In the recent weeks of England’s third national lockdown amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 14-year-old Chorlton High School pupil Rob has been lending a hand at his town’s local foodbank to do all that he can to help feed some of the most vulnerable people in his wider community at a time when they truly need it more than ever.
The Year 10 student has not only been praised by the foodbank’s owners and those who know him, but also by hundreds of members of the Greater Manchester public too after he took it upon himself to put together some food parcels for families and individuals assisted in need.
Rob has collected food donations from his neighbours in West Didsbury, and from his Grandparents neighbours in Heaton Chapel too.
In total, this “amazing young man” has put together 40 pre-packed and ready-to-go food parcels.
Barakah Food Aid’s social media post shining a light on Rob’s incredible efforts last week has since received an overwhelmingly positive response, with hundreds of interactions and shares helping to spread the word, as well as comments from people commending his selflessness and expressing how wonderful it is to see the community’s young people striving to make a difference.
He has been named “a credit to himself, his school and his community”, an “absolute superstar”, and “a remarkable young man” all by members of the public choosing to pile on the praise.
Chorlton High School also commented: “Well done Robert. Very proud to have one of our own making a difference in the community.
“Keep up the good work everyone.”
And Barakah Food Aid owner Manzoor Ali was keen to say a special thank you to Rob “and all those who’ve supported you in this”.
Barakah Food Aid was established in 2009 by husband and wife duo, Manzoor and Aiysha Ali, alongside their three children, Asim, Zahra and Abdul-Rehman, and was set up “to help those in need of food in our local communities”.
Manzoor and Aiysha were first the friendly faces behind former curry business Barakah Foods – which was launched from their own kitchen in Whalley Range, before going from strength to strength and eventually moving into its own premises on Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton – with Barakah Food Aid being launched alongside the business to help Manchester’s homeless and those living on the breadline.
But in August of 2018, the family decided to bid a fond farewell to their food business in order to put their full focus on their community work.
Barakah Food Aid may be based in South Manchester, but it is “willing to assist wherever we can”.
And this is a sentiment that has never been more powerful than over the past 11 months of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, where ongoing restrictions, sector closures and subsequent economic struggles have meant that more people have relied on, or required the use of foodbanks than ever before.
A report by charity The Trussell Trust – which runs a network of 1,300 foodbank centres across the UK – last November confirmed a 47% increase in support needed during the pandemic, with a record 1.2 million emergency food parcels being handed out in the first six months.
From April to September of 2020, more than 470,000 of the food parcels were delivered to children, which on average came to around 2,600 every day.
“We don’t do what we do for any attention in anyway.” Manzoor Ali tells us.
“But if what we do encourages others to lookout for their neighbours, then that’s our job done.
“It’s been a difficult 11yrs+ of doing what we do, but the last year has been off the scale, and mentally it’s really tested us [so] we feel so mush for those with diagnosed mental health issues and we can’t begin to imagine what they’re going through.”
He continued: “As a group, we sometimes feel that we’re part of the problem, but we want to be part of the success, and success will only be acknowledged when we our service is no longer needed [and] when foodbanks are shut.
“Until then, it feels like we’re just not doing enough, and much more needs to be done in order to bring foodbank numbers down.
“A society where registered foodbanks outnumber McDonalds restaurants, is a society that’s failing.”
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Can you help Barakah Food Aid help the local community by donating non-perishable food items, or even your volunteer time?
You can call 07506 527523, or email [email protected] to find out more.
And don’t forget to keep up to date with all of the latest Barakah Food Aid updates throughout the duration of lockdown and beyond on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well.
Feature
The very best and booziest bottomless brunches in Manchester city centre
Danny Jones
If you’re looking to find the very best bottomless brunch places Manchester city centre has to offer, then look no further.
You’ll probably be struggling to see straight after you finish brunching anyway, but that’s all part of the fun, isn’t it? In Manchester, we love a good brunch like the best of them.
Getting stuck into some free-flowing drinks with your friends around a table of food is a match made in heaven if you ask us.
To help you achieve your ultimate bottomless brunch goals, we’ve put together a list of some of our top spots in Manchester to help you find the right one for you. Keep reading to discover our top picks.
At Blues Kitchen, you can tuck into soul food-inspired mains like fried chicken and gravy, taco bowls, shrimp sandwiches, and beef dip melts, with 90 minutes of unlimited drinks for £35 per person.
And in true Blues fashion, there’ll of course be live music aplenty, from live soul and R&B in the bar to the house band playing upstairs in the gig space.
