Over in Manchester’s Green Quarter, there is a charming restaurant serving up some of the best pasta in the city.
Called The Sparrows, last week it was revealed as one of the new additions to the prestigious Michelin Guide – a recognition that’s truly well deserved.
Long beloved by Manchester foodies, it takes its name from its signature dish, spätzle: a thick, irregularly-shaped pasta so named because its dough looks like birds in flight when scraped, wet, from the board straight into a boiling pan of water.
One-half of the couple behind the restaurant, Chef Franco Concli, hails from Trentino in the north of Italy where dishes often share influences with neighbouring Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The other, Kasia Hitchcock, was born in Poland close to the Ukrainian border, where dumplings are a comforting part of the food culture.
ADVERTISEMENT
It makes sense, then, that on the menu you’ll find plump handmade pierogi and pelimeni dumplings stuffed with the likes of cottage cheese and potato, mushroom and homemade sauerkraut, listed alongside gnocchi, pappardelle, tortelli, and the pasta that started it all, spätzle.
The kase spätzle is a must-order dish at The Sparrows. / Image: The Manc Eats
The pasta dish from which The Sparrows takes its name. / Image: The Manc Eats
One of the beauties of the menu here, specials aside, is that you pick your own pasta and sauce combination. Sauce options include butter and sage, tomato, guanciale, and bolognese, but the must-order dish, the one I always go back to, is the kase spätzle.
ADVERTISEMENT
Essentially a grown-up, Germanic version of mac and cheese, think fresh egg noodles enveloped in creamy gruyere and Emmental cheese sauce, with braised onions adding a touch of sweetness. It’s a Swabian specialty but also very popular in Germany, Switzerland, and now Manchester too.
As for the bar, there is an enticing list of low-intervention Germanic and Polish wines, plus a strong sake menu.
Before The Sparrows, Kasia’s sake company supplied Umezushi. Now sadly closed, it was once Manchester’s best sushi restaurant and a key player in helping the couple get their start up here.
Pierogi dumplings at The Sparrows. / Image: The Manc Eats
Pappardelle with chorizo, cherry tomato, spinach and cream at The Sparrows. / Image: The Manc Eats
Owners had recently converted the archways opposite into prep kitchens, and it was here in 2019 that it all began, with dumplings and spätzle served in a tiny arch that seated twelve at a push.
Needless to say, after a rave from Jay Rayner in The Guardian the restaurant quickly outgrew Mirabel Street and moved to a new, bigger arch no more than five or ten minutes walk away.
As time has gone on, its settings and service have become undeniably sleeker. Its menu, however, has stayed pretty much the same – including its low prices.
On my first ever visit in the summer of 2019, I think my friend and I spent just over £50 on a three course meal with wine. This time, a plate of spätzle is still only £10.50 shared between two of us.
ADVERTISEMENT
Given everything that’s going on in the restaurant industry, and the fact that I recently saw a far inferior plate of pasta listed at £16.50 in another Manchester restaurant, it’s a very pleasant surprise.
The daily special, tortelli stuffed with butternut squash with an amaretti biscuit crumb. Image: The Manc Eats
The menu at The Sparrows is still amazingly good value despite its ever-growing prestige. / Image: The Manc Eats
As it ever was, the staples are still there: gnocchi and spätzle, pappardelle and a daily special, available to order with your sauce of choice from just £8 a plate.
We also try one of the specials, starting our meal sweet with tortell stuffed with butternut squash and seasoned with the almond crunch of an amaretti crumb.
Add to that long ribbons of pappardelle with an indulgent mix of chorizo, cherry tomato, spinach and cream, a small plate of fresh and fragrant dill-fermented cucumbers, and an excellent bottle of Teliana Valley orange wine, and suffice to say our table was a very happy one indeed.
ADVERTISEMENT
The house pierogi still come stuffed with the same choices of potato and cottage cheese, or sauerkraut and mushroom, and popular sides of salted rosemary focaccia and sauerkraut are correct and present, priced from £3.75.
Even better, dumplings can be ‘mixed and matched’ at the chef’s discretion – a good option if you can’t decideon your order and want to try a bit of everything.
Inside The Sparrows on Red Bank. / Image: The Manc Eats
Dill-fermented cucumbers at The Sparrows. / Image: The Manc Eats
As for the dessert menu, there’s still the sweet spätzle with cinnamon butter and brown sugar, as well as Daz’s wife’s brownie (Daz being their postman), although I regret to report I overindulged so immensely on the savoury portion of the meal I was too far gone to contemplate a pudding.
