Levenshulme has long been described as an up-and-coming destination for restaurants, but with its typical South Manchester frontage of innumerable pound shops, bookies, and fried chicken takeaways, at first glance, you might be forgiven for wondering why.
This is no quiet, polite Ancoats, with its tiny pedigree dogs trotting around happily after their owners, or a newly sterilised Sale with its identikit shop fronts.
This is a foodie suburb with a loud personality, where gentrification is still being somewhat held at bay as the old and the new continue to sit side by side.
Over the past decade, the Levenshulme neighbourhood has attracted a roster of trendy new bars, taprooms, restaurants and bakeries, with most of their kitchens favouring hipster-friendly seasonal small plates, not to mention low-intervention wines and craft beers.
Most of these new independent businesses run the gauntlet of the seemingly always-congested Stockport Road, tucked in amongst dusty old shopfronts and busy shisha shops.
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It feels a bit of a neighbourhood in flux, where you can sit in the sun and sip on some of the best natural wines going as, directly behind you, commuters pump out loud bhangra bangers from their cars and shout angrily at one another from their windows.
No word of a lie, on a recent visit for this piece I actually witnessed a lorry driver pull onto a side street and chase down a car that had cut him off after shouting from his window that he would ‘fight him’. But then, that’s just classic South Manchester for you – and I don’t think I’d have it any other way.
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If you ask me – it’s just the kind of foodie suburb we all need more of, with longstanding favourites like Leve Bakery Shawarma continuing to thrive alongside the trendy new guard.
Yes, we have lost a few good places here in recent years – notably Aunty Ji’s and The Gherkin – but overall, it’s still very much worth a visit. Please, God, let’s all go and spend some money there before another one shuts.
So, on that note, let’s dig into where it is that you should be booking.
This cool neighbourhood bar and restaurant might be serving up some delicious, fancy small plates and cocktails, but it’s also the sort of place you can bring the whole family on a day out to Levenshulme.
There’s something for everyone on the menu, ranging from perfectly crispy pork belly with pickled spinach and home-fermented hot sauce, to squishy hush puppies showered with parmesan, and one of the best house burgers we’ve had in some time.
Nordie’s spicy mango margaritas, made fiery with a splash of ancho reyes chile liqueur, deserve a special shout-out, as do some of its local producers – especially Stockport butchery Littlewoods, who provide the meat for that much-thought-about burger of theirs.
This women-owned and run natural wine bar and shop sits on a busy high street and looks somewhat unassuming from the front, but dive inside and you’re guaranteed to sample some of the tastiest morsels going in Levenshulme right now.
Opened by Caroline Dubois (former sommelier at Where The Light Gets In) and Isobel Jenkins (Seasons Eatings supper club), the focus here is on sustainable practices and producers, with plenty of tasty bakes, small plates, and the occasional pop-up supper club.
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Caroline is more than happy to chew your ear off about her passion for wine, which seems, frankly, infinite, so don’t be afraid to ask for a recommendation – she puts a lot of work into sourcing each bottle, often visiting the producers before buying a new case.
This independent tap house and bottle shop is much bigger than it looks from the front, with three rooms stretching right to the back and plenty of seating for drinkers.
Home to modern small batch brewery Ventile Brew Co, find a mixture of Ventile beers and others from breweries local to Greater Manchester – spanning sherberty lemon sours, chocolatey stouts, and hop-forward pale ales.
Bright and colourful inside, its team, as you might expect, is incredibly knowledgeable on the beer front. In the back, you’ll also find shelves upon shelves of boardgames, perfect for wiling away the sort of wet and windy summer afternoons we’ve been having here lately.
Located in an old sweet shop on a suburban back street, this adorable little neighbourhood bakery comes from former Pollen patissiers Jenny and Bethan.
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Serving up the likes of beautifully laminated croissants, dill pickled Danish, scrumptious homemade pop tarts, and plenty more, the women-owned and women-run bakery is open Wednesday to Saturday starting early in the morning until 3pm.
