It’s not polite to fixate on someone’s age too much – but The Rice Bowl in Manchester is really, really bloody old.
This Cross Street institution has been serving hungry diners with gigantic portions of authentic Chinese food since 1960, with no sign of slowing down.
Others that were doing a cracking job of staying in operation, like Simon Rimmer’s Greens restaurant in Didsbury, and Font (home of the bargain cocktail) in the city centre are gone for good now after literal decades of trade.
So to stay open not just through the Covid years but for 64 years is quite remarkable.
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The Rice Bowl is old enough to remember The Big Freeze, Beatles-mania, the assassination of JFK, England lifting a World Cup trophy, Concorde launching (and then crashing…), the Troubles, Britain joining the EU (and then leaving it again…), the miners’ strikes, Thatcher, the Channel Tunnel opening, Princess Diana’s death, the IRA bomb in Manchester, Dolly the sheep, the birth of Facebook (in fact, the birth of the internet in general), The Rachel, Harry Potter, and so many more world-changing events.
The Rice Bowl is down in a basement on Cross Street in ManchesterIts decor is as classically British-Chinese as you can imagineYou enter The Rice Bowl past a Buddha water feature
It’s not technically the oldest restaurant in town, with Sam’s Chop House claiming a 140-year history, but it is the one that’s remained with the same family for the longest.
The Rice Bowl was opened in Liverpool at first, when Wing Lau left Shangai to a backdrop of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
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But after a few years, he moved across to Manchester, and although it’s now his family who are running the show, The Rice Bowl is largely unchanged.
You still get a slice of fruit with your bill, there’s a fish tank full of goldfish by the door, and the menus are thick, leather-bound tomes full of delights.
And on a wet and dreary Tuesday lunchtime, it’s full. There are lunch meetings in one corner, couples surrounded by shopping bags in another, colleagues grumbling about colleagues over steaming baskets of dim sum.
During the week, it’s the £19.50 set menu that lures us Mancs in time and time again.
For that price, you get a basket of prawn crackers, a starter, and a main – and the portions are so huge you could act like a bear, eating the whole lot before hibernating until your next meal in the spring time.
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We ate a sharp and tangy Peking hot and sour soup, which tastes like the exact opposite of Manchester drizzle, and a basket of gelatinous dim sum, the kimchi bao delightfully springy and chewy.
The Singapore-style vermicelli noodle bowl is so massive, you could use the noodles to knit a particularly vibrant yellow jumper.
The hot and sour Peking soup at The Rice Bowl. Credit: The Manc Group
Its flavours are earthy and comforting and really sing when you slap on The Rice Bowl’s punchy crispy chilli oil.
A Chinese classic next, with chunks of crispy chilli beef stuck together with a bright red sweet chilli sauce. It’s a full plate worth of food, and there’s one of those Mary Poppins bowls of rice on the side that just seems endless no matter how many spoonfuls you dump into your bowl.
The Rice Bowl isn’t fancy and isn’t particular beautiful to look at. There are no gimmicks and basically no online presence. But maybe, just getting your head down in the kitchen and focusing all your efforts on cooking good, honest food is its magic trick.
Beloved plant-based independent street food business Herbivorous is set to close imminently
Danny Jones
We hate writing this, but we have news of yet another local hospitality closure as beloved Manchester-born and pioneering plant-based brand Herbivorous has confirmed they’ll soon be calling it a day.
If you can hear us sighing through the screen, apologies – we’re just getting really fed up of saying farewell to our favourites, so god knows how rubbish those involved feel.
As you can see, the team behind the multi-location vegan street food specialists began by writing: “It’s a long one so stay with me… It seems you can’t open social media at the moment without reading about another hospitality business closing down.
“Throughout 8 years of Herbivorous years we’ve come up against many challenges from Covid 5 years ago to watching all the big vegan brands from London and beyond come to Manchester and largely disappear again to the closure of Hatch our busiest site, but with continually increasing costs its becoming really difficult to maintain a thriving business.”
Herbivorous started out life back in 2016 as a cult hit at the old outdoor food, drink and entertainment hub centring around a ‘container village’, the first of its kind in the city and soon to reopen under new owners and a new name.
Since then, co-founders Robyn and Damian have gone on to expand not just to one permanent site over in Withington but with outposts in Sheffield and York, having gained a strong reputation with stalls and pop-ups all over.
Their hospitality story might not have the ending we personally would hope for, but it’s been a brilliant one for so many foodie fans – us lot included.
