If you’re looking for cheap eats in Manchester, you’ve come to the right place.
From sushi to shawarma, curries, sandwiches, jerk chicken, burgers, rice, noodles and more, if you’re dining out on a budget (and let’s be honest, who isn’t right now) then we’re here to help.
We’ve pulled a list of some of our favourite go-to spots for a solid scran that won’t break the bank. Keep reading to discover where to put on your list next.
This tiny bakery and shawarma shop in Rusholme is almost too easy to miss. Don’t pass it by, though. This might be one of the best bargains to be had in Manchester.
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The freshly-made naans, filled with shavings of delicately spiced chicken or lamb, salad and sauce, make a great cheap eat – priced at just £2.50 each. Falafel sandwiches will set you back £2, or you can get 3 naan for just £1. Bargain.
Wasabi, Chinatown / Printworks
Credit: Wasabi Manchester
A little bit of Japan in Manchester, Wasabi is known for its sushi and tonkotsu ramen – cooked for a minimum of 18 hours.
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With two sites in the city, one in Chinatown and another in the Printworks, it also has some great value sushi boxes. Even better, at lunch you can get sushi off the belt from just £1.20 a plate.
EatGoody, Universities
Cheap eats near the universities in Manchester at EatGoody. Credit: EatGoody
This popular Korean eatery by the unviersities sells boxes in two sizes. Choose from cubed potatoes, rice, spicy rice or noodles for your base, then opt for specials like chicken curry, tofu tempura bimbim, or veg dumpling curry, depending on the day.
Priced from £5.40 for a regular or £7.40 for a large, you get a lot for your money here either way – but can also opt for add-ons like kimchi salad, boiled and fried eggs.
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Tzatziki’s, Fallowfield
Credit: Eat MCR
Credit: Tzatziki’s
This family-run business in the heart of student land is credited with getting more undergrads through their degrees than any other local eatery.
The gyros here are legendary, but there is loads more to discover too. Dishes are cooked by Greek chefs and draw mostly from Greece, with some wider Mediterranean inspiration. Prices start from just £4.30.
This & That, NQ
This & That is one of Manchester’s best cheap eats restaurants. Image: EATMCR
Probably the first place any self-respecting Manc will point you if you ask for a cheap eats recommendation, This & That’s rice and three cafe is fabled here in the city.
As the name suggests, you get three curries and rice for a fixed price – £4.50 for veg, £5 for two veg and one meat etc. – from a set list of curries that change on a daily basis. Tucked just off the beaten path, find it on Soap street by Trof.
Recently featured in The Guardian, this beloved Hulme Carribean institution is famous for its jerk chicken, veggie stew and lamb chops – and that’s just for starters.
Find stuffed cornmeal patties, blackened whole plantains, rice and peas, fried dumplings, fried squid, fried chicken and more with prices starting from just £1. Meals tend to sit around the £7.50 mark, whilst retro puddings like school dinner cake will cost you £2.50 a pop.
This legendary curry house on Manchester’s curry mile has seen more high-profile musicians walk through its door than most. A favourite of Hit&Run head honcho Rich Reason, for years it was a late-night favourite of clubbers – staying open until 5am.
Post-pandemic, that’s changed and you can only get a scran until 1am now. It’s still a top spot, though. The lamb karahi is the stuff dreams are made of, ditto the chargrilled lamb chops. Curries start from £6.50, burgers from £2.
Rack, Stockport
At Rack, it’s all about the sandwiches. All handmade to order, find ingredients stacked between sourdough or squashed into shiny, buttery brioche.
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Grilled cheese is another speciality, the three-cheese classic served with red onion dipping gravy on the side. Breakfast boxes and salads are also available, with prices starting from £4.40.
Habesha, Gay Village
Image: Flickr
This Ethiopian restaurant, hidden above a takeaway in Manchester’s gay village, has been quietly ticking away for years.
Serving up richly-spiced traditional curries on soft, spongy sourdough-fermented injera bread, at this no-frills joint, it’s all about the food – not your social media pictures. Prices start from £9.
Offering a mix of traditional Tibetan dishes and those with Himalayan roots, Tibetan Kitchen has gained a cult following in South Manchester where it is based.
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Influenced by the food of neighbouring India, China and Nepal, the ever-growing menu is great for vegetarian and vegans and offers many meat and fish options too. Prices start from £6.50.
Go Falafel, NQ / Deansgate
Our go-to in the city centre for fresh falafel, it’s not just the herby chickpea goodness that does it for us here – it’s all the salads, pickles and other ecoutrements too.
Falafel wraps are stuffed with your choice of pickled cabbage, potato, salad, tahini, chilli sauce and lashings of fresh hummus, plus extras like grilled aubergine. There’s salad boxes and freshly squeezed juices too. Prices start from £5.50.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – a masterclass in comedy, colour and movement
Danny Jones
To start with, we’re going to begin this review by advocating for going into stage shows with as little knowledge as possible because it only dials up the already exaggerated nature even further – we knew next to nothing about Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat before seeing it in Manchester.
And we truly think it helped.
Now, when we say nothing, we’ve obviously heard the title plenty of times over the years as it remains one of the most celebrated musical productions on the planet, and you don’t need to be an avid theatre buff to know who Andrew Lloyd Webber is. The point being is that all we knew was its reputation.
