Eats

The new restaurants and bars opening in Manchester this week

Think a new dive bar selling hotdogs in a doughnut dough casing, plus the return of Piazza's burrata-loaded pasta, a new food hall in Sale and loads more

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 15th November 2021

As we roll full steam ahead into Christmas, hospitality is showing no signs of slowing down. The Manchester Christmas markets are in full swing, and there’s a whole host of new restaurants and bars opening their doors in Manchester.

This week, we’ve got plenty to talk about – from a new beer shop by suburban craft heroes The Epicurean, to the return of the burrata-loaded pasta kitchen known simply as Piazza.

Elsewhere, Northern Soul Grilled Cheese’s Church Street home has been transformed into dive bar Dust Dogs and is selling beef and plant-based hot dogs encased in doughnut bread, whilst Sale prepares to welcome its new food hall.

Keep reading to discover our top food and drink picks from the new restaurants and bar openings in Manchester this week.

Burger slingers What’s Your Beef will be a permanent addition to the new Sale Food Hall alongside artisan pizzeria Basilico / Image: What’s Your Beef

Sale Food Hall

Opening this Thursday, November 18, the newest addition to General Store’s popular foodhall concept lands in Sale with artisan pizza from Basilico and oozing smashed patty burgers from What’s Your Beef, plus a stint from Eat Dutch.

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The mini pancake slingers will be in residence in the pop-up kitchen here throughout November and December bringing a taste of the Christmas markets to Sale’s newest foodie addition.

The new 150-cover food hall replaces the former Groceries and Beer unit, and also includes a bar serving local craft beers, wine and spirits, a coffee shop with a bakery, and a General Store retail space.

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Find it at Stanley Square, Sale M33 7XZ.

Image: Dust Dogs

Dust Dogs

A new hotdog spot from the team behind Manchester restaurant Northern Soul Grilled Cheese, here at Dust Dogs you’ll find premium quality hotdogs delivered in a dive-bar setting.

Made using either beef or 100% plant-based ingredients, its buns are created using doughnut flour and are all vegan. The team has turned its old Church Street unit into a dive bar and is now slinging out hot dogs and ‘American mouth water’ beers hand over fist.

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Dogs come drizzled in sauces and a variety of toppings, whilst drinks-wise think craft beers and classic cocktails with a twist. The house signature here is the beerita (yes, that is a margarita topped with beer), but you can also opt for the likes of PBR or Red Stripe.

Find it at Unit 10, 11 Church St, Manchester M4 1PN. Open Wednesday to Sunday, 12 – 10 pm.

Image: The Epicurean Ancoats

The Epicurean

Already a popular neighbourhood go-to for craft beer lovers in the suburbs, with established shops in Didsbury, Chorlton and Heaton Moor, you can now also find The Epicurean in Ancoats as it opens its fourth Manchester site – its first in the city centre.

Inside, you’ll find over 500 beers – including some rare and niche selections – split across nine fridges at the new Henry Street store. Look out for selections from local breweries like Track and Pomona Island alongside international favourites Amundsen, Cassel and Ayinger.

Find it at 5 Henry St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 5DD.

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Piazza

Founded by the team behind popular Ancoats pizzeria Ciaooo, Manchester restaurant Piazza specialises in pasta dishes – but hasn’t been available at its home in the Arndale Market for a while. Fans of its burrata-loaded pasta dishes will be chuffed to hear it’s returned and is now cooking out of the same kitchen as Ciaooo on Swan Street.

There’s eight different pastas to choose from, including three vegetarian options, with classic choices like pomodoro, carbonara, arrabiato and bolognese listed alongside the likes of ‘abruzzo’ (truffle and mushroom pasta with sausage, burrata and parmesan) and ‘pesto’ (pesto, mushroom, chilli, sundried tomatoes, parmesan, burrata).

