Inside Petisco, the brand new Portuguese-inspired restaurant that’s paving the way for Sale’s food revolution
Opened by four friends who've all known each other since childhood, newcomer Petisco more than holds its own against Stanley Squares more established new residents
The town’s once-sad, brutalist concrete shopping complex is being transformed into a thriving food and drink hub – tempting local residents to stay in their local area, rather than hawking off to Altrincham or into town.
Developers are welcoming in established eateries like Sugo Pasta Kitchen, Zumu Sushi and Green’s, but amongst the ranks is a surprise new entrant that sits cut and thrust alongside the rest.
Called Petisco, it’s a Portuguese-inspired restaurant that’s been opened inside a former Greenhalgh’s bakery by four friends – Johnny and Sam Nolan, Rowland Thatcher and Paul Kiely – who’ve all grown up in the area and known each other since childhood.
The name, loosely translated, equates to a sort of Portuguese tapas – small versions of larger plates, which you order a lot of in order to taste more dishes
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So popular is this style of eating in Portugal that petisco is also a verb, petiscar, used not just to describe eating but the general act of going out for friends for food and drinks.
Three of its four owners have their feet firmly in the corporate world, with Johnny the cheffing talent behind the menu – which borrows from the wider Iberian tradition, as well as taking heavy inspiration from Portugal itself.
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Inspired in more ways than one, nearly everything here is cooked entirely from scratch with just a few items, like the salt cod, natas and sourdough bread, bought in from local suppliers. Their fishmonger, for instance, is a literal stone’s throw away.
You’ll find the usual tapas suspects – salt cod croquettes, Padron peppers, meatballs and patatas bravas – side by side with rich tomato rice loaded with slow-roasted green heritage tomatoes, saffron-poached octopus salad, short rib pica pau, and battered fried runner beans drenched in peri-peri salsa (a surprise hero dish).
Seafood includes shell-on green peri-peri prawns and big bowls of clams with white wine, parsley and garlic oil covered in coriander bubbles, served with a healthy portion of thick sourdough bread to mop up all the delicious juices.
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Wines, meanwhile. are mostly imported from Portugal, with a few exceptions – one Spanish cava, a French rose and a handful of English sparkling wines also make the list.
As for beers, there are only two taps on, supplied by local brewery BlackJack, and a handful of Mediterranean spirits beind the bar.
All four owners have a clear passion for good food and wine, and have spent many years holidaying together around the regions that have inspired Petisco – but it’s Johnny who brings the hospitality experience, having worked in kitchens since he left school at sixteen.
His friends, we hear, have spoken for years about opening something to show off his talents – and at last that moment has come.
From washing pots at Manchester City, he’s worked his way up to the very top of the trade, spending his career (up until now, at least) cheffing for high-end corporate hospitality catering to the most exclusive director’s boxes.
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At Manchester City for fourteen years, then at United for nine, he went on to chef at Aintree racecourse before being flown out to work at the Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi.
Now back in Manchester and living just around the corner from the restaurant, it doesn’t sound like he actually sleeps – so committed are some of his processes.
We hear how one standout dish, a stunning combination of earthy artichoke puree, pork belly, pork cheek and pork ‘quaver’, takes him nearly three days to make (and still we get the feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg).
For the pork quaver alone, pigskin is poached for 24 hours in a water bath, dehydrated for the same amount of time, then the fat cleaned up before it’s deep-fried to sit jauntily atop a pile of glistening, beautifully tender meat that falls apart under your fork.
All four have poured their heart and soul into the new opening, which they essentially built themselves from scratch, right down to the table we’re sat on.
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Rowland tells us it was ‘a lot of long hours, [coming from my] full-time job, and then straight to the unit in the evenings to do the graft on building it and getting it ready for opening.”
With a little help from sister-in-law Joanne Thatcher, who put together the design of space for them, it’s been a real family affair from start to finish – and the passion shows in everything they do.
Marrying Mancunian industrial elements like exposed brick and copper detailing with blue and white ikat tiling, black and white photos of famous parts of Portgual and exposed filament bulbs hanging from the ceiling, just like the menu itself there’s a real mix of Mancunian and Mediterranean influences.
Open for just over a week now, unless you come at bang-on 4pm when they open Petisco is already nearly booked up until March – a testament to how great the concept is.
The old dears of Sale may not have been chuffed to lose their Greenhalgh’s at first (we hear there was a bit of grumbling on the community Facebook groups), but it seems they’re already coming around. As well they should.
To find out more about Petisco and book, visit the website here. The restaurant’s menus change weekly depending on produce.
Feature image – The Manc Eats
Food & Drink
The best Sunday roasts in Greater Manchester according to the Good Food Guide 2024
Daisy Jackson
The Good Food Guide has named the best Sunday roasts in the UK and there’ve been a few nods for Greater Manchester (naturally).
After 18,000 public nominations, the guide and its team of inspectors have pulled together a list of the very best roasts around the country.
While the overall top spot went to The Abbey Inn in North Yorkshire, there were plenty of shouts for roasts in the North West.
Shrub in Chester took home Best Vegan, with judges saying ‘You miss nothing and gain everything’ with its brilliant trimmings.
And although it’s one of the London branches that was technically listed, Blacklock nabbed the title of having the best Sunday roast for group dining.
Blacklock recently opened its first restaurant here in Manchester, serving traditional chop house food with a modern twist.
The Good Food Guide said: “Unrivalled if you’re with a group of friends, this Canary Wharf chophouse (part of a small London group, with a Manchester outpost), is considered a ‘Sunday wonderland’ by its many fans.
