Prawns, beef, salt and pepper tofu or chicken boxes are £7.50 served up generously with a side of chips.
Each option oozes with sticky goodness – try their Asian Tacos stuffed with beef, fresh salad, pickled slaw, toasted sesame, crispy shallots smacked between a soft toasted flatbread.
The local business is located inside the Arndale food market, as well as in the kitchens at Black Dog in the Northern Quarter.
The best Indian street food in Manchester – hands down.
ADVERTISEMENT
Vegan, veggie and sure to warm you from the inside out – Bundobust is one of Manchester’s prize restaurants.
There’s an express lunch menu of two dishes for £8.50, including the classic Bundo Chaat, a street snack of broken samosa pastry and puffed rice, peas, onion, pomegranate, and tomato in tamarind chutney.
The tarka dhal is one of the most warming, filling and hearty pots of food you’ll find outside your nan’s kitchen.
Found on the edge of Piccadilly Gardens, the interiors are simple but cool – a perfect place to impress for less on a first date.
Manchester’s best curry house is tucked down a little side street in the Northern Quarter.
ADVERTISEMENT
Delicious and very affordable, This n’ That will become everyone’s new favourite lunch place – if it isn’t already.
All the food is homemade and prepared using fresh whole spices with curry options changing daily.
Their menu works as follows – rice and three veg is £4.50, rice with one meat and two veg is £5 and rice with two meat and one veg is £6.
A fresh, homemade, bursting with flavour, steaming pot of curry almost spilling over – that could be your lunch every day.
Head to the Northern Quarter armed with a map – its location down an alley full of bins might throw you off, but once you find it, you’ll never forget it.
The Arndale food market will satisfy any craving you throw at it, no matter how niche.
In recent years the market has welcomed some of Manchester’s most exciting and talented chefs – so quality is a given.
ADVERTISEMENT
Our list promises affordability to and the Arndale food market deserves a place on this list.
Stalls including Wholesome Junkies (the vegan equivalent of dirty burger), Viet Shack, Piazza (pasta with burrata on top), Market Point and many more are class lunch spots and won’t put you out of pocket.
Whether it’s mid-shop, mid-hangover or just mid-day the Arndale market is sure to sort you out.
Finger licking chicken wings for 20 to 50 pence – a Bunny bargain.
The First Street restaurant is home to the ultimate hot wing challenge, just ask your server and see if you can handle the heat.
For those who can’t, not to worry a glass of milk is helpfully placed on the menu.
The menu boasts some juicy burgers and bar snacks such as Jalapeno Poppers – we were intrigued to – they’re crispy coated, fried jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese.
Get down and dirty with these unbeatable prices but wash your hands before you return to the office.
ADVERTISEMENT
Go Falafel
Deansgate, Piccadilly, Rusholme
Credit: Facebook (Go Falafel) We love the build-your-own aspect
The falafel lover’s failsafe when it comes to a decently priced wrap.
We love the build-your-own aspect to this popular lunch spot and who can’t appreciate a customised falafel wrap.
Or if falafel doesn’t float your boat, grab a vine leaf or some tabouleh and top it off with a fresh juice or smoothie.
Health is wealth and it comes cheap at Go Falafel.
Food & Drink
The free stuff your mum can get in Manchester for Mother’s Day
Danny Jones
If there’s one thing we know for sure it’s that none of us would be lucky enough to be on this planet were it not for our mums, and we think the least they deserve is for things to be made easy, comfortable and, ideally, free wherever possible when it comes to Mother’s Dayherein Manchester.
Now, we don’t live in a perfect so unfortunately not everyone Manc mum is going to be able swan into their favourite place and expect a complimentary this and a gratis that.
However, there are guite a few places in Manchester city centre doing the right things and giving away some free stuff for Mother’s Day 2025, so we thought we’d round them up for you and, more importantly, the person who helped bring you into the world.
Let’s get into, shall we?
Six freebies mums can score in Manchester this Mother’s Day
Albert’s Schloss – Deansgate
What better to begin than with a top-notch breakfast spot? Albert’s Schloss on Peter St is not only one of the best places to start or end a day out but they also do brilliant early morning offerings. Plus, this Mother’s Day, you can wash down your Bavarian brekkie with a free spritz, because why the hell not?
And since you’ve started as you mean to go on, we’d say the only thing better than an early drink (and a free one at that) is a second one, so it’s a good job one of the newest additions to Manchester, The Trading Route, is offering a free cocktail to mums this Mother’s Day.
Best of all, the new S. John’s beer and food hall is located just down the road from the main Deansgate strip and is just next to Spinningfields, so it’s a short walk from Schloss. You can book HERE.
Speaking of which, if your and/or your mum resisted the urge to grab another bite at Trading Route (we wouldn’t blame them if they did), you could then head from St. John’s to Spinningfields and grab some a sophisticated bit of brunch as you grab your next freebie.
Habibi on Hardman Boulevard is giving away a complimentary luxury gift from home, body and beauty brand, Rituals, to those who book ahead. Consider that killing two gift-shaped birds with one stone.
Now, we’re not necessarily expecting you stop at every single place on this list – unless your feeling extravagant or your mum really is that mega that she deserves all of this and more – but you’d be a fool not to grab yourself a margarita on the house from any Nell’s location.
Besides, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to grab a slice to further line your stomach.