Up on a shelf behind the counter, they still have a few big jars of old-school boiled sweets in a nod to its days a corner shop – but we’re not entirely sure if they are for sale, or just there for the nostalgia.
You can also pick up bags of coffee here, and whilst doing your shopping peer into the open kitchen in the back to see exactly what it is they’re going to be putting out on the counter next.
Whilst city dwellers know and love Trove’s Ancoats bakery and restaurant, if you get the chance to come up to Levenshulme and visit its original spot it’s well worth doing so.
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The team here is serving up freshly baked sourdough, pastries, cakes, jams and chutneys, all made in-house, alongside stunning brunch dishes such as seasonal croissant loaf French toast, eggs Benedict and a vegan breakfast of aubergine, panisse, cannellini beans, mushroom, cavelo nero, seasonal chutney, tahini, and toast.
One of the charms of Trove being a bakery first is that the menu allows you to choose your own bread, kind of like a posh Subway but a million times better – with choices spanning white and wholemeal sourdough, white bloomer, and 100% rye fennel (the latter a personal favourite).
From the new to the old, so we have to talk about Leve Bakery Shawarma – something of an institution in this part of Manchester.
Admittedly, the pictures above are taken from a recent visit to their newly-opened Edgeley Road takeaway in Stockport – but on a recent visit to Levenshulme, I couldn’t fail to notice how many people were sitting outside enjoying lamb and chicken-stuffed samoans for their mid-week lunch.
The fact that the team here has just opened a second site is a testament to its success in a climate where 10% of all administrations are now attributed to hospitality closures, and it’s safe to say the food here is completely worth all the hype that it gets.
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Also worth trying here is the Lebanese Fatayer, a Middle Eastern folded pizza/pie hybrid baked with a variety of vegetables and meat, and the Lahmajun – a crispy Levantine flatbread topped with minced meat, vegetables, and herbs.
Where do you love to eat in Levenshulme? Let us know where else we should go by dropping us a message on Instagram @themanceats.
A masterclass in The Art of Loving: Olivia Dean brings two unforgettable nights to Co-op Live
Emily Johnson
Olivia Dean took over Co-op Live for not one, but two nights this weekend – and what she delivered felt like a full-circle celebration of The Art of Loving, her incredible sophomore album.
From the moment Olivia’s silhouette appeared behind the curtain on night two, opening with the album’s title track, it was clear this evening was going to be special.
With a sea of polka dots on arrival, it’s evident that the 27-year-old already has great influence when it comes to style with her fans, and you could spot anyone who was attending Olivia Dean around Manchester city centre immediately.
Despite performing to a crowd of over 20,000 people, the performance felt incredibly intimate, with interactions with the crowd through the evening, even pointing out a fan’s banner saying they had been a fan of Olivia since 2019, which she was humbly taken aback by.
Her voice carried effortlessly around the arena, somehow still managing to feel soft and personal, like she was singing directly to you.
No Dean show would be complete without her incredible outfits either, and last night we were truly spoilt, with two outfit changes throughout the evening, which split the night into three chapters.
Initially appearing in a black sequin number, before reappearing in the middle of the crowd in an all-white outfit, evocative of an angel – a moment that felt intimate even in a room that size.
Later, with disco balls lowered and the energy lifted, she returned in another glitzy look for the more upbeat tracks, including a crowd-pleasing cover of ‘Move On Up’. With her band behind her, the sound filled the arena beautifully.
Everyone was on their feet having a good time, but no one was having as much fun as the woman herself, Olivia Dean.
And that’s the thing with Miss Dean, no one at her gigs is having half as much fun as she is. She’s always smiling, always glowing.
Put simply, she’s a proper ray of sunshine on stage. Towards the end of the show, Olivia looked up at the crowd and stated, “It’s magic in here tonight, Manchester”, and we all believed her.
Looking around at the crowd, arms around each other, best friends, couples – it was hard not to feel the magic too.
