drink scene.
Put together by the team behind the aperitivo and coffee bar Haunt, which opened in the same building last summer, the new opening Exhibition will bring together three of Manchester’s best chef operators inside the iconic St George’s House.
11 November
Pastan, Cross Street
Image: Pastan
Image: Pastan
Pastan, a plant-based pasta kitchen that first began life in London’s Covent Garden in April 2021, is taking over the former Vertigo site on Cross Street this month.
The new restaurant will focus on simple, fresh pasta dishes, serving up the likes of fried gnocchi loaded with a choice of sauces including BBQ jackfruit, cheese, pepper or pomodoro, alongside time-tested Italian classics like cacio e pepe and carbonara at lunch.
Elsewhere, you’ll find cavatelli mac and cheese topped with breadcrumbs and crispy onions, plantshakes loaded with donut skewers, Lotus Biscoff mini doughnuts and scoops of ice cream.
4 November
Loaf, Oxford Road
Image: Loaf
Image: Loaf
Whilst furloughed from his fashion retail job, Loaf founder Aiden Ryan started baking from home to raise money for the NHS to tackle PPE shortages and a lack of staff food on site. Now, he’s opened his own cafe on Oxford Road.
Here you’ll find a range of classic loaf cakes alongside loafnuts, Loaf Au Choc and Brioche Loaf served by the slice with your choice of toppings.
Open now
Nonna’s, Deansgate Square
Image: Supplied
Image: Supplied
Taking over the kitchen at The Green Lab from now until Christmas, at Nonna’s you’ll find mouthwatering pasta dishes infused with red wine, white wine and vodka.
Think: taleggio and pesto arancini, white wine gamberoni, red and white seafood linguine, truffle malfadine with wild mushrooms and parmesan, and rigatoni alla vodka, plus classic cocktails like espresso martinis and negronis.
Open now
Indian Affair, Chorlton
A newcomer to the South Manchester neighbourhood of Chorlton, at Indian Affair you’ll find a selection of sumptuous small plates alongside dishes from the tandoor, biryanis and classic mains like butter chicken, lamb nihari and prawn masala.
Open now
Juicebox, Didsbury Village
Situated between Saints & Scholars and the former CAU restaurant, this new natural wine and craft beer shop and bar offers bottles and cans to drink in alongside a short list of snacks featuring tasty local produce.
Open now
Gooey Cafe, Selfridges, Trafford Centre
Image: Supplied
Image: Supplied
Manchester’s instagram famous, queue-round-the-block, bakery and café is heading to Trafford this Christmas opening a 30 seat Gooey Café within Selfridges.
The pop up will be home to the brand’s insta-famous warm, gooey cookies and sugar coated stuffed brioche donuts plus a selection of barista served coffees, soft drinks and boozy hot chocolates.
Open now
Project Halcyon, City Centre
Image: Project Halcyon
Image: Project Halcyon
This speakeasy-style cocktail bar and arts venue was first opened before the pandemic by local craft gin distillers Zymogorium.
Following a lengthy closure, it has reopened in the refurbished 1800s red brick warehouse on the Old Granada Studios site, beneath the original Coronation Street cobbles.
Open now
Ewe Restaurant & Bar, Bolton
From the team behind Deansgate restaurant ‘Yours’, Ewe Restaurant & Bar is set to replace India Gate in Westhoughton.
Opening later this month, the million-pound project has a capacity of 150 and will serve a modern, British and globally inspired menu using quality, local suppliers. It will feature a private dining room, garden room, open plan bar area, and baby grand piano.
18 November
Provence, Spinningfields
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Provence is a new independent wine bar that has opened in Spinningfields selling Manchester-made charcuterie and cheese boards, alongside a selection of carefully-chosen wines.
With a menu of nibbles like olive tapenade, bread and oil, olives, hummus and a handful of veggie small plates, alongside craft beers, soft drinks and a small cocktail list,, it’s well worth a visit.
Open now
Rudy’s, Didsbury Village
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Rudy’s has opened a new site in Didsbury, taking over the old Mad Giant food hall which has lain empty since 2020.
Fulfilling its promise to lockdown launch more satellite restaurants in the suburbs, the smash hit pizza house is now serving its award-winning Neapolitan pies on Wilmslow Road.
Open now
Feature image – The Manc Eats / The Manc Eats / Supplied
Eats
Lupo Caffe Italiano – a taste of sunny Rome on a Prestwich industrial estate
Daisy Jackson
The sun is beating down on you, there’s a couple of luminous orange Aperol Spritzes on the checked tablecloth, Italian pop music is trickling out over the speakers and you’ve got two heaping bowls of pasta on the way.
The setting could easily be a cobbled street in front of the Colosseum in Rome. But it’s not. It’s an industrial estate in Prestwich.
Lupo must be one of Greater Manchester’s most hidden gems in a very literal sense.
To get here, you have to drive or walk a strange looping circuit around industrial warehouses peddling everything from splashbacks to burglar alarms to grow tents.
One of these warehouses, located in the very furthest yard, looks a little different to the others, festooned with bunches of garlic and dried herbs strung up from the ceiling.
