Acclaimed Stockport restaurant Where The Light Gets In has just announced details of an exciting five month-long residency in Manchester city centre.
The Green Michelin Star restaurant, famed for its seasonal tasting menus and natural wines, will be opening a temporary concept restaurant and a series of events right across town.
Where The Light Gets In: A Play in the City will take over two venues (as well as the city streets) – The Bungalow at Kampus and community space Altogether Otherwise in NOMA.
It’s a bit of an unusual concept but just bear with us here.
Although billed as a ‘four-act programme’ that has been presented like a play (complete with scenes), this incredible project from Where The Light Gets In (WTLGI) is really a series of pop-up events, from workshops to dining experiences, across Manchester.
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The events will include a free night of natural wine and food, a conceptual pop-up fast-food diner, film screenings, walking tours, a pop-up restaurant, panel talks, and a full-blown banquet.
You’ll even be able to go litter-picking and trade in your bag of rubbish for a glass of wine.
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Where The Light Gets In: A Play in the City will run between 21 November and 30 March, kicking off for the first month with ‘A Man Eating A Leg Of Chicken’.
This will be a free-entry, no-reservations pop-up where you can drink natural wines and ‘gorge on shellfish and animals roasted over wood’.
There’ll also be weekend takeovers from WTLGI’s favourite labels and record shops at Altogether Otherwise.
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Altogether Otherwise in NOMA will be used as a venue for the Where The Light Gets In Manchester residency. Credit: Supplied
From early January until 2 February, Where The Light Gets In will turn The Bungalow at Kampus into a conceptual fast-food restaurant The Land of Cockaigne, from wood-fired burgers to ice cream floats to spritzy grape juice.
It’ll involve self-serve counters, name tags and sauce udders, with the option to order a takeaway with an automated phone service.
In February, it’ll be Une semaine de bonté (A WEEK OF KINDNESS) at The Bungalow, with a restaurant ‘dressed with the beginning of spring’ serving simple dishes celebrating the arrival of a new season and delicious wines.
And finally in March, there’ll be the Luncheon of the Boating Party banquets, where guests sit at one long table and eat family-style platters with plenty of wine.
Sam Buckley from Where The Light Gets In. Credit: Supplied
Alongside those four main events will be masses of foraging and gardening workshops, walking tours, Q&As and loads more.
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The intention of the concept restaurant and residency is to bring Where The Light Gets In’s passion for sustainability and great food right into the bustling city centre for five months that combine food, art, and urban living.
The restaurant team has asked: “Are we heading to a cataclysmic dystopia or can we rewrite the future?
“Set against the backdrop of the city of Manchester, this programme explores the tension between city life and rural tradition, asking critical questions about food systems, and our own identity within nature, the city, and the arts.”
Where The Lights Gets In in Stockport is headed up by acclaimed chef Sam Buckley and is easily one of Greater Manchester’s best and most exciting restaurants.
Tickets are available from midday on Tuesday 15 October.
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Full programme for Where The Light Gets In: A Play in the City Manchester residency
ACT 1: “A MAN EATING A LEG OF CHICKEN”
SCENE: A bustling Metropolis. When: Thursday to Saturday, 21 November to 21 December 2024, 5pm-11pm Where: Altogether Otherwise, NOMA, 6-10 Hanover St, Manchester M4 4BB What: We raid the cellars of WTLGI to bring you our favourite natural wines from the continent. Gorge on shellfish and whole animals roasted over wood. Weekender takeovers from our favourite labels and record shops. Welcome to your now. Welcome to the city. How: Free entry, no reservations
ACT 1 events highlights (running alongside): Opening night party: Living Room Dance Club 21st November 2024, 5pm-midnight Honest shop: Thursday, Friday & Saturday 12pm-4pm
ACT 2: THE LAND OF COCKAIGNE
SCENE: A fast food restaurant. When: Monday to Sunday, 10 January – 2 February 2025. 5pm-late Where: The Bungalow at Kampus, Aytoun St, Manchester M1 3GL What: A conceptual fast-food diner. Churning out wood-fired burgers, ice cream floats and spritzy grape juice. It’s self-service counters, name tags and sauce udders. Eat in or take away using our automated telephone service. Grab a tray and find a seat, welcome to the future of convenient feeding: fast-paced and unlimited choice. How: Head HERE to reserve your seat, or order a takeaway for collection on our phone line. Open for walk-ins also.
