Manchester’s Princess Street is a veritable treasure trove of underrated and overlooked restaurants, not least hidden Greek taverna Bouzouki By Night.
It might appear no more than a takeaway stand from the street, but venture underground and you’ll discover a huge Meditteranean restaurant complete with checkered tablecloths, colourful fairy lights and expansive landscapes of the Aegean Sea.
When we visit, owner Photis Nasaris is perched on a chair outside smoking a cigarette, an ashtray and half-empty coffee cup balanced on what, we assume, is his car bonnet.
We’ve come for some traditional Greek wraps, in search of a quick and cheap lunchtime fix. Little did we know we’d find a huge restaurant underneath to transport us to sunnier climes.
A fixture here for over thirty years, during the day students and office workers flock to Bouzouki’s Little Greek shopfront for warm spinach and filo pastries, sweet baklava, affordable souvlaki and gyros.
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Stuffed with your choice of pork, chicken, halloumi, kofta or falafel, plus chips, salad, hummus, tzatziki and chilli sauce, they’re quite the lunchtime steal at £5.30 a pop – and filling too.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
But come nightfall it’s a different story altogether, as the name not so subtly suggests. Locals in the know head down every Friday and Saturday for a taste of Bouzouki’s signature spanakopites, dolmathes (stuffed meat vine leaves) and mousaka, and a spot of post-dinner dancing.
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On Fridays and Saturdays Bouzouki also serves a special Greek meze banquet packed with hot pitta, greek salad, houmous, tzatziki, halloumi, chicken skewers, kofta, rice, spanakopita, stifado and more.
Meat dishes can also be replaced for vegetarian options like garlic mushroom, chickpea stew, veg moussaka and stuffed tomato feta, so there is something on offer for everyone.
Bouzouki also carries a wide selection of dry, fruity Greek wines, perfect for getting you in the party mood.
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Once diners are done with their meal, the fun really starts. Everyone is invited to get up and join the “big fat Greek good time” on the restaurant’s makeshift dancefloor, with plenty of singing and silliness carrying on late into the night.
Whether you simply fancy a good knees-up, or are hankering after some tasty Greek classics, Bouzouki is worth a look-in. To find out more and book a table, visit the restaurant’s website here.
Feature image – The Manc Eats
News
Greater Manchester officially launches five-year climate change action plan
Danny Jones
Greater Manchester has officially begun its five-year climate change action plan, with the overarching goal of becoming a net-zero city region by 2038.
The comprehensive pledge put together over a number of years itself will see Manchester City Council and the nearby local authorities put into action a number of key measures that will help to reduce not only central carbon figures but, eventually, across the 10 boroughs in turn.
Over the last 15 years, emissions have been reduced by approximately 64%, saving an estimated 44,344 tonnes of carbon through cleaner building energy, street lighting and other electronics, as well as the increasingly green and over-growing Bee Network.
They have also insisted that it isn’t just about cutting down on greenhouse gases; the aim is to make the city region and the surrounding areas more sustainable, affordable and create a better standard of life.
Our five-year plan to tackle climate change launches today. 🌏
It details how we’ll continue to deliver dramatic reductions in the amount of carbon we emit (the biggest contributor to climate change). 🏙️
As per the summary on the Council website, in addition to creating more efficient homes, they’re hoping to provide more access to nature and good-quality green space, “public transport you can rely on”, and “better health and wellbeing for those who live, work, study and visit here.”
With a steadily recovering local and national economy (touch wood), they’re also hoping for an influx of new jobs, too.
Summarising the key bullet points leading up to the end of the decade, these are the next steps currently outlined by the Council:
Lower carbon emissions
Grow the use of renewable energy
Improve low-carbon travel in the city
Improve air quality
Grow the city’s natural environment and boost biodiversity
Improve resilience to flooding and extreme heat
Engage and involve our workforce and our city’s communities
Reduce waste and grow reuse, repair, sharing and recycling
Support a move to a more circular economy
Minimise the negative impact of events held in the city
Develop our knowledge of our indirect emissions and lower them
Create a green financing strategy and explore new funding models for the city
Influence the environmental practices of other organisations
As for emissions, the target is now to drop the present output by another 34%, which will prevent almost 43,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from being pumped into the atmosphere.
Having touched upon the continued expansion of the Bee Network infrastructure, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is also set to install multiple new travel links over the coming years, including both new tram stops and train stations – further
You can read the climate action plan in full HERE.
Manchester’s firework displays are ‘back with a bang’ as they return from 2026
Emily Sergeant
Council-organised firework displays in Manchester’s parks are set to return from next year, it has been confirmed.
You may remember that these once-popular events have not been held since 2019, as the COVID-19 pandemic initially prevented them from taking place from 2020 onwards, and then following that, they remained paused on a trial basis while the Manchester City Council sought to ‘reprioritise funding’ to support a wider range of free community events across the city.
But now, as it seems, the door was never shut on their potential return.
An ‘improved financial position’ now means that the Council is in a position to bring firework events back, while also still continuing to support other community events.
Papers setting out the Council’s financial position show that fairer funding being introduced by the Government next year will leave the Council better off than previously anticipated, he the reason firework displays have been brought back into the mix.
The Council has admitted that ‘pressures remain’ after so many years of financial cuts, but this new funding creates the opportunity to invest in the things residents have said matter the most to them.
“Manchester prides itself on free community events and we know many people have missed Bonfire night firework spectaculars,” commented Cllr Bev Craig, who is the Leader of Manchester City Council.
“That’s why we are pleased to confirm they’ll be back by popular demand in 2026.
“We know that generations of Mancunians have enjoyed Council-organised displays and that free family events are a great way to bring people together… [and] now that this Government is actually investing in Councils like ours rather than the cuts we had since 2010, we can bring back Bonfire events.”
Georgina Pellant -
16th September 2022 
