A superfan of the iconic Manchester band The Smiths has decided to pay homage to them in one of the most genius ways there is.
By giving a nod to them in the name of his new business venture.
Madchester music fanatic Max Paley has opened up a curry house celebrating his favourite band – named This Charming Naan – with dishes also named after some of their most famous songs, including Girlfriend In A Korma and How Saag Is Now?
The 25-year-old Smiths superfan – who is originally from Oxford – sells 20 dishes with lyric-inspired names from a kitchen he rents inside the Retro Bar music venue on Sackville Street in the heart of Manchester city centre, and the food is even endorsed by band members too, with former The Smiths drummer Mike Joyce naming a dish on the menu – Last Night I Dreamt That Some Bhaji Loved Me.
In what will surely be music to the ears of the meat-free among us – Morrissey included – the new restaurant is completely plant based.
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The restaurant opened for takeaway in December of last year, and Max has plans for customers to eventually be able to sit-in and eat among Smiths’ memorabilia with their tunes playing in the background when the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown restrictions are finally lifted.
Max – who previously ran a music venue – had just six months’ experience working in a kitchen before starting the business venture.
He opened March and hoped to run it as a restaurant and a festival van, but both plans were halted due to lockdown, and so as a plan B, he opened as a pop-up stall at the street food hub Hatch in Manchester city centre through the summer, going on to earn rave reviews from customers and deciding to open up again before Christmas.
The two-man operation – Max and his pal Joe, who do all the cooking and take all the orders – has seen orders flood in from music fans in the city.
Max added: “I have been going to music festivals since I was 12 and I’d always had a dream of taking a food truck to festivals. I was thinking of ideas with a friend a few years ago and I had the idea of This Charming Naan and wanted to get a food truck together of that name.
“We opened as a restaurant last March and two days later, lockdown hit so we had to stop.
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“I fully intend to go around the festivals in This Charming Van as soon as we can and as soon as festivals can start up again.
“We opened again as a takeaway on December 1 and business has been good, but the reaction has really blown me away.”
He continued: I grow the menu organically whenever I want to update it,”
“I’ve taught myself to cook using the internet and videos.
“I’m a vegan, but I don’t push the vegan aspect of the restaurant to the forefront, it just is what it is. I’d rather people judge the food for what it is.
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“We started off with just a few dishes like Girlfriend In A Korma and Madras is Murder.
“As I expanded the menu, I tried to keep it to just Smiths songs, but it’s too hard thinking of them all to fit, but most of them are named after songs from Manchester bands.
“I had to go with a Jimi Hendrix song for a dish called Vindaloo Child.
“Supergrass is included on the menu as a little ode to Oxford, they are one of my favourite bands and they are from my hometown.
“My favourite dish to cook is Heaven Knows I’m Masala Now or Vindaloo Child, because I’m a spice man [and]I like making spicy dishes.”
This Charming Naan is currently delivering across Manchester via Deliveroo and Just Eat, and you can read the full menu via the restaurant’s website here.
You can also keep up to date with the restaurant as it grows on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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.
Emily Sergeant -
18th January 2021 
