It’s another great week for eating and drinking out in Manchester, with a host of new pop-ups, one-off events and new dishes to be getting stuck into.
Dare we say it – but there seems to be a general feeling of optimism in hospitality right now.
Launch parties are finally being thrown, residencies are being announced, and nature – as the meme goes – is finally healing.
Keep reading to discover our top food and drink picks for the week.
A hidden bar takeover with natty wine and french fries
Wine and fires have long been a perfect pairing, then add in the reopening of one of Manchester’s secret bars and you’re on to a guaranteed winner / Image: Vin De Bodega
Natural wine hustlers Vin De Bodega team up with Amsterdam-inspired Fry By this week – taking over the small cocktail bar hidden underneath The Corner Boy, formerly known as Double Down, for a night of top-tier natty wine and loaded fries.
Wines, all handpicked favourites of the Vin De Bodega team, will be available by the glass or the bottle – as well as fries from upstairs, loaded with your choice of over 50 different flavour combinations. There will also be a special portion of fries available on the night to enjoy with a paired wine.
Find them underneath The Corner Boy, Stevenson Square this Thursday 12 August from 5 pm.
“A gift from the pasta Gods” at Sugo
Sugo’s new Paccheri all’ Amatriciana is a simple classic based on guanciale (cured pork cheek), pecorino romano cheese, white wine and datterini tomatoes / Image: Sugo Pasta Kitchen
Such is the excitement around Sugo, a single new dish is more than enough to have us shouting from the rooftops.
Described by the team as “a gift from the pasta Gods,’ the new Paccheri all’ Amatriciana is a simple classic based on guanciale (cured pork cheek), pecorino romano cheese, white wine and datterini tomatoes. To be enjoyed with “at least” half a litre ofBarbera on the side, it looks and sounds absolutely divine.
Find Sugo at 46 Blossom St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 6BF.
A new pop-up restaurant in the KAMPUS bungalow
Caramelised walnut cream with green strawberries, covered in frozen & shaved buttery Eccles cake / Image: Tine.
Fine dining fans, this one is for you.
Tine, the restaurant project by chefs Josh Shanahan and James Lord, is popping up in the KAMPUS bungalow with some gorgeous seasonally-inspired dishes until the end of September starting this Friday.
Calling on experience at Mana, Where The Light Gets In and Manchester House, the pair plan on serving a 5-course set menu of British flavours with their signature umami twist. Find them cooking up a storm on Thursday to Sunday evenings right through to the end of next month.
The lads are also working with Le Social Wine (KAMPUS’s other residents right now) to curate a wine list in tandem with bottles from their own cellar, so expect some really special pairings on the side.
Reservations are live now. Find Tine at KAMPUS, Aytoun St, Manchester M1 3DA from Friday 13 August.
Indian chippy teas from a hidden Chorlton gem
The Indian-Scottish take on fish on chips: fresh Panga fried in Roti gram flour batter, fluffy masala potatoes and curried chickpea ‘mushy peas / Image: Roti
If you’d like to try a chippy tea with a twist, Roti in Chorlton has to be the spot. It opened just before the pandemic so hasn’t been given the shine it should – but we’re here to fix that.
Here you’ll find some great Indian Scottish fusions. Think a ‘chip butty’ roti, filled with curried aloo and chickpeas marinated in an aromatic pickle, or ‘mince and tatties’ Roti spiced pork with house chole potatoes.
That said, it’s the take on fish and chips that’s got us really excited. Made with fresh Panga fried in Roti gram flour batter, it’s then served with fluffy masala potatoes and curried chickpea ‘mushy peas.’ Enjoy with an Irn-Bru cocktail and for the ultimate naughty treat finish with a deep-fried Mars bar.
Find Roti at 559 Barlow Moor Rd, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 8AN.
Focaccia sandwiches from Lazy Tony’s Lasagneria
Pulled beef with sage mustard, taleggio, rocket and balsamic served on Batard bakery focaccia / Image: Lazy Tony’s Lasagneria
Not busy enough with two kitchens on the go and the launch of a new packaged meal service in South Manchester, Lazy Tony’s has just added two new focaccia sandwiches to the menu to coincide with the fact that they’re now open for lunch as well as dinner at Radium Street.
This weekend just gone, the Ancoats kitchen premiered two new butties using focaccia from Batard: one with pulled beef, sage mustard, taleggio, rocket and balsamic; another with buttermilk fried chicken, chilli marinara, garlic, mozzarella and parmesan.
They’re currently taking classic requests for this weekend – we see someone’s put ‘lasagne sandwich’ in the comments already, which we’re completely here for.
Find Lazy Tony’s new sandwiches at 23 Radium St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 6AY this weekend from midday.
Prestwich wine bar Chin Chin now serves roast dinner sandwiches
Daisy Jackson
A new (ish) wine bar in Prestwich has launched one of the city’s coolest Sunday offerings – roast dinner sandwiches, with a side of jazz.
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it 1000 times – Elnecot is up there as one of Manchester’s best Sunday roasts, with Yorkshire puddings you could fit a jug of gravy inside, blushing slices of roast beef, and generous portions that put you in the sort of food coma you should be in on a Sunday afternoon.
