London’s most popular ramen restaurant is teaming up with the chefs at New Wave Ramen in Mackie Mayor for a one-off takeover next week.
Kanada-Ya specialises in authentic Tonkotsu ramen and is generally considered one of the best of its kind in the capital.
First founded by Kanada Kazuhiro in Yukuhashi Japan back in 2009, the restaurant is known for its signature ramen bowl, which features a top-secret sauce imported from the original restaurant and hand-made by Mr. Kanada himself.
The signature tonkotsu ramen at Kanada-Ya features wood ear mushroom (kikurage), finely sliced spring onion, chashu pork belly, a sheet of nori, and firm but bouncy noodles / Image: instantonium
Based around an extremely time-consuming signature tonkatsu broth, the rest of the signature bowl here is built from wood ear mushroom (kikurage), finely sliced spring onion, chashu pork belly, a sheet of nori, and firm but bouncy noodles.
There’s also an option to add a hanjuku (soft boiled) egg to either dish for an additional £2.
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The dining event will run at Mackie Mayor across two days, with tickets to reserve a bowl priced at £10 each.
Dishes will also be available for walk-ins on the day, but it’s recommended you don’t chance it based on how popular New Wave Ramen’s previous takeovers have been.
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The restaurant offers whole host of delicious ramen bowls including a truffle bowl, but at the Manchester takeover there will be just two on offer: their signature Tonkotsu and Chicken Paitan / Image: Guan Cha
As well as their signature Tonkotsu ramen, Kanada-Ya will also be offering their signature Chicken Paitan ramen at the takeover with toppings like beni shoga (red pickled ginger), nori, sesame seeds and takana (pickled crunchy mustard leaf).
Ramen-making is definitely a marathon, not a sprint – but it’s the time-consuming preparations that set good bowls like Kanada-Ya’s above the rest.
“Myself and the team at Mackie Mayor are delighted to bring Kanada-Ya to Manchester,” said Philip Cook of New Wave Ramen about the upcoming takeover.
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“Their bowls are amongst those that first ignited my own passion for ramen, and an exciting U.K. ramen scene has grown alongside their own expansion over the last seven years. They have to be considered the originators, and our customers in Manchester are in for a real treat.”
Aaron Burgess-Smith of Kanada-Ya added: “New Wave Ramen has given us an incredible opportunity to share the ramen that we’ve been making for the past seven years in London with Manchester.
“Our broth is incredibly rich and overflowing with umami and I’m excited for Mancunians to finally experience it, too.”
With three sites in London to date and plans to open two more in the autumn, who knows – we might even be so lucky as to see one announced in Manchester later this year.
For now, though, this could be your only chance to try their bowls – so we recommend putting 11 and 12 August in your diaries immediately.
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Find Kanada-Ya popping up in the New Wave Ramen kitchen at Mackie Mayor next week. Grab your tickets here.
A new ’boutique’ chicken spot has opened in Manchester’s Northern Quarter
Danny Jones
A brand-new chicken spot called ‘Le Coq Boutique’ has just opened in Manchester city centre, serving out of a popular Northern Quarter bar.
Is this the best name we’ve ever heard in our time writing about food and drink? It just might be…
Opening from inside The Social NQ on Thomas Street (formerly known as Smithfield Social), their new resident and poultry-centric kitchen is a bit of a pun on the classic French sportswear label, but having now been versed in the word about the bird for ourselves, we can confirm it’s much more than that.
For starters, the only thing more decadent than the roasted meats are the sides and cocktail menu, which features everything from chunky hash browns and some of the richest sauces you could ask for.
As you can see, the most chicken is well and truly the star of the show here, but what they have done is find unique ways of innovating and experimenting with it.
For instance, if you’ve never had a cocktail with chicken fat in it, here’s a place you can try one.
Honestly, this isn’t our first rodeo with this very particular kind of drink – but for those of you that haven’t, we promise, it really is quite good.
Aside from surprisingly saline kicks beside the salty marg rims we’ve become more accustomed to over the years, there are some very nice drinks on the menu.
But we’ll be honest, if you’re a sucker for the famous ‘chicken wine’ – a.k.a. La Vieille Ferme, if you want to be all formal – we imagine you’ll be sticking to plenty of this.
Having already spent many a weekend, be that afternoon or night, at the old Smithfield over the years, now that it has this fine new in-house food offering tacked on, we suspect we’ll be going back a lot more.
Whether you want lots of crispy chicken skin or prefer it smothered in gravy and various other kinds of savoury jus, if you’re an unadulterated mothercluckin’ chicken lover, then you’ll have a great time here.
As the team has joked in the comments under their first few social media posts, while it isn’t technically mandatory to wear the vintage 80s brand upon visiting, it is “expected”, with “bonus marks and shots” and promised for your efforts.
It’s also worth noting that they have an exclusive launch offer for those who sort a booking early, so we wouldn’t wait around if we were you.
Let us know what you think if you visit anytime soon.
Bunny Jackson’s offer Foo Fighters and Mancs incredible deal if they play their stage after Ritz gig
Danny Jones
Beloved dive bar Bunny Jackson’s has offered the Foo Fighters and Mancunians alike an incredible deal, provided the legendary band if they play on their stage after their gig at the O2 Ritz.
As well as Manchester ramping up the 2026 BRITs Week buzz ahead of the awards at Co-op Live this weekend, a little-known American rock group called the Foo Fighters decided to announce a surprise gig here in town.
But the bigger story now, we’d argue, is that the city centre boozer – which serves as a regular go-to both before and after gigs – is offering free drinks if Dave Grohl and co. pop up to perform on their usual bandaoke platform. As in for EVERYONE.
As explained by the Bunny’s boss, if the Foos make what is quite literally a minute trip down the road to OG Jackson’s wing joint and late-night watering hole after their Ritz gig is over, they’re promising to hand out free booze to all inside the venue.
Joking that they can quite literally “do anything” and may not even fit on their even smaller stage – with this being one of the tiniest of Manchester’s small-cap venues – it’s worth reminding that they wouldn’t be the first big name to surprise punters.
It was only a couple of years ago that both The 1975 and Olivia Rodrigo showed their faces, with the former getting behind the bar and pouring drinks themselves, and the latter even hopping on the mic herself – yes, really.
Just last March, members of Bilmuri also hopped behind the decks for a DJ set, and saxophone player Gabi Rose couldn’t resist hitting some horns live for the crowd, too.
You might want to be at Bunny’s even if you’re not going to the gig anyway. (Credit: Bunny Jackson’s)
So what we’re telling you is that this isn’t entirely beyond the realms of possibility. Keep absolutely everything crossed.
BJ’s was already hosting a pre- and post-curfew party for the big Manchester gig, as they often do, but just think how incredible it would be if the rock icons actually turned up in person. You can find out what else they’ve got planned on the night HERE.
Not only would it mean free-flowing beer for everyone in the gaff, but this would go down as one of the greatest stories in Greater Manchester music history.
If you want to up the chances of this happening, make sure you share it far and wide, getting @ing and pestering them, and hopefully we’ll see you at Bunny Jackson’s with the boys from Foo Fighters!
Oh, and lads, if you’re wondering why we all love it here, look no further:
Georgina Pellant -
3rd August 2021 