There are shelves full of pasta, sauces and even crisps, a fridge packed with delicious Italian wines and beers, and retro football shirt-inspired merch hanging from the walls.
Its awkward location does nothing to hold back its loyal customers, who repeatedly return for the authentic taste of Rome on offer here.
Lupo is operated by Nico Pasquali, who first ran it as a tiny Italian cafe on Chapel Street in Salford (before all the high-rises appeared), then shifted it over to the odd shiny-commercial-office-land that is Exchange Quay, then took it almost entirely remote to trudge through the pandemic.
Lupo’s charming interiorsNico has added outside seating to LupoThe pasticceria selection at Lupo
At one point, Caffè Lupo existed mostly on WhatsApp, with customers texting in their orders ready for a doorstep drop on a Friday night.
But now the large-ish commercial unit is its main business, and it’s a special one.
You are greeted, always, with a friendly wave, then given the sort of service where you’re very gently guided to order all the best things on the menu that day, feeling like you’ll personally offend Nico if you order differently and stray from his recommendations. Thankfully it’s pretty easy to trust this man.
It’s extremely hard for me to see amatriciana on a menu and not order it – so I don’t try. One bowl of rigatoni amatriciana for me, and make it cheesy.
This is a textbook example of the deceptively simple pasta dish. Fatty guanciale cooked right down so that all that delicious pork fat melts into the tomatoes, then it’s seasoned with, I presume, several generations of secrets and love from Italian nonnas.
Rigatoni amatriciana, and fennel sausage orecchietteA spread of Lupo’s Italian foodPepernata – Nico’s mum’s recipeThe Pizza Lupo
The sweet, salty, meaty sauce is available on a pizza too, which will be top of my list next time I visit.
Across the table it’s a special (but it’s been on the menu for a while now) of orecchiette with fennel sausage and romanesco broccoli.
Nico tells us a customer once refused to pay for this dish because it wasn’t ‘saucy’ enough. Heathen.
That’s the running theme with Lupo – don’t come here expecting Neapolitan pizzas, or flat whites, or hot honey dips for your pizza crusts. It isn’t the Roman way, and Nico isn’t about to veer away from his proud roots to mould into any passing fads or trends.
If you’re after authenticity and tradition though, this is comfortably the top Italian in Greater Manchester.
If you can come to Lupo and walk away without ordering something sweet from the counter, you’re a stronger person than me.
PasticceriaOwner NicoLupo’s famous millefoglie
They’re famed for their doughnuts (rightly), with bouncy dough filled with flavours including pistachio cream, lemon, and homemade jams.
Also displayed in neat rows are fruit tarts with a glossy glaze, towering cream cakes in neat layers, and puff pastry cannoncini.
But Nico is adamant, absolutely adamant, that we order a slice of his millefoglie. It’s a sell-out, he says. We’re lucky he even has some in stock, he tells us. Who are we to argue?
And if you’ve made it this far, just stop reading right now, get in the damn car and go get yourself a slice before it sells out again.
Layers of lighter-than-air homemade pastry are sandwiched together with delicately sweet cream, hints of almond throughout, and it’s good enough to bring a tear to your eye.
We leave with a doughnut in a box too, so that we at least have a snack if we get completely lost finding our way back out of the industrial estate.
A bottomless brunch with unlimited lager is launching in Manchester
Daisy Jackson
A bottomless brunch with unlimited pints of lager will be launching in Manchester this month.
Forget the mimosas and warm prosecco and lacklustre portions of French toast – this new bottomless offering is all about proper pints and hefty focaccia sandwiches.
The Lager, Lager, Lager bottomless brunch is the newest fixture in the Trading Route’s roster, taking place in the lagerhouse at St John’s every Saturday.
It’s designed to be Manchester’s first bottomless tailored to those who love, tall, foamy pints of the good stuff.
Every punter will get 60 minutes of unlimited, freshly-poured foamy pints, as well as a choice of the restaurant’s focaccia sandwiches, made in-house every single day.
DJs will be spinning classic house and disco tunes as you tuck into your pints and butties.
Jamie Scahill, Trading Route Co-Founder said: “Lager, Lager, Lager isn’t an underworld event, it’s for everyone who loves a freshly poured foamy pint to come down and enjoy.
“Whether you were born slippy or not, the fun is to leave slippy, having revelled in great beer, food and company.”
A bottomless brunch with unlimited lager is launching in Manchester
Trading Route opened last year, specialising in perfectly-poured pints of Manchester Union, as well as rotisserie chicken and huge sandwiches.
As well as Lager, Lager, Lager’s launch, over the bank holiday weekend there’ll be a happy hour which will include £4.80 pints, cocktails at £8.50 and a carafe of wine for £12.50 on Thursday 21 August.
Funkademia will then take over the venue from 5pm on Friday 22 August.
Lager, Lager, Lager will begin on Saturday 23 August and will run every Saturday from 12pm until 5pm.
The Trading Route bottomless lager brunch costs £28, and you can book your spot HERE.
Georgina Pellant -
1st November 2022 