ACT 2 event highlights: Film screenings. Altogether Otherwise DATE TBC Silo: The Zero Waste Blueprint – Q&A with Douglas McMaster & Sam Buckley DATE TBC WTLGI X SILO MEAL Manchester Utopia – The Modernist walking tour
ACT 3: Une semaine de bonté (A WEEK OF KINDNESS)
SCENE: A pleasant garden; simple and sufficient When: Monday to Sunday, 3rd February – 2nd March 2025. 5pm-late Where: The Bungalow at Kampus, Aytoun St, Manchester M1 3GL What: A clean and well-lit restaurant dressed with the beginnings of Spring. We offer a moderate choice of simple dishes carefully prepared with ingredients selected for their freshness and relevance to the time and place. A thoughtful selection of wines from small-scale producers. How: Head to HERE to reserve your seat. Open for walk-ins also.
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Act 3 event highlights: Panel discussion on the history of communal green spaces. Open Call for Manchester Chefs: Master Whole Animal Butchery with Samuel Buckley and Marcus of Littlewoods Butchers, followed by a meal for EatWell. TRIAGE: A Pickling walk-in centre. Drop in with your veg and we’ll help you to preserve it. 12-2 Friday. Film screening Altogether Otherwise Urban Foraging Walk & Litter Picking: A guided exploration of local green spaces, teaching participants to identify and gather wild edibles. Pick a bag of litter, get a glass of wine on us. Book tables with a stranger – In this act we encourage discussion and conversation around the dinner table. It is often the non-tangible delights that arouse pleasure and satisfaction.
ACT 4: LUNCHEON OF THE BOATING PARTY
SCENE: A long wooden table in the middle of a garden. ‘And if one day my wisdom should desert me – ah, it loves to fly away! – then may my pride too fly with my folly’ When: Monday to Sunday, 3 March – 30 March 2025. 5pm-late Where: The Bungalow at Kampus, Aytoun St, Manchester M1 3GL What: Join us for a banquet to celebrate the finale of our residency in Manchester. Guests will sit at one long table and enjoy an array of dishes designed to eat family-style. Platters of vegetables, meats and fish will adorn the centre of the table. We will share, we will pour wine. How: Head HERE to reserve your seat at the table.
Act 4 events: Hand-drawn ‘fruit maps’ that plot the locations of fruit trees and foraging spots, growing on, or overhanging, public space in Manchester. Urban Gardening Workshop: Led by Manchester Urban Diggers, participants learn to cultivate their own urban gardens, regardless of space constraints.
Five genuinely cheap eats and great value-for-money lunch deals in Manchester city centre
Danny Jones
A daily dilemma for us seems to be deciding what to have for dinner (you heard), especially as we’re all trying to save more pennies nowadays, but luckily, Manchester does have some great lunch deals if you look hard enough.
You just need to know where, and in some cases, exactly when to find them…
That’s where we come in; we’re not talking about anything close to a tenner either, as that’s more of a monthly treat and few can feasibly afford to spend that kind of money on scran every day.
So, without further ado, here are some of the best and ACTUALLY cheap lunchtime deals and offers in Manchester city centre.
Five of the best lunch offers in central Manchester
1. Vanilla Fudge – Bridge Street
Up first is an old favourite of ours that doesn’t seem to have changed over the years, no matter how much the cost of living crisis continues to linger. We’ll be honest, we first tried this place after a night out in Mojos next door way back when, but we’ve been coming ever since we saw the specials board.
It may look like one of many standard Manc butty shops/kebab houses when the sun sets, but for our money, Vanilla Fudge still has one of the best lunch deals in Manchester to this day: TWO big, well-packed wraps ‘of the day’, complete with protein, plenty of salad and your choice of sauce for just £5.50.
You’ll always find a few in the know on their break.We always hope to see Cajun chicken as the special. You can add cheese for an extra quid, or chips and a drink for £8.50. Bosh. (Credit: The Manc Eats)
2. Zaytoni – Multiple
Any cheap eat in Manchester that starts from under a fiver in this day and age is a winner in our books, and with Zaytoni, you can get plenty for just that and no more than a ‘bluey’; better still, their menu – be it the low-end or stuff that creeps over that amount – always slaps.
With two regularly busy sites (hardly a shock) on Oxford Road and the edge of the Northern Quarter/Piccadilly, you can get some very solid pizzas and garlic breads from between £4.50 and £7, but our advice is to go for a super-filling fatayer, with loads of fresh salad, and split one with a mate.
