This blink-and-you’ll-miss-it basement restaurant in Manchester’s Chinatown serves the ultimate yum cha feast
Mei Dim serves up everything from Shanghai soup dumplings and custard buns, to three roast meats and chicken feet as part of its daily yum cha offering.
Mei Dim might not look like much from the outside. Nor, indeed, from the inside. No matter, though – good restaurants shouldn’t be judged by their proliferation (or lack of) neon lights and selfie traps.
This is a restaurant where the food is so excellent, the owners don’t need to bother with expensive refurbs and Instagram-friendly colour schemes.
Tucked beneath Manchester’s Chinatown, its interior likely hasn’t changed in decades – and it’s still busy at 3pm on a weekday.
Round formica tables are topped with paper tablecloths, whilst a fish tank full of exotic creatures languishes in the corner. Taped to its front is a stern handwritten note, written in all caps, warning you not to bang on the glass – or else.
Tripadvisor warriors should be warned now, the overall first impression here isn’t exactly welcoming. If you can get beyond that, though, you’re in for a ruddy good meal.
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Just don’t expect any sort of fawning service, keep your focus on the food, and remember to pay directly at the cash desk as you leave to get the most out of this Cantonese small plates offering.
Salt and pepper pork ribs at Mei Dim. / Image: The Manc Eats
Dumplings at Mei Dim. / Image: The Manc Eats
Cheung Fung and vermicelli noodles filled with prawn meat, salt and pepper pork ribs at Mei Dim. / Image: The Manc Eats
Long hailed by Mancs in the know as one of the best places for dim sum in Manchester, the sui mai here are always bulging and the house-roasted meats more than give rival restaurant Happy Seasons a run for its money.
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Our advice is to skip the regular fare and ask to see the dim sum one. Cheap and cheerful, an extensive list – so extensive that even our resident Hong Konger Giggs didn’t know them all – spans pages and pages of different steam, fried and deep-fried small plate dishes.
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We dug in as towering stacks of bamboo steamers brimming with dumplings filled up the table alongside plates of giant salt and pepper ribs, beef ho fun noodles, and birds nest-looking bundles of vermicelli stuffed with fried prawn meat (a messy highlight).
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Beef ho fun noodles at Mei Dim. / Image: The Manc Eats
Three roast meats at Mei Dim. / Image: The Manc Eats
Plump sui mai, ha kau, soup and vegetable shoots dumplings disappeared first, and were quickly replaced with huge plates of crispy salt and pepper squid, beef ho fun noodles and satay chicken skewers.
Washed down with lashings of hot tea, the plates just kept on coming. A plate of triple roast meats, perfectly lacquered and crispy, had us salivating whilst Mei Dim’s pan-fried peppers stuffed with seafood managed to be spicy, salty and fresh all at once.
The crispy duck pancakes here also deserve an honourable mention. We might’ve had to wait ten minutes to get some hoi sin sauce to go with them, but it was completely worth braving the restaurant floor to flag down a server.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
A no-frills canteen-style diner, Mei Dim is very much part of the old school of Chinatown restaurants.
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Whilst at the other end of Faulkner Street you’ll find newer, younger eateries like Pho Cue installing flower walls and giving diners a smiling service, the focus here is on the food – and the food alone.
If you’re planning on visiting, get ready for steaming pots of tea and a vast range of dim sum that puts other spots in the city to shame. Just don’t expect to be gushed over, and you’re sure to come away feeling full and happy.
Featured image – The Manc Eats
Manchester
Plans lodged to turn Ducie Street Warehouse into huge food hall
Daisy Jackson
Ducie Street Warehouse could be transformed into a massive food hall, with new plans lodged.
The historic warehouse building near Manchester Piccadilly has worn a few hats over the years.
When it first opened, it was a home to Bistrotheque, a London export that bowed out from the beautiful Grade II-listed building after just six months.
Since then, it’s become a bustling all-day space where you can sit with a laptop for hours (and many do), snacking on a simple menu of flatbreads and salads as well as great cocktails.