There are loads of options and packages to check out – head HERE to make your booking.
Bordering two of Manchester city centre‘s coolest and best foodie neighbourhoods, the team who run the show over at Ramona and Firehouse during the day and well into the night have become famous around the UK for their Detroit-style pizza, loaded tater tots, margaritas and good vibes.
Better still, you can turn those Cali peps slices, helpings of fresh burrata, spicy margs, mimosa and more bottomless at just £38pp.
Between 12-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays, you can get any slice of pizza plus frozen margs, selected spritzes, prosecco and Ramona pilsner.
3. New Century – NOMA
New Century in Manchester serves a great bottomless brunch. (Credit: The Manc Eats)
All the traders from the New Century food hall band together at the weekends to serve up a bottomless brunch with more menu options than anywhere else in the city.
You can order a brunch item from any trader inside – and that includes an egg banh mi from Banh Vi, plus chicken and waffles from Parmogeddon – then add on a bottomless drinks package for 90 minutes.
Options include bottomless lager, stout, IPA, cider, prosecco, and Aperol Spritzes for £30 (including one brunch item), or for an extra fiver, you can also get Pornstar Martinis and Bloody Marys.
4. Peaky Blinders – Deansgate
Credit: The Manc Group
The Peaky Blinders bar on Peter Street grows more popular year after year, and not just because people enjoy dressing up in fancy old-world clobber and coming along to see the lookalikes – it’s the birdcage of tasty bites, ‘Cherry Ada’s and ‘Shel-bee’ whiskey-based specials that keep them coming back.
There are different bottomless brunch menus available every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from classic brunch platters to steak and fries to bottomless roast dinners.
And they all come with endless cocktails, beers, spirits and more drinks, with bottomless packages between £37.50 and £40.
One of the fanciest new openings in Manchester, Sexy Fish, serves one of the city’s swankiest bottomless brunches.
For £48 per person, you can indulge in a range of starters, unlimited sushi from the sushi buffet, a main course with a side, and desserts. Or you can just have your fill at the sushi buffet for £28 per person.
Then you can add on free-flowing cocktails for £30 per person or indulge in limitless bubbles from £34 per person.
6. Diecast – Piccadilly East
Diecast in Manchester does a bottomless brunch with its frozen daiquiris. (Credit: The Manc)
90 minutes of pure drag entertainment is what’s on the menu at Diecast in Piccadilly East, as ‘Dragstravaganza’ takes over for an interactive bottomless battle.
There are also more regular bottomless brunch offerings, where you can choose a pizza from the menu, plus add on 90 minutes of frozen daiquiris.
The event schedule is a busy one, so check HERE to book your bottomless at Diecast.
Another solid Manchester bottomless brunch spot is Banyan, offering two hours of the good stuff for £36.95 and free rein on their food menu – we’re talking breakfast hash, Korean fried chicken burgers, flat iron steak and curry.
You can go bottomless in the evenings too for £39.95.
And endless drinks include loads of their house cocktails, plus your usual suspects like prosecco, beer and spirits.
A Pan-Asian bottomless brunch with dishes like an Asian twist on a full English, a Rendang roti, a Bali brunch bowl and ‘Bang Bang’ steak and eggs? Sign us up.
Running seven (yep, seven!) days a week, the Tampopo bottomless (and they have two restaurants in Manchester) includes 90 minutes of free-flowing bubbles, lager, ‘rum beach buckets’ and house cocktails, plus any brunch plate or vegetarian, chicken or pork large plate.
Not bad for £38 a head.
9. Italiana Fifty-Five – Great Northern Warehouse and Castlefield
Italiana Fifty-Five does bottomless Aperol brunch and a tower of treats at all three of its Manchester restaurants
Next up is one we’d consider an old faithful: Italiana Fifty-Five, formerly known as Cibo. With three sites in Manchester, which now includes one in Didsbury. We’ve had this particular bottomless brunch so many times now we’ve lost count, but it never disappoints.
Bottomless tapas and sangria at Canto puts a Portuguese twist on boozy brunch proceedings over in Ancoats. The sister site of AA Rosette restaurant, El Gato Negro, this is what they call ‘tipsy tapas’.
Priced at £40 a head, you get a choice of three plates each and 90 minutes of unlimited drinks with choices like sangria, fizz, bellinis, house wine and lager.
Tapas choices include options like jamón croquetas, salt cod fritters, patatas bravas, crispy squid and plenty more. Never fails.