The restaurant itself is chic and stylish, with statement lighting fixtures and tall glass windows looking into an open kitchen. But the real marvel is what comes out on your plate.
ADVERTISEMENT
No doubt it will soon be inundated with new fans, as it should be. Run, don’t walk, whilst you can still get a table. This really is some of the best pasta in town.
Feature image – The Manc Eats
Eats
40-year-old Chinatown restaurant warns ‘we won’t last another decade’ in defiant statement
Daisy Jackson
There are some businesses that feel so much a part of the fabric of Manchester, it’s hard to imagine the city without them.
But a defiant statement from Happy Seasons, a decades-old family-run restaurant in Chinatown, has said that it’s ‘not sure how businesses like ours will survive in this new world’.
They wrote that is ‘feels like everything is stacked against small businesses’ and said ‘we won’t last another 5-10 years’.
Happy Seasons has been a cornerstone of Chinatown for more than 40 years, famed for its roast meats (proudly hung in the windows) and traditional Cantonese dishes.
Everyone who works in the restaurant has been in the trade for more than 20 years, they wrote, adding ‘it’s all they’ve ever known’.
Happy Seasons has said that their type of business – where everything is made fresh, from scratch, daily – is ‘slowly fading’.
They wrote: “Younger generations are slowly stepping away from hospitality. The government continues to increase costs on our industry, while bills, rent, and even basic stock keep rising. Sometimes it feels like everything is stacked against small businesses.”
Roast meats in the windows of Happy SeasonsHappy Seasons has been in Chinatown for more than 40 years
The restaurant added: “We don’t think places like ours will last another decade if things continue the way they are.”
But in their defiant video shared to customers, the Chinese restaurant said: “We’re not going to let that stop us.
“We’re still going to put the hours in. We’re still going to make everything fresh. We’re still not going to cut corners.
“From our sauces and roasted meats to our soy sauce and sweet and sour sauce, so much of what we serve is made from scratch. The time, effort, and cost that go into these everyday dishes are much higher than they used to be.
“Even though it’s costing us more and more to operate, we’re going to do our best to stick around for as long as we can. Because there may come a day when traditional Chinese food, made the old fashioned way, becomes much harder to find here in the UK.
“So let’s make this one hell of a decade. Thank you for all the support over the years. It truly means the world to us.”
It’s since expanded, launching in Sheffield earlier this year – and now Forbici has set its sights on the Trafford Centre.
The Neapolitan pizzeria will be taking over the former Franco Manca site in The Orient, bringing its biga dough and biga crusts with it to its third location.
Pizza dough here is slow-fermented to create a light, risen crust, before being topped with quality ingredients like San Marzano tomatoes and Italian produce.
Forbici will be bringing their Manchester special, the Lancashire Hotpot, to the Trafford Centre – a pizza topped with crisps.
Other signatures include the Provola e Pepe (topped with San Marzano tomato, smoked provola, black pepper and fresh basil), as well as indulgent white-base pizzas such as the Porcini e Tartufo, loaded with Fior di latte, porcini mushrooms, Italian truffle sauce and chives.
Forbici translates as ‘scissors’ in Italian, and pizzas here are always served with scissors rather than a knife and fork – diners are encouraged to snip their dinner into quarters for the ultimate pizza experience.
Toni Dennan at Forbici said: “We don’t believe pizza should ever be ordinary. Forbici is rooted in the traditions of Naples, made with real craft and precision, but it’s also built with the energy, creativity and ambition of the cities and locations we call home.
“Every detail matters to us, from the dough and ingredients to the atmosphere in the pizzeria. Opening at Trafford Centre gives us the opportunity to bring that experience to even more people and show that pizza, when it’s done properly, can still surprise, delight and create a real sense of occasion.”
Simon Layton, Centre Director at Trafford Centre, said: “We’re delighted to announce that Forbici will be joining us at Trafford Centre, adding to our ever-evolving range of fantastic restaurants.
“As a local success story, we’re thrilled to be championing another Manchester success story, and look forward to sampling some of their delicious pizzas when they open this summer.”
Forbici will open at The Orient at the Trafford Centre this summer.
Georgina Pellant -
5th February 2023 
