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.
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.
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).
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.
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
Major Co-op Live concert cancelled with fans already inside venue
Daisy Jackson
Major Co-op Live gig Jeff Lynne’s ELO has been cancelled this evening – after fans had already entered the venue.
Jeff Lynne’s ELO were set to perform the second of two nights at the huge Manchester venue tonight, as part of their final UK tour.
The Over and Out Tour should have been taking place on both the 9 and 10 July before heading to London’s BST Hyde Park Festival on Sunday.
But the show has been cancelled minutes before the legendary band were due to take to the stage.
Fans had already taken their seats inside the massive Co-op Live Arena when the news broke that the gig would not be able to take place ‘due to illness’.
77-year-old Jeff Lynne himself, who recently broke his hand in an accident, is said to be ‘devastated’ that he is unable to perform.
Jeff Lynne’s ELO has been cancelled at Co-op Live
A statement from the band said: “Unfortunately due to illness tonight’s (Thursday 10th July 2025) scheduled performance of Jeff Lynne’s ELO at the Co-Op Live will not be going ahead.
“Jeff is devastated he cannot perform this evening.
“More information will become available as soon as possible. For refunds please go to your point of purchase.”
According to fans, audiences inside Co-op Live were told the show was cancelled with just 45 minutes to go.
One person wrote: “The concert that never was. Cancelled with 45mins to go. Get well soon Jeff Lynne.”
Literally mins after this picture was taken Jeff Lynn cancelled 😞 @JeffLynnesELO Broke his hand a few days ago and has played the best he can and well done to you ! But then decides to cancel 2nd night n Manchester very last minute ! But it’s ok just ask for a refund !!! 😡 pic.twitter.com/wv1JfWPwk5
Andy Burnham reveals plans to build underground tram and train line in Manchester by 2050
Emily Sergeant
Andy Burnham has announced some ambitious long-term plans to build an underground tram and train line in Manchester.
As Greater Manchester sets its sights on a new era of economic growth, on the way to becoming a ‘second city’ to rival any other on the planet by 2050, Mayor Andy Burnham shared the city region’s blueprint for a ‘greener, fairer future’ this week – with underground transport plans being right the heart of it.
Mr Burnham says his vision for the next decade is to create a ‘thriving’ city region where everyone can ‘live a good life’.
Andy Burnham reveals plans to build an underground tram and train line in Manchester / Credit: TfGM
But it’s public transport where it seems some of the most significant changes are set to be made before 2050 arrives.
The Mayor revealed plans for new bus routes, tramlines, and train stations to connect ‘thriving communities’ across the city region with an integrated lower-cost transport system that’ll help more people get out and access new opportunities.
Construction of a tram stop to service new homes at Victoria North will also start by 2028, it has been confirmed, while work to bring Metrolink to Stockport – which has already been announced to huge support – will begin by 2030.
Two commuter rail lines will join the Bee Network next December as well, with another six joining by 2028.
GM is growing fast.
We will expand @BeeNetwork over the next decade to meet the needs of our bigger economy.
BUT
There’s a limit to what we can do on a congested surface.
It’s why I am asking TfGM to start planning for an underground for GM around a remodelled Piccadilly. pic.twitter.com/k2ozNWw6Wj
The headline-grabbing announcement, though, has to be that Mr Burnham has also announced plans to unlock ‘transformative’ investment in transport infrastructure, so that by 2050, Manchester Piccadilly has an underground tram and train station with a high-speed rail link to Liverpool.
He’s also looking to boost regeneration of the surrounding area, effectively making it ‘the Kings Cross of the North’.
“We’re the UK’s fastest growing economy and stand on the cusp of what I believe could be our best decade since the Victorian era,” commented Mayor Andy Burnham, “and our task for the next decade is to build a platform for success for all our residents.
“Our vision is ambitious, but in my eight years as Mayor, I’ve learned that, when we pull together, there’s nothing we can’t achieve.
“There’s a long and proud tradition of collaboration in Greater Manchester. Devolution has turbocharged that and now we’re ready to deliver a new model of growth where no one is left behind.”