Food & Drink

Wing Fest – the world’s biggest chicken wing festival – is returning to Manchester

70,000 wings will be served by 20 different street food traders

The Manc The Manc - 11th May 2021

The UK’s biggest (and now world’s largest) chicken wing festival is returning to Manchester for a huge 2021 chicken showdown.

Back in 2019, we helped Wing Fest make its official debut in Manchester with an enormous city centre festival that broke records.

Tens of thousands of wing lovers descended onto First Street South for three days of wing showdowns, live music, food challenges and lots of drinking – and it got the weather, too. That weekend in September turned out to be one of the hottest of the year, which only helped make Wing Fest’s Manchester debut a special one.

Wing Fest

Fast forward two years and Wing Fest’s return to the city should actually be its third event in the region.

The pandemic, of course, stopped Wing Fest 2020’s progress in its tracks, with the team behind the event – which also runs annually in London and Bristol – pausing all activity and gearing up for a year of missed opportunity.

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That year of missed opportunity is 2021. The date is the 14th and 15th of August. The location is First Street South (still to be fully confirmed).

Wing Fest 2021 comes when we really need it. Since 2019, we’ve lost lots of things that we love, including eating wherever we want, whenever we want. Live music has become extinct and chicken wings are now very rarely eaten outside of your home – unless you’ve burnt a load of Aldi wings on the barbecue surrounded by five people from the same household.

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Wing Fest

Basically, what I’m saying is, Wing Fest Manchester is here to deliver every single thing that you love about leaving your home. Chicken wings, live music, great beer, unparalleled atmosphere, exclusive wing sauces, food challenges and plenty of opportunity for good Instagram content.

The event will showcase the best chicken wings the UK has to offer, with thousands of lucky ticket holders and a judging panel deciding who really does do the best wings. Meanwhile, over 70,000 wings will be served by 20 different street food traders, restaurants and BBQ teams.

It will roll into Manchester on the 14th and 15th of August and you can buy tickets for the event on their official website now.

Food & Drink

This Manchester restaurant is serving an all-you-can-eat curry buffet throughout Ramadan

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

A restaurant in Manchester is serving up a bottomless curry buffet throughout Ramadan and it sounds absolutely epic.

From today, 23 March, Zouk Tea Bar & Grill on Oxford Road is bringing back its brilliant all-you-can-eat Indian buffet – serving up unlimited quantities of customer favourites including the likes of chicken sindhi biryani, dall makhani and tarka dall curries alongside assorted naan breads, roti, and basmati rice.

Served throughout the month of Ramadan, there are an impressive amount of dishes on offer – and all for the price of £25pp for adults or £12.50 per child (under 12), with under 5’s eating free.

image: Zouk
image: Zouk

Add to the list a huge quantity of chicken tikka and seekh kebabs, a whole stuffed lamb raan, chicken 65, vegetable samosas, and more curries of lamb and potatoes, spinach and chicken, and it’s easy to see why Zouk’s bottomless buffet continues to be such a hit year-on-year.

It doesn’t stop there, either. There is a mouthwatering selection of desserts included in the buffet too, with choices like mango and raspberry Mumbai mess, chocolate brownies and fresh fruit alongside traditional favourite gulab jamon.

Each day the menu will vary slightly but it will always include a wide selection of salads, starters,
curries, chutneys, accompaniments, desserts, and roasted lamb.

This year Zouk has created two sittings for the halal buffet, following requests from customers to keep it
running for longer each evening. There will be one sitting at Iftar (sunset) each day and a second
sitting an hour later.

Booking is advised and when customers go onto Zouk’s website they can book at Iftar or later in the evening for the additional buffet sitting on their chosen date.

Image: Zouk

Customers are advised to note that the timings do change slightly throughout the month of Ramadan, due to the variation in BST and the arrival of lighter evenings.

Owner Tayub Amjad said: “Everyone is welcome to join us at this special time and we have created a secondsitting of the buffet an hour after Iftar.

Tayub added: “By offering two sittings, we can accommodate families who wish to pray together at
home before coming out to eat and also customers who may not be fasting or participating in
Ramadan personally but who wish to experience the fabulous buffet with friends and family and
learn more about Ramadan.

Read more: Manchester pasta restaurant The Sparrows has just won a prestigious new Michelin award

“All diners joining us will be helping us to support the homeless in Manchester, as we will make a donation from every cover charge to local homeless Charities.”

A typical menu will include:

Salads: Mango Salad, Kachumber, Tabbouleh

Starters: Vegetable Samosa, Mixed Vegetable Pakora, Seekh Kebab, Chicken 65, Dhai Balahi

Mains: Chicken Handi, Lamb & Potato, Dall Makhana, Vegetable Pilau Rice, Assorted Fresh Naan Bread, Chutney & Raita, Carvery, Roasted Lamb Raan, Chef Special Rice

Desserts: A selection of freshly made desserts

Drinks: Mango Lassi, water

Feature image – Zouk

Food & Drink

Manchester pasta restaurant The Sparrows has just won a prestigious new Michelin award

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

Two months after it was listed in the prestigious Michelin Guide, Manchester European pasta and dumplings restaurant The Sparrows has been honoured by inspectors once again – this time with a Bib Gourmand.

The restaurant is just one out of 20 restaurants in the UK and Ireland to be awarded the coveted Michelin award, it was revealed yesterday.

The news comes ahead of the announcement of Michelin’s new starred restaurants, which will be unveiled on Monday.

Not quite a star, but most definitely not a consolation prize, the Bib Gourmand is named after Bibendum, the friendly Michelin Man and the official company mascot for the Michelin Group.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

According to Michelin, it is a just-as-esteemed rating that ‘recognizes friendly establishments that serve good food at moderate prices.’

The new rating is definitely something for The Sparrows to be proud of, and another step up from its guide inclusion in January.

Read more: Reviewed: The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pasta and dumpling restaurant that just made the Michelin Guide

At the time, the guide described it as follows: “Nestled under the railway arches in Manchester’s Green Quarter is a restaurant whose name is (almost) the English translation of the word ‘spätzle’ – which gives some clue as to the style of food on offer here.

“The dumplings and assorted pasta dishes are all made in-house and include excellent pierogi. The focus on Eastern Europe carries through to the wine list, which has a leaning towards Polish wines.”

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

Now, it’s sure to have even more customers clamouring at the door.

Loved by locals for its continental pasta and dumplings, gorgeous European wine list and sake collection, The Sparrows in the Green Quarter is something of a hidden gem – tucked in a disused railway arch on Red Bank.

It received rave reviews from local and national critics alike when it first opened in 2019 in a tiny space with room for just 12 covers. Since then, it’s relocated to a bigger home and its following has grown significantly.

Read more: A restaurant in Ancoats is serving up plates of crispy fried squirrel

Front of house is headed up by Polish-born Kasia Hitchcock with her chef partner Franco Concli at the helm in the kitchen.

Plates celebrate Franco’s Tyrolean heritage, with their signature dish spätzle, a rustic fresh egg pasta from which the restaurant takes its name, sitting front and centre.

Feature image – The Manc Eats

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