Manchester always comes alive each winter for the Lunar New Year celebrations, which are right around the corner again, and Chinese restaurants across the city are gearing up for a busy one.
With the upcoming celebrations firmly on the brain, we thought now as good a time as any to point you in the direction of some of Manchester’s best Chinese eateries so, if you are planning on popping in, you’re not left with hungry bellies.
Of course, Chinatown is probably the first place you think to head – and for good reason, but there are also some cracking spots further afield we’ve included here too for posterity.
From dim sum to roast meats, hot pots to hand-stretched noodles, here’s where to eat when you’re craving Chinese food in Manchester.
Whole roast ducks hanging in the window at Happy Seasons, the most famous spot for roasted meats in Manchester/ Image: Happy Seasons
Where to eat in Chinatown
More than 60 years since the first Anglo-Chinese restaurant opened in Chinatown, chefs here are still putting a modern British twist on traditional recipes and cooking methods – but the scene has changed a fair bit since the 1940s.
Once dominated by Cantonese cooking, today the area’s offering is more varied with dishes from provinces like Beijing, Shanghai, Hunan and Szechuan growing in popularity.
Happy Seasons
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Happy Seasons is renowned locally for its roast meats, which range from fatty cuts of pork belly to rich, lacquered whole ducks. Go early, though, as these start selling out from as early as 12pm.- they’re that popular.
For seriously good dim sum, a staple at any good Chinese restaurant, try Mei Dim – a nondescript-looking basement canteen with massive laminated, pictorial menus.
Ignore the grumpy naysayers online, the fact that the customer base here is 99% Chinese speaks volumes as to the true quality of the food.
A relatively new addition to the famous Faulkner street, hot broth steams at the centre of your table – ready for you to cook whatever you like in it. Options for veggies and vegans are numerous, as are traditional choices like tripe, ox tongue, mutton and prawn mash with bamboo fungus.
Spicy crayfish, one of the top three dishes at Hunan restaurant above Woo Sang Supermarket, / Image; Hunan Restaurant
Hidden on the first floor above Chinatown’s Woo Sang supermarket. Hunan restaurant is the only one of its kind to serve traditional Hunan cuisine from the mainland – not just in Manchester, either but in the whole of the north west, according to its owner.
Chinese restaurants further afield
Glamorous restaurant, Ancoats
A selection of dishes from Glamorous restaurant. / Image: @amberosehe via Instagram
Found above the gargantuan Wing Yip, this no-frills dim sum spot is all about the food – not the service, nor the decor. Very much nose to tail, the menu is extensive – spanning roast meats, seafood, sizzling dishes, a bakery and more – including all those delicacies hardcore foodists like to order, from chicken feet to intestines and tripe.
Chef Diao, Northern Quarter
Relatively new to the Northern Quarter, Chef Diao opened on Oldham street inside the former Penang space in October last year. Its online presence is almost nonexistent, but we have it on good authority that the dim sum here is not to be messed with.
One Plus, Charles Street
Image: One PLus
Another great place for hot pot in the city, One Plus is loved by all who visit. You can cook your own dinner from a conveyor belt (not as chaotic as it sounds), or opt to dine from either the Chinese BBQ or rice and hand-stretched noodle and rice menu.
Live Seafood, Beswick
Image: Live Seafood
Described by Guardian critic Jay Rayner as both “utterly, delightfully nuts” and “a parade of the best and freshest Chinese dishes’, Live Seafood specialise in seafood that is, well, alive. A former Victorian boozer, today it’s filled with tanks of live fish> Customers handpick their meal, straight from the water. Not for the faint of heart.
Salt and Pepper, Northern Quarter
Having relocated to a new home across the road from its original Arndale market, Salt and Pepper offers a modern take on Chinese favourites. As the name suggests, everything gets the patented salt and pepper treatment here served either stuffed into wraps or atop rice, salad and/or chips.
Blue Eyed Panda, Ancoats
Blue Eyed Panda Chinese restaurant in Ancoats, ManchesterBlue Eyed Panda Chinese restaurant in Ancoats, Manchester
Highly rated by diners in Ancoats and further afield, Blue Eyed Panda is run by the same pair that once operated popular takeaway Chop Chop.. Favourites here include crispy chilli beef and salt and pepper chicken, but you’ll find everything from roast meats and dim sum to Szchezuan dishes on the menu.