One of the best bottomless brunches in Manchester? Don’t mind if we do. They keep it simple at Elnecot as you just opt for your unlimited drinks on top of the usual, but you’ll hear no complaints from us whilst we’re sipping on house cosmos, mimosas, Bloody Marys, boozy ice teas and lager.
Brunch dishes, meanwhile, feature the likes of crispy pork belly with rosti, fried eggs, savoy kimchi, Elnecot chilli jam and yoghurt; wild mushrooms on toast with goat’s curd and dukkah, as well as Elnecot’s full English and eggs on toast, just to name a few.
Bottomless drinks are £26 per person, plus whatever brunch dish you want, for two hours of drinking time.
12. The Bay Horse Tavern – Northern Quarter
Credit: The Manc Group
Affectionately known by locals as ‘Horse-moor’, the boozy brunch menu at upmarket NQ pub The Bay Horse Tavern is a pretty traditional affair dish-wise, although there is a funky peanut butter, bacon and fried banana croissant bad boy to be found here too.
Priced at £32.50 for a dish and unlimited drinks until 4pm every weekend, think egg, bacon and sausage butties; fry-ups; poached and scrambled eggs (they do eggs really well here) mushrooms, avo and smoked salmon on toast, as well as fizz, Irish coffee, beer, mimosas, bloody marys and house wine. Easy.
Maybe one of the more expensive on this list, but worth every penny, Gaucho‘s ‘Electro Brunch’ is one of the Manchester OGs, and it also happens to be one of the best steaks in town. Setting you back £65, it’s all about the beef here, which is wet-aged and can be cut with a butter knife – it really is that soft.
The music-fuelled all-you-can-eat midday feast also features cocktails like pornstar martinis and Aperol spritz alongside glasses of Argentinian Domain Chandon and even includes a brunch dessert of smoked chocolate ganache. They have a maximum of eight drinks per person, but let’s be honest, that’s plenty.
Another more boujee, boozy brunch option is at Gordon Ramsay’s very own Lucky Cat.
For 90 minutes, you can enjoy endless prosecco alongside a two-course meal, with dishes like vegetable tempura, crispy beef rice bowls, and teriyaki salmon.
You can also add a dessert platter for an extra tenner or upgrade from prosecco to champagne for £20. This is definitely a more classy excuse to get tipsy, whilst enjoying some proper high-quality food.
Fress is an award-winning white-subway tiled restaurant on Oldham Street that often has queues out the door for its bottomless boozy brunch. There’s a hearty menu featuring all the favourites, from a full English and beans on toast to mouth-watering waffles and pancakes, but it’s the sweet stuff we go for.
With a 1 hour 15 minute £37 per person sitting (that price includes a main from the menu), drinks choices include prosecco, mimosas, house wine and lager.
16. Zouk Tea Bar and Grill – Quadrangle
Credit: The Manc
Just off Oxford Road Corridor, you’ll find one of the very best bottomless brunches in Manchester, and it’s over at Zouk – also one of the best places for a curry in town that you can enjoy bottomless style, but that’s a separate matter. Two plates and as much booze as you can stomach. Glorious.
Either way, for £35 a pop from 11am-4:30pm every Saturday, you can get an incredible South Indian and Pakistani-inspired menu featuring everything from masala omelettes to the ‘Bollywood Benedict’ and SO much more. Absolutely slaps every single time.
A favourite amongst the flag-waving bottomless brunch brigade, we can’t think of many places that come more immediately to mind than Manahatta on Deansgate. Two whole hours of non-stop booze and some Insta-worthy scran for £36.95 until 3pm, and you can upgrade to any dish for an extra fiver.
Manahatta’s brunch menu features a wide range of spritzes, bloody marys or lager to enjoy alongside plates that range from Mexican wraps to breakfast hash, pancakes, steak frites and other NYC-inspired plates. You can also book big parties and the main menu for £41.95.
18. The Pen and Pencil – NQ
Another long-standing favourite over ours, you’ll find plenty of people heading to The Pen and Pencil when they’re around the Northern Quarter way and after a solid bottomless brunch.
Their bottomless brunch runs on the last Saturday of every month, costs £50 and will leave you full to bursting – and that’s just the booze part.
You’ve got all of the staple egg dishes, pancake stacks and more, as well as all your classic cocktails – and you can eat and drink as much as you like.
Similar vibes here – no list of the best bottomless brunch gaffs in Manchester is complete without BLVD, the Spinningfields venue without the vowels but all the flavour, putting their own unique spin on things with a selection of small plates like veg tempura, duck spring rolls or salt and pepper chicken wings.