“With ‘super-accommodating staff’ and roasts that are ‘almost as good as mum’s’ (their words), it’s a star turn. Order the ‘all in’ sharing feast, which comprises a trio of ‘succulent’ dry-aged beef rump, lamb and pork loin with gigantic yorkies, duck-fat roast potatoes and limitless gravy.”
Another cosy spot in Marple Bridge in Stockport also made the Good Food Guide’s Sunday roast list, hailed for its fire-roasting.
The guide said: “‘Sophisticated yet comforting’ is the verdict on the elevated Sunday deal at this bottle shop and bistro in one of Stockport’s more comely corners.
“Fire-roasting is Fold’s USP, and the flames lick around everything from aged beef bavettes with ‘Yorkie bits’ and smoked salt to porchetta with Manchester ale, fennel and Pink Lady apple. Each plate comes with a wagyu-fat potato slice, but it’s worth ordering some extras (perhaps roast sandy carrots in lamb fat). Great for kids.”
Outside the Pack Horse in HayfieldInside The Pack Horse Hayfield. Credit: The Manc Group
The Pack Horse in Hayfield – which recently caught our eye with its brilliant breakfasts – has rightly been praised for its post-hike atmosphere and its ‘stylishly rustic and warmly welcoming interior’.
The guide said: “All the Sunday roast trimmings come as standard, whether you’re ordering the melting beef sirloin, the braised lamb shoulder, the venison loin or even the veggie option (carrot, tenderstem broccoli and Tunworth tart, say).
“Everything is thoughtfully prepared, full of flavour and of the highest quality, and the kitchen runs proudly with the seasons.”
Hawksmoor has been listed in the Good Food Guide’s Best Sunday Roasts list. Credit: Supplied
And finally, to absolutely no one’s surprise, Hawksmoor also placed comfortably on the top 50 Sunday roasts list.
‘The quality of the meat is unrivalled,’ observed one fan, and there were also rave reviews for the crispy beef-dripping roasties and ‘bottomless’ bone-marrow gravy.
Where’s your favourite roast in Greater Manchester?
The Pack Horse – the Michelin-recommended Peak District pub serving the best pre-hike breakfast in the North
Daisy Jackson
There’s a pub in the Peak District that’s comfortably established itself as one of the very best in the UK, and this banging local isn’t just about pints and Sunday roasts.
The Pack Horse in the village of Hayfield is also a purveyor of an excellent breakfast, perfect to fuel you up before a big hike in the surrounding hills.
Want a little taste of this pub’s accolades? In the space of just one week, The Pack Horse placed in the Top 50 Gastropubs and then got added to the Michelin Guide – a stunning double header.
The restaurant in Hayfield was praised by Michelin inspectors for being ‘a true village local’.
Just this week, it was also added to the Good Food Guide’s list of the best Sunday roasts in the UK.
Headed up by chef and co-owner Luke Payne, The Pack Horse in the village of Hayfield is an outstanding establishment.
Here is a pub where you can have a world-class meal that shows off the best of British produce, while sipping an ale, with muddy boots on your feet.
Inside The Pack Horse Hayfield. Credit: The Manc GroupOutside the Pack Horse in Hayfield
It doesn’t really matter who you ask, The Pack Horse is readily and consistently named one of the best pubs in the entire UK and anyone stepping through its door would struggle to argue with that.
Because although the price point sits a little higher than your average boozer, it still has all the trappings of a proper country pub.
Yes, there are crisps behind the bar. Yes, there’s a pub quiz. Yes, there’s a resident pub dog (Lola the Labrador will sit and stare you out if there is anything edible in your immediate vicinity).
But what we haven’t seen anywhere near enough people harp on about is the breakfast at The Pack Horse.
The ingredients on their breakfast menu are all sourced so locally you could probably hike to any of them with a bit of grit and determination.
From Port of Lancaster smoked kippers to bacon cut thick and laced with maple, everything is of the highest quality.
You can’t go wrong with The Pack Horse signature breakfast, which has eggs, bacon, Manchester sausage, crispy hash browns, Doreen’s black pudding, wild mushrooms, confit tomato, trotter beans, AND sourdough.
A bacon and egg muffin at The Pack Horse HayfieldCoffee, juice and a breakfast menu at The Pack Horse. Credit: The Manc Group
You can have the full portion for £20 or just take one of each item for £10 and then immediately regret not having more.
The bulk of the menu beyond that centres around the pub’s homemade English muffins, toasted and buttered and filled with whatever breakfast item takes your fancy (scrambled egg and bacon for me, always).
It’s a breakfast worthy of the fanciest hotels and most popular of brunch spots.
Once you’re suitably fuelled and ready for a walk there are two hikes nearby that aren’t too strenuous and crucially don’t take too long (those daylight savings hours really mess with a big hike, eh).
The Sett Valley Trail starts just across the road and is a consistent and mostly flat out-and-back.
Kinder Reservoir in the Peak District. Credit: The Manc GroupKinder Reservoir in the Peak District. Credit: The Manc Group
You can follow it all the way to the Torrs Millennium Walkway in New Mills if you fancy, or just turn back when you’ve had enough.
Or you can head the other way through Hayfield out towards Kinder Reservoir – the loop will take you over streams and stepping stones and little wooden bridges, past the huge body of water, through woodland and fields, and place you within sight of Kinder Downfall waterfall.
This is the poster child of the Peak District and one of the National Park’s best, most comprehensive walks.
You’ll also be close to Kinder Scout, but this is a more challenging hike and at this time of year we’d really recommend setting off nice and early to get maximum daylight hours.
And that would mean no time for a Pack Horse breakfast, which just won’t do.