From one simply but satisfying spot to another, you can’t do a round-up of the best deals you can grab on your dinner in Manchester city centre without mentioning the local breakfast and lunchtime institution that is Rustica over in NQ.
Run by Manc mum to many, Jeanette, she and her team have literally been given a lifetime achievement award not only for keeping their food affordable for more than 25 years now, no matter what state the economy is in – and with lines around the block almost every single day without fail, it’s no wonder.
Next up is the still incredibly best and well-kept secret, Meridian Cafe and Bar, tucked down the side streets not far from Market and King Street, and just around the corner from Pall Mall. Well, we say ‘secret’ – it’s not really anymore, sorry… But this is some of the best halal Asian fusion in town.
That being said, it never fails to surprise us how many people haven’t heard of this place when we bring it up, and the weekly midday crowd is still relatively manageable given just how good their offer is: a massive lunch box starting from just £5.80. You can add more if you want, but trust us, you won’t need it.
The catch is, it’s only up for grabs during a specific window – find out when right here.
This and That – NQ
Last but not least, it would be nothing short of a crime to overlook one of the most legendary lunch deals in Manchester: the original rice and three offer from the storied This and That Cafe on the otherwise unsuspecting Soap Street, just around from NQ’s bustling Thomas St strip.
This place should need no introduction, really, and it may not be the only place that does this kind of offer, but with nearly four whole decades of serving up some of the tastiest curries in the city centre for cheap, this is the epitome of what we want from the Manc foodie scene on our dinner hour. Iconic.
Honourable mention
Bunny Jacksons
Last but not least, to round things up to a nice even half dozen in case none of these takes your fancy, how could we possibly forget Bunny’s? Arguably the best dive bar not just in Manchester but the entire world, this place is built on serving up great value-for-money scran, especially in hard times.
Wings from just 20p have kept us going until the end of many a long month waiting for payday, and while this place truly comes into its own come the evening when the playlist gets even louder, and the likes of bandaoke get going, it’s still a great place to nip at noon. Six is plenty, and 12 is more than enough.
A new restaurant serving seafood boils is opening at Printworks in Manchester
Daisy Jackson
Shrimp Shack is set to open its first restaurant outside London this summer, with a new site in Printworks in Manchester.
The new restaurant will be serving seafood boils, as well as huge £19.95 platters, £10 lunch deals, and cocktail pitchers.
Shrimp Shack is set to open in the former Frankie & Benny’s site, beneath Printworks’ dazzling digital ceiling.
The restaurant is already cult-followed with its London locations, where it’s built a solid reputation for generous portions and bold flavours.
Shrimp Shack favourites include various seafood boils, a dish with its roots in the Southern states of the USA, including their shrimp boil, seafood boil, and the lux lobster boil.
Each boil is loaded with shrimp, seafood, sausages, corn on the cob, boiled eggs, spiced rice and peri chips, in the brand’s signature secret sauce.
There’s also set to be a Shack Savers Selection, with five huge dishes (battered fish and shrimps, a 12oz Wagyu steak, grilled salmon with prince shrimps, surf and turf, and grilled shrimp and calamari) priced at just £19.95, including two sides and a choice of sauces.
At lunchtimes, there’ll be £10 dishes like the Sprimp Rich Po’ Boy sandwich, the double cheese smash burger, and a veggie option (or you can upgrade to a lobster roll for £5).
And there’ll be refillable soft drinks, freshly-blended smoothies, milkshakes, mocktails, and sharing pitchers.
Shrimp Shack opens in Printworks this summer, serving seafood boils and platters
Rish Gola, co-founder of Shrimp Shack, said: “Shrimp shack was born in London to redefine how people enjoy premium seafood; served fresh and fast, where bold flavours are brought together with everyday dishes.
“Shrimp Shack has a strong appeal with ethnic communities, family diners, and groups of friends who come together over big flavours and generous seafood feasts.
“Our accessible pricing and high-quality dishes create apremium fast experience that welcomes everyone.”
Dan Davis, general manager at Printworks, said: “We’re delighted to have secured Shrimp Shack as Printworks’ latest tenant, its first location outside of London and another exciting restaurant to add to our offering.
“Shrimp Shack’s unique and distinctive offering is perfectly aligned with our aim to deliver high quality experience-led concepts right in the heart of Manchester.”
Daisy Jackson -
15th October 2024 