You can choose two small plates, one side, and then dive into different flavours of bellinis, prosecco, rum punch, gin smash cocktails, vodka raspberry ripples, and bottled beers.
It costs £35 per person and is available every day that BLVD is open.
20. Crazy Pedro’s – NQ and Deansgate
Yes, Crazy P‘s does do bottomless brunch, and yes, it is mint. Enjoy unlimited slices from their ever-rotating daily menu of crazy pizza concoctions, as well as non-stop Hooch, beer, prosecco and their classic Frozen Margz for 90 minutes
It’s just £29.50pp for pure carbs and the fun-time juice when you book, and it also happens to be ‘r Amy’s favourite pizza place and quite a few of us would probably agree with her.
Shack’s brilliant disco brunch starts from £32.50 per person, with a few levels of drinks packages if you want to step things up a little bit.
Dishes include French toast, chorizo chilli eggs, breakfast buns, and absolutely massive pancake and waffle stacks, plus a full menu of grilled cheeses, wraps and burgers.
In our opinion, Ducie Street Warehouse quietly does some of the best bottomless brunch in Manchester; there just aren’t enough people who know about it, so we’re fixing that. Croque monsieurs, pancake stacks, breakfast baps and more. This menu is elite.
Changing themes each month, as well as wheeling out their ‘disco’ brunch every Saturday, their parties (and believe us, they are) will set you back £42.
Once again, no list of bottomless brunch hotspots in Manchester city centre would be complete without the Deansgate cornerstone that is Dirty Martini. Someone pass us a phone, we need another picture in front of their wings because the last 20 or so weren’t quite good enough.
Just as good during the day as it is for a night out, their bottomless brunch costs £37.50pp on Fridays and Saturdays, but their Martini brunch from Sunday-Thursday is the cheaper option at just £30.
24. Almost Famous – NQ
Credit: The Manc Group
We will take any excuse to head to one of the best burger joints in Manchester, so naturally, the fact that Almost Famous also does bottomless brunch is ideal. Available Friday-Sunday from 12-3pm, you get the standard 90-minute sitting for £37.50pp.
Get ready for this: get absolutely ANY famous burger with winning or bacon bacon fries and chicken nuggets as well as a free run at as much draught beer, cider, prosecco and cocktails as you fancy sinking. We call that heaven.
25. The Foundry Project – NQ
Finally, The Foundry Project over on Thomas Street does a bang-up bottomless brunch with plenty of variety for just £36 per person.
Hash brown nachos, breakfast brioche, fry-ups, brunch burgers and more to go with prosecco, bellinis, mimosas, Aperol spritz or pints of Amstel. What more could you possibly want?
It goes without saying that there are plenty more places we could have out on this list, and we’re sure it’ll keep growing over time, but 25 should do you for now.
Manchester really does have some of the best bottomless brunch culture in the country, and we’re saying that with our chests, so don’t even try and argue with us.
Lastly, if you do fancy the brunch without the need for the bottomless element, we’ve found there’s a great new mini-district for it forming in a popular part of Manchester city centre….
Why you should be glad Tom Aspinall has said no to a UFC fight at The White House
Danny Jones
In this industry, you can get used to wearing some pretty strange-sounding headlines, but we still had to double-take when we saw the headlines that the UFC is set to hold an event at The White House (yes, really) – even more so when we saw local name Tom Aspinall linked.
You know, as in the home of the actual President of the United States…
While UFC boss Dana White has stated that “it is definitely going to happen”, revealing that he has already met with Donald Trump, one of the UFC’s biggest stars and Manchester’s very own heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall, says he has no interest. More importantly, he says you shouldn’t either.
Appearing on Canadian journalist Ariel Helwani’s mixed martial arts (MMA) and wrestling-focused podcast, The AH Show, Aspinall discussed everything from his next bout against French fighter Ciryl Gane, beef between coaches and much more.
However, the pair couldn’t possibly have skipped over the topic on everyone’s lips in the fight world and, indeed, beyond, after President Trump announced that he would be bringing the UFC to what is, for all intents and purposes, the most famous seat of power in the world.
As you can see in the clip above, the Atherton-born and Salford-raised sportsman barely even gave the notion much time of day at all, quickly expressing his ‘boredom’ over talking about it.
Regardless, Helwani did manage to get a clear response from ‘The Honey Badger’, who said: “It has spent zero seconds in my mind. I’m not interested, mate. Not interested, and the world shouldn’t be interested either, because what’s the point? That’s false hope.”