So when Roast Master (okay fine, his official job title is chef/owner) Michael Clay said that his sister venue Chin Chin was launching a Sunday offering, I was there with my nose pressed up at the window. I’m ready, Michael.
Sunday Sessions at Chin Chin, right in the heart of Prestwich village, brings that incredible roast beef and roast potatoes into a more casual format.
You can tuck into roast meat butties, roast potatoes loaded with cheese and gravy, and ice cream sundaes, all while perusing a well-thought-out wine list that’s written up by hand every time new bottles come in.
Oh, and did we mention there are £4 pints all day on Sunday – and that includes Guinness?
On the side of just about everything on the menu, you’re presented with a little bowl of extra gravy (how delightfully Northern) for dipping and dunking.
Sunday Sessions at Chin Chin in PrestwichRoast beef sandwiches at Chin ChinLancashire cheese toastiesThe BifanaLoaded roastiesWine and vinyl recordsInside Chin Chin wine barThe wine list at Chin Chin
Our top pick would be the roast beef sandwich, served between ciabatta rolls and laced with mustard mayo and caramelised onions.
But the cheese toastie is worth a visit too – a hefty helping of Lancashire cheese and charred spring onions, with a ‘secret sauce’ on the side.
Coming soon will be a new menu item, a Bifana sandwich. If you’ve trudged the streets of Portugal you’ll have come across these – thin slices of pork marinated in white wine and garlic, piled into bread with a punchy mustard. Chin Chin’s are excellent.
And for afters, because there is always room for dessert, it’s a lovely ice cream sundae topped with miso caramel and a showering of pistachios.
The whole time you’ll be eating with a soundtrack of jazz, played through the wine bar’s vinyl record system and Michael’s own personal collection of vinyls.
Chin Chin is open now on Bury New Road, with food on Sundays served between 12pm and 6pm.
Drinking around the ‘Beermuda Triangle’ of brewery taprooms in Manchester
Daisy Jackson
If you’re looking for the best pints in Manchester, turn your ass around at the door of the pub and head to the ‘Beermuda Triangle’, a corner of the city centre where taprooms are king.
Our city has a great rep for craft beer and microbreweries, and a lot of these are concentrated in one brilliant, unexpected stretch of industrial estate.
Head beyond Manchester Piccadilly and you’ll find yourself in an area nicknamed the ‘Beermuda Triangle’, where tucked among tool shops and warehouses are breweries welcoming in thirsty punters.
These are places where you can sip on the freshest lagers, ales and sours, straight from the source.
As you kick back in one of these taprooms, you can see the brewers hard at work on their next creation, and see beers being canned before your eyes.
There are, of course, plenty of other taprooms and brewery-operated bars all over Greater Manchester, but if you want to minimise your step count and maximise your drinking time, this is where to head.
So we’ve gone out exploring the current residents on the Beermuda Triangle (I know, tough job) to give you the low-down for your next pub crawl.
All the taprooms on Manchester’s Beermuda Triangle
Cloudwater
When you think of craft beer, you probably think of these guys.
Since being founded in 2014, Cloudwater has gone on huge things and is now listed among the largest craft beer brands in the UK.
They’ve got their own pub (The Sadler’s Cat), a taproom down in London, and a huge brewery next-door to their taproom on the Piccadilly Trading Estate.
In here, it’s a stripped-back, Scandi-style interior upstairs, with a few extra tables squeezed in amongst oak barrels downstairs, plus a decent suntrap terrace out the front.
Our order? A pint of Fuzzy pale ale.
Track
Track TaproomTrack Taproom
Another big player in the craft beer game, Track’s taproom is comfortably one of Manchester’s coolest bars.
It’s a huge space, split between the actual brewery and the taproom, where beers are displayed on a rainbow-hued menu board and their own merch lines the walls.
With loads of plants, a leafy little beer garden, and a small kitchen that’s home to Slice Culture pizzeria, this one is the least rough-and-ready of all the taprooms on the Beermuda Triangle.
The most logical order here has, and will always be, Sonoma, they’re easy-drinking session pale ale available on both cask and keg – but there are always tonnes of other beers beyond their core range that are worth your attention.
Sureshot
Sureshot proves that you can take the art of brewing seriously but still have a laugh, with silly beer names and a giant bear mascot manically grinning at you as you sip your beer.
What’ll it be – a pint of ‘Wait… What?’, a schooner of ‘Small Man’s Wetsuit’, or a third of ‘Be Polite and Comb Your Hair?’.
They’re known for their hop-forward styles but are always dreaming up new creations and collaborations, like a recent sour with Bundobust, and collaboration with inclusive football club Manchester Lacesm with a donation of each ‘I Thought She Was A Pisces’ sold going to the club.
This one’s off the Piccadilly Trading Estate and is under the railway arches, handily with Nell’s next door who will deliver you a pizza while you’re on your taproom crawl.
Balance Brewing & Blending
The final stop on the Beermuda triangle is Balance, who specialise in barrel-fermented sours.
The taproom itself is a real looker, with fairy lights festooned overhead, a deep burgundy bar, and persian rugs thrown all over the concrete floors.
The beers here are all funky and punchy and well worth ordering a few testers of before you make your final decision.
Whatever you order, it’s going to have good British roots and a beautiful flavour.
Georgina Pellant -
9th August 2021 
