Four Manchester-born eateries have been named as some of the best in the world right nowby the Observer in its esteemed Top 50 list.
Bundobust, Trove, Yakumama and The Landing all feature in the prestigious foodie guide, which lays out the national paper’s favourite food highlights for 2022.
In the list of 50 things we love in the world of food right now, a group of ten critics for the paper pick out the fifty things they love most in the world of food right now – and Manchester has done pretty well.
Image: Bundobust
Newly reborn from the ashes of the pandemic as a family-friendly pizza parlour, former bar-restaurant Common gets an honourable mention in the list for its changing attitude to dining-in.
And Manchester Art Gallery is also given a nod, as the Observer praises ex-Masterchef contestant Adam Leavy for his ” quality sandwiches”.
ADVERTISEMENT
Keep reading to discover what the critics had to say about the rest.
Trove Bakery
Tony Naylor highlights Trove bakery’s chorizo sausage roll, calling the search for the definitive roll “a life’s work.” We completely agree.
ADVERTISEMENT
Trove baker Ruth Gwillim, Naylor writes, is no stranger to “moments of revelation” but her latest creation might just be the most revelatory yet.
Image: Trove
She has created a “sausage roll for the ages” – combining chorizo and sausage meat with French butter pastry, its filling peppered with fennel seeds.
“Where most sausage rolls cool and congeal into a stodgy lump, this sings even at room temperature,” he writes ebulliently.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bundobust Brewery
Vegetarian and vegan street food favourites Bundobust also feature prominently, except this time the focus is on its new Manchester brewery restaurant.
Read more:Bundobust has been secretly brewing its own beer in Manchester for eight months
Housed in a 100-year-old Grade II-listed building on Oxford Road, it boasts a custom-built 10-hectolitre facility capable of producing 20,000 pints a month – not to mention a talented head brewer in Dan Hocking, formerly of Uiltje.
Image: Bundobust
Naylor writes: “Good beer is essential to Bundobust: Bradford-born owners Marko Husak and Mayur Patel first bonded over the emerging craft beer scene of the early 2010s.
“Its IPAs and sours became the ideal foil for Patel’s food – meat-free Gujarati family recipes updated for the street-food generation”.
ADVERTISEMENT
Yakumama
Billed as “offering respite from the restaurant industry’s frothiest excesses”, this Manchester food truck turned restaurant in West Yorkshire is showered in praise.
Operated by Hannah Lovett and Marcelo Sandova, the Latin American-inspired cantina serves a short menu of colourful, meat-free small plates – all designed to share.
Image: Yakumama
Naylor is just as enthusiastic about the space (a 19th-century former Co-Op building in Todmorden, situatedon the border of West Yorkshire and Manchester) as he is the menu, writing:
“Beyond its ornate 19th-century frontage the airy dining room is fairly plain. There are plants. Art. Nothing showy.”
He continues: “The Andean-style crisp potatoes with kalamata olive sauce, smoked paprika oil and pickled peppers, topped with a boiled egg, embodies Yakumama’s imaginative use of vibrant sauces and pickles to create astonishing food.
ADVERTISEMENT
“An example of what is possible without meat or lots of money.”
The Landing
Not technically an eatery, more of a kitchen garden, this rooftop allotment opposite Stockport’s Merseyway shopping centre nonetheless still feeds Mancunians – albeit indirectly.
The latest kitchen garden for Where The Light Gets, according to Naylor it was inspired by a 2011 lecture on urban farming held at Manchester international festival and brought to realisation with the help of Manchester Urban Diggers (MUD).
In the summer, the WTLGI team is at the garden daily, uprooting and picking a veritable wealth of produce to create the constantly changing “Landing Plate” as well as coming up with specials, such as a “Stockport saag” made with Landing-grown shisho, spinach and curry leaves.
Image: Where The Light Gets In
Naylor writes: “Here, grower Nick Harlow cultivates, for example, numerous chillies, Andean tubers oca and mashua and “the sweetest” poona kheera cucumbers. “It’s 100% exposed, so it’s red hot up there,” says Buckley. “The greenhouse was 20C [in December].”
ADVERTISEMENT
Throwing in Gaggs from Buckley about growing lemongrass above Ann Summers, he also touches on the more serious point of utilising empty spaces for food production as well as flagging plans to host craft workshops and gardening days to “illustrate what is possible in urban environments.”
Feature image – Trove
Eats
Bangkok Diners Club – Thai barbecue restaurant to take over award-winning Ancoats pub
Daisy Jackson
The kitchens of the award-winning Edinburgh Castle pub are set to be taken over by a brand new offering – the Bangkok Diners Club is moving in.
Taking a step away from the gastropub’s previous menu of elevated British classics (its old head chef Shaun Moffatt recently opened his own restaurant, Winsome, where you can still eat that), this entirely new offering will bring a taste of Thai barbecue to Ancoats.