Find it at 62-64 Swan Street, Manchester, M4 5JU. Open Tuesday to Thursday (5 – 10 pm), Friday and Saturday (4 – 11 pm), Sunday (1 – 9 pm).

Image: Namii

Namii

Newly opened inside the former Blackhouse Grill site on New York street, new Vietnamese-style Manchester restaurant Namii is serving up traditional favourites like Pho, Bahn Mi, and summer rolls.

The new restaurant and bar also offer twists on classic brunch dishes, and an innovative cocktail menu inspired by Vietnamese mythology and folklore.

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Find it at New York St, Manchester M1 4HN.

Feature image – Piazza / Namii / Dust Dogs

Eats

New Manchester restaurant receives rave review as another is slammed as ‘torture’

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson New Manchester restaurant Pip receives rave review as another is slammed as 'torture'

Pip, a new restaurant in Manchester, has received a rave national review this week – a review which slammed another restaurant in the same feature.

Food critic William Sitwell wrote in his review in The Telegraph that Pip is charming, refined, and fabulous.

“Bravo, Pip. Pip pip!” he wrote in the glowing write-up on the new restaurant, which stands at the foot of the new Treehouse Hotel and has the acclaimed Mary-Ellen McTague at its helm.

Sitwell’s Telegraph review particularly raved about dishes including Lancashire hot pot (‘fabulously good’), a wild garlic soup (‘a gorgeous thing’), and an apple trifle (‘a gift from heaven’).

But while it was all good for Pip, there were significantly less positive adjectives heaped on another restaurant in Manchester.

In fact, he said that Pip is ‘a great-value tonic’ for the ‘brash (and pricey) torture’ across town.

That restaurant was KAJI, formerly known as MUSU, which he said was ‘all tummies, bald heads, tattoos and heat’.

Sitwell said that while the service and sashimi are good at KAJI, the ‘place is afflicted by some overbearing cooking that cheapens the noble name of Japanese cuisine’.

He wrote: “Lamb chops fail the tender test and are properly wrecked sitting on a vulgar pond of sticky “tomato ponzu”. No beast should die to have that stuff squirted anywhere near it.

“And Kaji is a Japanese gaff without sake. Which is like opening a British pub in Tokyo and forgetting to put an ale on tap.”

Sharing the review, Pip wrote: “Thankyou @telegraph and @williamsitwell for the fantastic feature.
We’re so proud of our team here.”

You can read his full review HERE.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

Eats

Milk Maids, Bolton – The family-run ice cream parlour on an award-winning farm

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Ice cream at Milk Maids in Bolton, Greater Manchester

Ice cream doesn’t come much fresher than those served at Milk Maids – in fact, you’ll be standing right on the family farm where the cows that produce the milk live, as you tuck into your scoop.

This unassuming dairy farm in Bolton has been in operation for decades, and in the same family for generations.

But it’s when sisters Fiona and Rebecca saw the full potential of all that award-winning milk being produced on their farm that Milk Maids was born.

This ice cream parlour on Dearden’s Farm in Over Hulton is now one of the hottest spots in Greater Manchester, especially when the weather is similarly hot.

Every month they release a whole batch of flavours, all made fresh daily (you can literally see Fiona legging it across the yard with buckets of milk to make fresh batches), with May specials including white chocolate and sea salt caramel, raspberry cookie, and passionfruit pavlova.

Milk Maids, Bolton - The family-run ice cream parlour on an award-winning farm
Milk Maids, Bolton - The family-run ice cream parlour on an award-winning farm
Milk Maids, Bolton - The family-run ice cream parlour on an award-winning farm
Milk Maids, Bolton – The family-run ice cream parlour on an award-winning farm

Cones can be filled with molten chocolate or pistachio creme before your ice cream is scooped and pressed into the cone.

Or you can have your chosen flavour whizzed up into a milkshake, served in a milk bun, or presented in an insulated take-home box for later.

We could wax lyrical about how good this ice cream is, but the queues really do speak for themselves, and you should go and get in it right now. 

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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