Nevertheless, they go on to add in the emotional statement that external pressures such as a recent bereavement and their own ever-growing family have also contributed to the decision which, despite being an understandably hard one, “feel like the right time.”
“We are so incredibly proud of how far we’ve come from spending long days slinging duck wraps from our green vintage horse box at festivals to three Herbi locations across the North of England”, they continue, “and with that we’ve also met so many fantastic people!”
“Whether you worked for us at a few festivals over [the] summer or for years at our restaurant, we just wanted to say and massive thank you! The memories will stay with us forever and, of course, how can we not mention our fabulous customers!
“Thank you all so much for choosing Herbivorous over the years. Those of you who had our food at Festivals and then found us at one of our permanent locations, those of you who came back week after week to Hatch, Spark, Withington and beyond.”
They signed off by detailing their final business days, with their Sheffield Kommune spot having already shut for refurbishment; meanwhile, their spot in SPARK York will be wrapping up on Saturday, 19 April.
As for their flagship brick-and-mortar venue here in Greater Manchester, Herbivorous Withington will be shutting on Friday, 25 April.
Once again, there’s nothing we can say other than thank you for years of delicious food, that we’re guttted to see you go, and that everyone at The Manc Group wishes you the best whatever comes next.
Cult favourite food spot Desert Island Dumplings is set to close their Manchester shop
Danny Jones
A much-loved Manc spot is bidding a reluctant farewell, and to be honest, we’re not ready to say goodbye to Desert Island Dumplings either, as it’s been announced that they’ll soon be closing.
What started as a lockdown idea has gone on to become a cult favourite of the city centre and among vegans in the area, with countless foodies heading to their quiet little third-floor corner.
Delivering the gutting news at the start of this week on social media, founder Lucy Linford had to assure fans that this sadly isn’t an April Fool’s before going on to share a lengthy and stirring statement.
Taking up ten whole slides and numerous paragraphs in what is one of the most emotional Instagram posts the local hospitality industry has seen so far this year, she confirmed that Desert Island Dumplings will be closing in the coming months.
She began by stating, “This news might come as a shock to you”, adding that “we’ve rolled with the punches these past couple years of years and the shop is busier than ever”, but insisted that closing this particular chapter “is the right decision”.
The little dumpling shop that could hasn’t just been one of the most popular vendors inside Afflecks, an iconic Manchester attraction all of its own – it’s also gone through so many steps to get to where it is now, and it’s a local independent story that you can’t help but admire.
From the days of serving as a little pop-up at cricket grounds and various other street food stalls to establishing a dark kitchen in Liverpool, enjoying stints at GRUB, Sadler’s Cat, Ancoats General, Stretford Food Hall and more before settling down in the Palace’s emporium, it’s been a joy to watch.
Before explaining the reasons behind shutting up shop, Lucy wrote: “Thank you to every single person who has supported to Desert Island Dumplings over the past five years.”
We were left particularly moved and inspired by the recollections of the period shortly after she went “full-time-dumplings”, spending her hours learning about business, “trying to concentrate through webinars, scribbling words like ‘dividends’ and ‘GDPR?’ into notebooks.”
This part of the real hard work that you hardly ever get to see but that so many of those who start out with a dream to make it in the sector have to struggle through, and we couldn’t have more admiration for her graft if we tried – and look what it led to.
It’s also worth reminding the waves this place as made in terms of plant-based dining not just in Manchester but the North West and beyond, standing proudly as ‘the UK’s first vegan fusion dumpling joint’ and not sacrificing on flavour one single bit.
The brand even went on to pitch to Aldi, and you’ll be glad to hear that this isn’t curtains completely: Lucy and co. will still be serving right up until the last day, and as she prepares to take on a Masters up in Edinburgh, the dumps, noods, hash browns plus all the rest of will be a big hit in Scotland, no doubt.
As for the final chapter here in Manchester, the team will be bringing back some beloved specials and fan favourites, not to mention “putting on a few fun farewell events” ahead of their final day on 15 June.
Put simply, Lucy says she’s “loved every second of it”, and so have we. She signed off by adding, “Nothing good lasts forever but memories do.” We urge you to read the post in full, it’s really touching.
Make sure to give them a visit whilst you still can, and thanks again to Desert Island Dumplings for filling our bellies so many times. We hope to stumble across you in Scotland one day.
Daisy Jackson -
9th February 2024 