The exciting new opening will have a meat-focused menu cooked with wood smoke from an in-house smoker.
Chef Ben Humpheys – formerly of the futuristic Thai restaurant District, in the Northern Quarter – will combine his 20-year obsession with Thai cuisine with a ‘new-found love for low-n-slow cooking’.
That’ll mean slow-smoked meats, which Ben fell in love with in Miami, bringing a new take to traditional dishes like ex-dairy beef Nam Tok and BBQ pork jowl with burnt tomato Nam Jim Jaew.
There’ll also be dishes like Gaeng Khua, a southern curry of smoked mutton ribs, and Thai omelette with smoked mushroom and Nam Prik Pao.
Ben has honed the menu with his wife Bo, who was born and raised in the northeastern Isan region, before moving to Bangkok as a teenager.
He said: “Barbecue is huge in Thailand, but it’s usually fast and furious over fire. Last year we spent some time in Miami – we had so much mega BBQ, and I found for me the best dishes had Mexican or Korean heat and citrus which cut through the richness of the meat.
“It got me thinking about how I could do that with Thai flavours and techniques.”
Credit: Shaun PeckhamCredit: The Manc GroupBangkok Diners Club is taking over the kitchens at the Edinburgh Castle pub
Ben added that the menu at Bangkok Diners Club will draw inspiration from right across the country, as is common of the cuisine in Bangkok itself, whether it’s using fresh turmeric common in the south or herbs and dry spices from the mountains in Northern Thailand.
He said: “That exciting approach is what we’re trying to do here – it’s all rooted in a deep respect for the Thai cooking traditions and an obsessive understanding of how Thai dishes are built; how the flavours are layered and the heat builds – but without the constraints of identifying with a single region.”
Partner Danny Collins added: “We’ve spent countless nights cooking and celebrating with Bo’s family in Bangkok, and we want to bring that same energy to Manchester, and to the pub.
“We hope to give people something you can’t really get anywhere else, while offering a dining experience that’s fun, communal, and full of flavour.”
Bangkok Diners Club will open at the Edinburgh Castle in Ancoats on 2 April, with bookings live now HERE.
Manchester’s Cat Cafe issues lengthy response to anti-industry statement
Danny Jones
Manchester’s soon-to-return Cat Cafe has shared a lengthy statement responding to the recent suggestion made by leading animal charities that their particular line of business should become a thing of the past.
Cat Cafe Manchester (CCM) closed its city centre premises back in January 2021 like so many others suffering from the post-pandemic struggle, but there are still several other feline-focused coffee shops and similar set-ups located up and down the country.
With that in mind and after the Manchester location announced a comeback later this year – in a prime location on Deansgate, no less – the discussion surrounding the niche industry has turned to issues regarding animal rights, welfare and overall quality of life.
However, rather than simply firing back at the likes of the RSPCA and Cats Protection over their concerns and belief that these venues should be “phased out”, the company has come out to agree with their overarching point whilst still assuring that their sites “are different”.
As you can see in an extensive reply, the brand begins by writing: “We are in strong agreement that there needs to be more regulation in the industry, as we believe many cafes are operating in manners that are harmful to cats.”
They detail how they don’t support ventures that operate by simply piggybacking on vital animal rescue procedures, citing that around 90% of the UK’s cat cafes simply ship prospective pets in and out, creating a stressful environment for its furry residents.
In contrast, Cat Cafe MCR go on to insist that “cats in our cafes are pedigree, as they are best suited to an indoor-only environment [as opposed to rescues who often benefit from outdoor time], and they are bred for temperament, meaning our cats need a lot of attention from people, and also enjoy the company of other cats.
“Our cafes have windows for natural light and there is plenty of space off the cafe floor for cats to get away from customers. They are provided with enough resources spread out throughout a very large building to reduce any competitive behaviour. Our cats are never ever kept in cages – as is the case in some Cat Cafes.”
CCM also explained how the behaviour of their in-house cats is analysed weekly, adding that “if we feel any cat in our cafe is not happy and is showing signs of stress, we would immediately remove them from the environment.”
Besides the obvious soothing quality of the experience for regular customers, cafes like theirs and the canine equivalent CuppaPug in Salford are extremely helpful in providing animal-assisted therapy for people struggling with mental health conditions and those categorised as neurodiverse.
Cat Cafe drew their response to a close by inviting both of the charities in question to work with them in creating new guidelines and strict rules when it comes to animal welfare in these spaces.
They concluded by declaring that not only are they “incredibly difficult to run responsibly” when done properly but that “Cat Cafes are not all the same, and they should not be opened without serious thought and consideration for the cats’ welfare.”
We are still unclear as to when exactly Cat Cafe Manchester will reopen but all we know is that the team will be as dedicated to providing an enjoyable experience for both the animals and visitors when it does.
Georgina Pellant -
22nd February 2022 