But now it looks like Ducie Street Warehouse is in store for a major shake-up again, with plans now lodged to transform the space into huge food hall with more than 500 covers.
The planning application comes from the same team behind Edinburgh Street Food up in Scotland, which is packed with street food traders serving a range of cuisines.
If the plans for Manchester Street Food go ahead, the warehouse on Ducie Street will become the home of a 10-kitchen food hall.
It would flip most of the ground floor, including the terrace, while the upstairs continues operating as a hotel.
The plans also show that the existing private dining area will be turned into a casual games room, with the addition of pool tables, arcade machines and foosball tables.
Ducie Street Warehouse could be turned into a food hall. Credit: The Manc Group
Manchester Street Food will join a flurry of food halls across the city, with Mackie Mayor just a short walk away, along with the waterside venue Society, and the newly-opened House of Social.
The plans also mention minor changes to the exterior of the building, illuminating an external lift shaft in a rainbow hue.
Their application states: “The ‘Street Food’ brand works with a range of vibrant and independent street food vendors to provide varied yet complementary choices, whilst showcasing local breweries and distilleries.
“Their operations focus on supporting local businesses and to diverse the food and beverage offer to create a welcoming and accessible food experiences.
“The ’Street Food’ brand was first established in the form of Edinburgh Street Food which opened in 2023, and which welcomes a broad demographic. It is recognised as a cultural and culinary hub whilst contributing positively to the local economy.
“Building on the success of Edinburgh Street Food, the Applicant is keen to expand further and enhance Manchester’s hospitality, gastronomy and evening economy.
“As such, this full planning application has been prepared to enable the operation of Manchester Street Food from a prime city centre location at Ducie Street Warehouse.”
Do you think Manchester has the appetite for yet another street food hall?
Castlefield is being transformed into Gotham amidst more Hollywood filming in Greater Manchester
Danny Jones
Castlefield, with its iconic viaduct and cobbled streets, is once again being used for big-budget filming as the latest Batman/DC Universe title, Clayface, looks to be setting up in the eye-catching Manc corner.
Whether it’s football kit reveals and brand shoots, BBC dramas or the next upcoming Netflix series, production crews can’t get enough of Castlefield, it would seem.
For those who hadn’t heard, work on the new Clayface movie revolving around the cult favourite Batman villain is well underway, and the North West has been used as the backdrop on multiple ocassions this month already.
You can see early glimpses of the set being put together down below.
Come on, how cool is it that we get to stumble on stuff like this right on our doorstep so often?
Speaking to The Manc, a source detailed that the set is being assembled today (Tuesday, 16 September) ahead of a single day of principal photography on what we can only assume is more Clayface filming sometime tomorrow.
While she could not confirm with us directly, she said, “If you’re a comic book nerd and look at the posters, you’ll be able to figure it out.” We’ve certainly been studying all the easter eggs already.
It might not quite be as dark and gritty as Gotham City, but this particular part of Manchester has been used in TV and film – especially period dramas – many times for good reason.
The Victorian-era steel structure, dark red brick and overall industrial aesthetic work so well when it comes to creating a believable and cinematic world.
Besides perhaps the most famous instance of Peaky Blinders shooting in these parts, you can add multiple music videos, several Manchester United and Man City shirt launches, and so many more that we’re starting to lose track.
As for Clayface, this isn’t even the first time the upcoming DC ‘body-horror’ flick has popped up in Greater Manchester.
Last week saw the equally striking Art Deco facade of the old The Plaza Super Cinema in Stockport turned into a fictional movie premiere to stunning effect:
Speaking of, another childhood favourite is filming here in Manchester right now, too.
Besides perhaps the most famous instance of Peaky Blinders shooting in these parts, the new Narnia adaptation by Greta Gerwig may just be one of the biggest projects that has ever landed underneath the familiar ‘birdcage’.
ln fact, it just so happens that there are actually multiple noteworthy small and silver screen works fighting over the Castlefield shooting schedule at the moment…