Going along with a second party several decades older than us who shared the same blindspot and just never quite understood what all the fuss was about makes the next part even funnier: we both loved it.
Colour, colour and more colour.Some impressive yet superbly simple production value.Our review of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Opera House in Manchester. (Credit: Press Tristram Kenton)
We’re not going to dive too heavily into the story as we’re sure plenty of you who are more well-versed in the genre don’t need a synopsis regurgitating for the umpteenth time, but what we will say is that we’re somewhat glad we weren’t aware of its religious themes and numerous biblical references.
Not because we have any particular issue with Christianity nor adapting stories within theologies to turn them into entertainment, but because as atheists we probably would have been less keen to choose this particular text over another.
However, this is why we’re thankful for going in blind as we fear many others have missed out on this long-standing vibrant, energetic, all-singing, all-dancing twist on the tale of Genesis for decades simply due to being non-believers/agnostic.
That being said, we can confidently assure you that not only can you put your thoughts on faith to one side for the duration of the performance but, for us at least, it felt like it was more of an undercurrent than anything else and had little bearing on what a truly joyful evening for all ages.
You also get hand-held through it through the eyes of the children being retold the story right in front of you by the expert narrator, Christina Bianco, whose interventions and comic timing were lethal on a crowd already easily cracked up by a punchline or two – but she had the best of the lot.
Where else to begin than with Joseph himself, played by Adam Filipe, who although we’ll admit to being layman on the subject until last night, feels almost born to play the role.
Not only did he bring respite to an otherwise frenetic (in the best way possible) onslaught of singing with his ability to deliver certain lines as nothing more than perfectly enunciated and emotional speech, but his voice was on point throughout and the way he made full use of the stage from the start was great.
One particularly immature slide up the curved wall of the set in the opening five minutes and we knew all we needed to know about not just movement but the rest of the cast too; pretty much non-stop movement and expression virtually at all times.
The dancing – particularly a rather hilarious ‘can-can’ confusion – was top-notch throughout and no matter which bright, flowing costume he or the ensemble was wearing during a specific number, they all looked the part and didn’t put a foot out of place.
Even a more serious interlude was welcome.We’d have loved more yellow-forward moment and backdrops in the palette but that’s just us being picky…Credit: Press Images
But much to our delight, there really wasn’t one standout performance that stood head and shoulders above the rest, simply because they were all brilliant.
Whether it was the Jacobs and Sons company of brothers bringing both melodrama and some comic relief, or the score of female dancers delivering an elegance and added level of pageantry to proceedings, they all played their part.
However, every time one or more of the kids took to the stage a show-stealing moment was ripe for the picking and they all seized their opportunity, be it in unison or in the select few solo moments in the spotlight. An audience is always going to get up for youngsters shining front and centre.
But, we suppose if we absolutely had to give another special mention to another member of the production and single them out, there’s only one person it could be…
Having previously played the lead role back in 2016 following his X-Factor success, Joe McElderry returns to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and the Manc crowd in the role of the Pharoah and boy was he good having passed the baton and shifted gears. So good and so funny.
As well as an expert command of light, colour and choreography, the one thing we were surprised by was just how well-placed the comedy was throughout.
Not too much, not too little and nothing too contrived – a hard balance to strike and one that helps ease in those rare typically theatre-goers prone to a touch of cringe.
All in all, we sincerely urge you to go and see this show for yourselves, especially if you’re like us and have never given it a chance before. You won’t regret it.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is on in Manchester until Sunday, 9 March. You can still grab tickets HERE.
Man named and charged in relation to Manchester van and tram crash that killed three-year-old girl
Emily Sergeant
A man has been named and charged after a van and a tram collided in Manchester city centre this past weekend.
It comes after emergency services responded to reports of a road traffic collision involving a tram and a van in Mosley Street in Manchester city centre at around 10am this past Saturday (22 February), where it was found that the van collided with the tram, forcing the van onto the pavement where it collided with a pedestrian.
The pedestrian, a three-year-old girl, was rushed to hospital, but despite the best efforts of all involved, sadly passed away from her injuries.
A scene remained in place around the Mosley Street, Booth Street, and Nicholas Street areas whilst officers conducted their investigations over the weekend.
The scene of the incident on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre / Credit: The Manc Group
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) had previously issued a widespread public appeal to find the driver of the van after he fled the scene shortly after, and officers had been following ‘several lines of enquiry’ to locate him.
It was reported that the suspect was ‘identified’ on Monday morning (24 February), and now, GMP has named the driver as Rawal Rehman, of Lambton Road in Manchester.
The 35-year-old has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving and will appear at Manchester Magistrates’ Court today (26 February).
#CHARGED | Rawal Rehman (28/11/89) of Lambton Road, Manchester, has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving.
The charge relates to the death of three-year-old Louisa (Lulu) Palmisano following a collision in Manchester city centre.
The little girl who lost her life in the tragic incident was named Louisa (Lulu) Palmisano.
Her family wrote in a heartbreaking tribute to her yesterday: “Louisa was the sweetest, kindest, and most generous little girl. She was full of creativity and joy, and she absolutely loved going to nursery every day.
“Her absence has left a devastating void in our family – she was our only child, our whole world. We were simply enjoying a happy family day out in Manchester when this unimaginable tragedy struck. In an instant, our lives were shattered beyond repair.
Georgina Pellant -
15th February 2022 