Hea Toast and Dessert, Prestwich
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
If you’re a fan of milk tea and thick, white sandwich bread slathered in condensed milk, peanut butter and lashings of golden syrup, Hea Toast & Dessert is the place for you.
Opened by owner Jack Lau in June, here you’ll find butter-drenched toast, Hong Kong’s famously silky milk teas (inspired by our very own British cuppa) and Yeun Yeung – an iced drink that’s typically made from two-parts milk tea and one-part black coffee.
If you love a bottomless brunch, this could be for you. WowYauChow is the home of “the first Chinese bottomless brunch in Manchester”. Prices start at £23 for an ‘endless lunch’, for which you’ll get 90 minutes of endless bao buns, ‘salt n pepper’, cocktails, wines, and beers – including gin fizz, blushing dragon and prosecco.
Yum Cha, Kampus
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Specialising in dim sum, roast meats and flavourful big plates, Yum Cha first opened in Liverpool in July 2020 and made its way over to Manchester last year. As its name suggests, dim sum is a big thing here – all made by hand by a specialist chef who trained in Hong Kong.
Unlike many of its competitors, Yum Cha sells its bite-size dim sum (which loosely translates to “touching the heart”) all day and all night – and has built up quite a following as a result.
Elsewhere, large plates (and trust us, they really are large) can be bought for around a tenner. Fiery dishes like Singapore vermicelli and king prawn or char siu firecracker sit alongside the likes of sweet and sour chicken,, dan dan noodles and grilled chicken satay.
Housing an Asian-inspired bakery and cafe, a Vietnamese restaurant, a Chinese supermarket, and a huge food hall serving East Asian street food, this multi-storey ‘super-venue’ beneath Symphony Park on Oxford Road introduced Manchester to something entirely new in 2022.
Inspired by dining destinations like Bang Bang Oriental in London, and 1800 in Miami, at its heart is Downtown Oriental, a vast market hall with a fast-paced open kitchen where diners feast on everything from Chinese roasts to dim sum, baos to noodles, and fried rice to seafood.
Get your cameras ready, because the whole interior at Tattu screams “Instagram me”. Its huge pink sakura trees undeniably help draw a crowd, but the food’s not to be sniffed at either. Fans rave about its Singapore noodles, lobster, short ribs and prawn toast.
Aitch is playing a huge hometown set at The Warehouse Project
Danny Jones
Aitch has booked another massive hometown slot as the Moston-born rapper will be playing none other than the home of clubbing here in Manchester: The Warehouse Project.
Joining the WHP25 programme, which is already stacked right up until New Year’s Eve, the 25-year-old is the latest rapper to take on the famous club venue, following the likes of Little Simz and Loyle Carner, who played the event series back in October.
Aitch‘s new album, 4 – which denotes the number of studio LPs he’s made to date and acts as a nod to the M4 postcode – was released on June 20 and has already proved popular with fans.
Having just played Parklife as well as a secret set at Glastonbury this year, he’s already performed most of his biggest slots for the year, but the ever-rising local rapper thought he’d given Manchester another big gig and one more chance to see him live in 2025.
As an increasingly popular main event act across the UK, a headline show at Warehouse Project is nothing short of a massive deal for any artist, let alone a Manc.
The date itself will see him see him performing songs from the new record, which is his second to hit the top 10, as well as a selection of multiple platinum-selling hits.
Sharing details of early access tickets on Instagram stories shortly after the announcement, the UK hip-hop and grime star reminded fans: “This is the only chance to see me shut this sh*t down this year!!!”
It’s actually his only major domestic show in full stop, so if you’re a die-hard fan of Harrison Armstrong and his music, you really don’t want to miss this one.
He’s not the only big name coming to Mayfield this season either.
WHP25 /// FISHER – TICKETS ON SALE NOW
Don’t miss out on what’s set to be an unmissable night – packed with infectious energy from beginning to end – as he takes over Depot Mayfield alongside a lineup coming very soon.
Featured Images — Jahnay Tennai (supplied)/Aitch (via TikTok)
Manchester
Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | June 2025
Danny Jones
Hello there. That greeting may be giving Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars vibes, and we can’t lie, we have listened to some cantina music while working this month… but not as much as we’ve been immersing ourselves in more new Manchester artists.
You should know the drill by now, and it is very much a what-it-says-on-the-tin scenario, but every few weeks, we round up some of the music – all crucially hailing from the Greater Manchester area – that we’ve been listening to of late.
We don’t discriminate when it comes to genre either. There’s only one simple rule: if it’s good, then we listen to it and then, hopefully, so do you.