Highlights included ‘UFO’ with a sea of lights, which in the moment gave the whole room goosebumps, and of course, the confetti cannon, which was the grand finale to an incredible evening.
Yungblud channels a bit of magic that’d make Ozzy proud on huge headline night in Manchester
Lonnie Bowes
A darkened arena erupts into life as Yungblud storms the AO Arena main stage for his biggest Manchester show to date.
He flickers across the giant screens, projected against a curtain that stretches the full width of the AO Arena. Then that unmistakable Doncaster drawl cuts through the noise, urging the audience to make some noise (even more of it), and they oblige – gladly.
When the lights come up, a barrage of lights flickers, pyrotechnics explode, and chaos ensues. Manchester crowds are no strangers to Yungblud; he’s a livewire performer with seemingly endless energy, a proclivity for raw emotion, and a fiercely loyal fanbase: the self-proclaimed ‘Black Hearts Club’.
Dressed in a grungy pair of Chrome Hearts leather trousers, a leopard-print waistcoat and sunglasses so thick he could look directly at the sun with no issues, he tears straight into the opening track (Hello Heaven, Hello) with barely a second to breathe.
He then pauses – hands extended to the crowd, a cheeky grin – and bang: confetti fills the room.
If previous Manchester shows hinted at his stamina, this one confirms it. The scale may be bigger, but the intensity hasn’t dipped. The floor quickly becomes a sea of movement, with mosh pits swelling and collapsing in waves, sending bodies ricocheting across the arena.
It’s the kind of gig where you’re never quite safe from getting drenched either – water cups are less for drinking and more for launching, with sprays arcing out over the front rows like some kind of punk rock baptism of fire. So many flames.
The audience was on the ball; at one point, Yungblud’s comb was hurled into the crowd. Showgoers in the area tussled over the item for a minute before returning to the mayhem unfolding around them.
Part conductor, part chaos agent, part mic-wielding cowboy, he commands the room with ease. The mic stand, placed in front of him between each song by the production team, is repeatedly cast to the back of the stage, and he flails the mic above his head on more than one occasion – always catching it again before it can strike anyone else. It’s reckless, but never careless.
Because beneath the sweat and noise, there’s something more deliberate at play. His speeches on identity, equality, belonging and mental health feel less like interludes and more like the backbone of the entire night.
This isn’t just performance: it’s a space he’s actively shaping, one where thousands feel seen. Towards the back end of the set, he invites the whole crowd to look left and right and tell each other how much they f***ing love one another.
Tracks like ‘Loner’, ‘Lowlife’ and ‘Zombie’ land with particular weight, their messages amplified by a crowd that knows every word. At one point, the lights swing out over the audience, and for a moment the focus shifts – not just to the performer, but to the community he’s built.
With a touching tribute to the late, great Ozzy Osbourne, Yungblud is visibly emotional, with tears in his eyes for his dearly departed friend. And if the ringing in my ears is anything to go by, I’m pretty sure Ozzy heard it and was looking down with pride.
If you haven’t guessed by now, Yungblud knows how to command a room, but things definitely took a turn when he invited a member of the crowd on stage.
Holding a poster that read something along the lines of “I can play guitar”, she was brought up and proceeded to absolutely bring the house down, performing alongside him for a song. Daisy, hats off – you absolutely SMASHED it.
Congratulations are in order as well to the happy couple who got engaged at the gig. We really hope your first dance is to a Yungblud track.
Even in a venue of this size, he moves like he’s trying to outpace it; sprinting, leaping, barely standing still long enough to catch a breath. It’s hard not to feel like this is still just a stepping stone. Because if he can command a room like this with such force, it’s not a stretch to imagine Yungblud scaling even bigger stages before long.
Loud, relentless and emotionally charged, this wasn’t just a gig, it was a statement – a place to escape the struggles of day-to-day life and bolster an ever-growing community built on all the right things: acceptance, harmony, and just a little bit of chaos. In short, he’s welcome back anytime.
Georgina Pellant -
4th August 2023 