However, if mum hasn’t had a nibble in a hot minute then why not take her back in the direction you came from to beloved Polish restaurant, Platzki, who as well as serving an incredible main menu are also offering a free cheesecake or apple pie to all maternal diners this Mother’s Day.
Open for walk-ins as always, of course, but you can reserve your table HERE.
Credit: The Manc Group
House of Fu – Central
And last but not least, what harm would another free marg do? That’s what on the cards over at House of Fu, which just so happens to be up there with some the best ramen in Manchester if there’s still any room in that well-treated tummy.
Located on Portland Street, it’s also not too far from Picadilly, the bus station or St Peter’s Square tram stop when you and your mum are ready to call a day on this freebie parade… Or, you could always tie off the night with some karaoke downstairs. Now that’s how you put an end to a party.
We’d like to think that half a dozen options should just about do you and your mums in central Manchester, though we’re sure there’s plenty more free things to snap up this Mother’s Day.
The cynics might want you to believe that this date is just another annual observance created, or at least perpetuated by companies to sell cards, flowers, chocolate and son, but the truth is a special day that deserves to be celebrated properly.
In fact, the truth is that Mothering Sunday started nearly 120 years ago over in Philadelphia, when a woman named Anna Jarvis wanted to honour her mother who spent her life gathering groups to promote female friendship and health during a memorial service at her late mother’s church.
We think that’s wonderful and whatever your relationship with the mother figure in your life, we reckon it’s a sentiment and motivation worth sustaining much more than just once a year.
Much love to all our mums from The Manc, and sorry if we were ever a pain – hopefully a few drinks makes up for it.
The 5 best places to go for a matcha in Manchester
Daisy Jackson
Matcha fever has the nation gripped at the minute – it feels like half the country has turned its back on flat whites in favour of the popular green tea drink.
This pretty Japanese beverage might have been around for centuries, but it’s having a bit of a new moment here in Manchester and finding a whole new wave of fans.
With the global success of brands like Blank Street, you can barely walk down the street without passing someone sipping something green.
So we’ve decided to pull together five local spots in Manchester who are doing the very best matcha in town, from the very traditional to the very playful.
Know of somewhere we’ve missed? Drop us a DM on our The Manc Eats Instagram page HERE.
Ohayo Tea, Chinatown
Matcha bubble tea and soft serve at Ohayo Tea in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
This adorable bubble tea cafe in Chinatown has a Shiba Inu dog as its mascot, and you’ll find his face carved into the walls, waffles in the shape of his head, and a giant dog statue bursting out of the wall.
Ohayo Tea serve a complex take on a matcha drink that plays into their bubble tea expertise – expect your matcha to come layered with tapioca pearls, cheese foam, pistachio foam, and plenty more options too.
These drinks come with instructions – tilt your branded cup (the Shiba is back) it to at least 45 degrees to get every layer at once, or, if you insist, use a thick straw to mix it all together.
You can also get matcha soft serve here with shards of honeycomb stuck to it. Delightful.
Just Between Friends, Ancoats and Northern Quarter
Matcha drinks at Just Between Friends, Ancoats. Credit: The Manc Group
If you’re someone who actually likes matcha to taste of matcha, rather than of all sorts of syrups and other add-ons, turn to one of the city’s best coffee shops.
At Just Between Friends – which has locations tucked into an old mill in Ancoats as well as right on Tib Street in the Northern Quarter – matcha is whisked properly with a traditional bamboo whisk, before being added to steamed or chilled milk.
The result is either a warm, smooth drink served in an earthenware cup, or a refreshing iced matcha.
You can wedge yourself into a window seat or even sit on the cobbled archway outside and imagine you’ve transported yourself to a Tokyo backstreet.
We’d love to tell you the opening hours and location of this pop-up matcha hotspot, but it tends to shift around Manchester a bit.
It’s worth tracking down though – Matcha Kyoto is importing speciality ingredients all the way from Kyoto and doing everything as authentically as possible.
With matcha whipped cream, matcha lattes, matcha desserts and matcha toppings it’s a dream come true for matcha lovers… Is the word matcha starting to sound like gibberish to anyone else at this point?
Track their latest movements on their Instagram HERE.
Sipp, Ancoats and Deansgate Square
Sipp matcha in Ancoats. Credit: The Manc Group
If you’re new to matcha, or just know that you like yours with a little sweetness and fun, you must get a sip of Sipp’s.
These guys are based in General Stores around town, with their own coffee shop soon to open in Chorlton, and they have a whole list of ‘Matcha Cloud’ drinks.
Their best-seller is the raspberry and coconut, which tastes exactly like a lamington, or there are always specials cropping up (currently, it’s a mango and passionfruit).
This is gateway matcha – and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Tsujiri, Chinatown
A selection of matcha items at Tsujuri in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Not satisfied with simply serving matcha you can drink, Tsujiri is a Japanese tea house using this powerful ingredient in cakes, ice creams, cheesecakes and more.
Tsujiri was founded all the way back in 1860, before bringing the finest matcha lattes and infused desserts to British shores.
In Manchester, you’ll find them in the heart of Chinatown, tucked up an anonymous flight of stairs, where there are cabinets full of green sweet treats like a matcha basque cheesecake, matcha sundaes, and classic iced lattes.
Dolly Busby -
19th November 2021 