Get your playlists at the ready.
Five Manc music artists we’ve been listening to recently
1. Arkayla
First up for June are relative newcomers Arkayla, whose name is inspired by “a terrible Oasis demo” from 1991 (their words, not ours – thought it is…) of the same name, a.k.a. ‘I Will Show You’, in which describe Liam Gallagher’s now legendary as once sounding “like a dodgy Ian Brown impressionist.”
However, there’s nothing dodgy about these lot and, thankfully, they’re in an era when you don’t have to hand out tapes recorded in the Boardwalk basement on the street to be heard. The Manchester band, which only formed in 2020, may be Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, but they’ve already got a sound.
There’s an unmistakable British indie element to them and hints at everything from The Kooks to The Lathums, but most notably, there are ’60s guitar notes and some real maturity already. Standouts include ‘Ella Malone’, the acoustic version of ‘Lost In a Valentine’, where the lead singer, Cal Blakebrough, really shines, and ‘Rita’ is such an addictive track.
They don’t get more unknown, undiscovered, but sure to be up-and-coming than iNNAFIELD, who are a female-fronted psychedelia-forward five-piece with roots in Brighton but building a career in 0161. Having recently shone at The Deaf Institute playing a support slot at Academy 1, they have our interest.
If a glimpse of lead singer Jessie Amy Leask’s curly hair, 70s belts and long, flowing skirts plants Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac in your mind, you’d be right in thinking so; a listen to their other live tracks scattered across their socials confirms there’s plenty of other influences going on too, though.
Now, they’ve only got one proper recording out on Spotify called ‘Tell Me What’s On Your Mind’, but we’ve had it popping up on our algorithms everywhere, and we can see why: there’s soft, twinkly strumming, soft almost sleepy vocals before a nice big breakout at the end. Glorious stuff.
No, not that one, the Princess of Monaco isn’t back from the dead, but ‘r Grace Kelly, who is based right here in Greater Manchester, is playing her part in the ongoing country revival taking place across the music world, offering her soulful voice and faux American-folk vibes to our ears.
She may not be a Mancunian by birth, having moved from New Zealand to our shores back in 2022, and although the weather change might have been a big sea change for her, there’s no culture shock to be found in her style; from the audio to the aesthetic, it still somehow feels pretty authentic.
Uplifting acoustic guitars, drum brush strokes, solos, Southern-twang harmonies – you name it, all the ingredients are there. The thing is, if you spend enough time immersing yourself in a genre, you can still pull off tracks like ‘Carry On’, ‘San Jose’ and the intimate ‘For Us To Change’.
We’re really lane switching when it comes to genre this month; maybe it’s because festival season is in full swing and we’re just being exposed to so much different stuff in a short space of time, all we know is we’re not complaining about it.
And neither should you, especially when you’ve got names like hip-hop, grime, soul and flag-flying Afrobeats rising star, Prido, being platformed. Blending all the above with R’n’B and a sprinkling of not just Northern but easily detectable Manc slant, it makes his music stand out in the ever-thriving space.
‘Free Ur Mind’ was the first track we ever heard, so we’ve struggled to shake that as our favourite, but ‘DND’ is a supremely dancey but chill example of laid-back of the genre that you need in your mixes this summer, and we also have a soft spot for his verse on the sensual ‘Lifeboat’ by Prima.
Last but not least on our list of new Manchester artists for this June, we’ve got local DJ Josh Baker, whose name you might recognise from the headlines surrounding Parklife 2025, as his set was unfortunately cancelled due to problems out of his control.
Festival-goers flocked to The Matinee Stage for a highly anticipated back-to-back bill of Baker followed by Dutch counterpart Chris Stussy, both of whom have thrilled some of the biggest club crowds in the country – sadly, he didn’t get to do so this time. That being said, we thought we’d give him a shout-out.
We’ll confess to only having got around to his discography following this news, but ‘Back It Up’, ‘Something To Me’, and ‘You Don’t Own Me’ with Prospa and RAHH are all bangers. We’re looking forward to listening to more.
And that should just about do you; there are five artists and, at the very least, 15 new tracks for you to give a go – there should be at least of few of them you like.
But, let’s be honest: be it unheard, new, current, old or anything in between, Manchester music very rarely ends up being filed in the skippable category.
Then again, you can always check out last month’s list of Manc artists from last month and see if you get a better hit ratio.
Georgina Pellant -
9th February 2024 