Once again, while both Trump and Dana White insist an official UFC event will go ahead, slating none other than the annual 4 July celebrations as the desired date on the 250th anniversary of the nation’s unification, it still seems like a surreal sentence to even say out loud for most people.
🇺🇸 President Donald Trump says he will host a UFC fight at the White House as part of the America 250 celebration 👀
"We're gonna have a UFC fight on the grounds of the White House… championship fight."pic.twitter.com/ouTttg1NPz
Now, while the Manc MMA fighter (who recently became the undisputed champion in his division following fight legend Jon Jones’ retirement) begins by dismissing the idea, he goes on to admit via double negative that the idea “doesn’t not interest [him]” and would be a “cool experience”.
Whether or not he means in the future, perhaps under a different POTUS’ regime, or simply doubts that the deal will even come off at this early stage, who knows?
He might have also just been referring to his doubts that the former three-time champ Jon Jones’ self-proclaimed return to the testing pool just weeks after retiring will amount to anything material, let alone in time for this particular date; even Dana White himself has said the likelihood is “a billion to one“.
First and foremost, Apsinall explains that he believes that “the Americans [fighting in the UFC] should get the shot at the White House” as they obviously have a much more vested interest in the concept and sense of appeal when it comes to utilising it as the latest historic, albeit unorthodox, sporting venue.
Interestingly, he does confess that he neither knows nor cares very little about US politics, stating: “I’m not really a big Trump supporter or against Trump […] I don’t live there, I don’t reside there, I don’t do anything there, apart from pay taxes and fight there. Really, all of that stuff is irrelevant to me.”
However, his minor caveat was that he has no ‘particular’ interest in the proposal and only really reiterated that he’s “not bothered” about when or where it happens, stating simply that he’ll “fight anywhere.”
The White House under the lights on fight night would be quite the sight, there’s no denying that. (Credit: Rob Young via Flickr)
You could argue that the current world number two UFC heavyweight is being careful in his choice of words, playing the bipartisan role ever so carefully so as not to jeopardise his own future in a sport that predominantly revolves around North America.
After all, recent developments in the media world alone would suggest that the Trump administration could make his time working and competing in the US more difficult than it would otherwise be if he made an outwardly public and definitive stance against the mercurial and controversial statesman.
And that’s putting it mildly.
On the other hand, his words could be quite literally taken at face value: he may not care one bit about the rather divisive political climate in America; he is just an athlete who’s making a living has nothing to do with Democrats vs Republicans.
Nevertheless, it seems fairly significant that Aspinall rubbished what are still just unofficial, though admittedly very loud and public, rumours put forward by the two relevant leadership figures involved in these ongoing developments, especially given that the Wigan warrior is currently at the top of his game.
You can see his AH Show interview in full down below.
He may be too wise to say it out loud, but we’d wager Aspinall knows backing a UFC fight at The White House is bad for business.
Given that Donald Trump is known to be an avid fight fan – having famously backed and hosted the 1988 Tyson fight at the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, later going to be pictured shaking ‘Iron Mike’s hand at UFC 316 back in June – there could be a chance of the two interacting somewhat closely.
With that in mind, even if this isn’t Aspinall cleverly and indirectly distancing himself from the President, some might say he is at least trying to urge others to hopefully prevent the sport from drifting into the same muddy waters that other modern combat sports have.
As time goes on, boxing in particular seems to be coming more and more about the paegantry and finding new ways of marketing one of the world’s oldest and most primal contests; celebrities entering the ring and YouTube/influencer boxers being the prime example.
The fight world has always been about spectacle, but many would argue it’s become increasingly style over substance in recent years, given the advent of social media, not to mention the line between exhibition and genuine competition becoming increasingly blurred.
Despite their stars remaining underpaid in comparison to headline boxers, MMA has always prided itself on being brutally itself, and whatever you make of it as it continues to grow both commercially and in terms of popularity, personally, we believe people like Tom Aspinall are trying to keep it honest.
Steering clear of not just politics but the same Hollywood trappings and overly spectacular, money-driven, entertainment-for-profit-first focus that often plagues present-day boxing is a wise step, no matter how Jon Jones suddenly wants to join in the hard sell.
Despite the odds, I’m still training and optimistic about the possibility of being part of the White House event. At the end of the day, Dana is the boss and it’s his call whether I compete that night or not. I do know Dana was really excited about the fight, and the door hasn’t…
Emily Sergeant -
17th February 2021 
