News

This Manchester restaurant has created an Indian cheese toastie – with soup for dipping

Bundobust is back with a new wave of specials, including a vegan take on cult favourite the Bombay sandwich

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 10th January 2023

When it comes to comfort food, there’s nothing like a good soup and sandwich to get you feeling toasty on a wet January day. Even better if the sandwich is grilled, Breville-style, to ensure it’s crimped on the edges and scalding hot in the middle.

Add in a spicy Indian street food twist, and that’s exactly what you’ll find down at Manchester restaurants Bundobust this month as part of its newly released January specials menu.

Serving up their take on the Bombay sandwich, famously known as one the Indian city’s most popular street snacks, this ‘grown up grilled cheese’ is packed with potato and spinach, green chutney, cucumber, red onion, tomato and vegan cheddar.

Seasoned with zingy chaat masala and served with Sambhar – a lentil, aubergine and bottle gourd soup – it makes for a classic lunchtime combo, reports The Hoot.

Elsewhere on the January specials menu, you’ll find full-to-bursting green sweet chillis stuffed with spiced potato in a crispy gram flour batter and served with mango chutney dip: an Indian deli counter staple that draws inspiration from parent restaurant Prashad (and the stuffed chilli from their formative days in mid-90s Bradford).

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Read more: A new ‘first of its kind’ Indian drive-thru has opened in Greater Manchester

Add in the lightly sour, satisfyingly spiced and luxuriantly creamy Punjabi Kadi (moong dhal pakoras simmered in a garam massala, yoghurt and gram flour curry), new recipe Paneer Kadai and a new-and-improved Egg Bhurji recipe with cumin and green chilli, green peas and coriander, both served with pillowy bhatura, then try to tell us you’re not feeling hungry.

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Read more: Manchester’s first Scottish-Indian restaurant has closed its doors in Chorlton

One of our top picks for vegetarian and vegan dining in the city centre, you’ll also find tried and tested favourites like the vada pav, paneer tikka and bundo chaat on the menu here to enjoy alongside the new specials.

For those attempting Veganuary this year, they’ll be happy to know that 75% of the menu is vegan and there’s no meat on offer at all – so you’re unlikely to be tempted to cheat.

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To book your table and to view the full menu, take a look at the Bundobust website here.

Feature image – The Hoot Leeds

News

Luxury Manchester gym Blok confirms permanent closure after weeks of uncertainty

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group

Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure, weeks after the doors to the premium fitness facility mysteriously closed.

Around a fortnight ago, members began to arrive to their classes to find the gym on Ducie Street locked up and a forfeiture notice on the door – but at the time, Blok said that it was fighting to reopen.

Sadly, in an email sent to members today, its founder has confirmed that the studio is now permanently closed.

Blok – which has several very successful sites down in London – said that its relationship with its landlord has ‘broken down to a point where trust has been lost’.

The gym wrote that it’s been left with ‘no workable way forward’.

They said: “BLOK Manchester was a space built by our loyal and dedicated community. Whether you joined us for one class or one hundred, we are deeply grateful. You helped create something genuinely special in an incredible city.”

In the immediate future, they said they’ll be supporting the team of fantastic trainers who worked here, as well as looking after members.

Members will be contacted within a few hours with options and refunds owed.

Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group

CEO and founder Ed Stanbury said: “While this marks the end of a chapter, we don’t see it as the end of our story in Manchester. We’re already speaking with developers about potential future sites and remain committed to returning to the city when the time is right.

“Thank you for being part of our story so far. Let’s shape the future of wellness. The mission continues.”

Commenting on Blok’s Instagram post – its first in almost a fortnight – people have been sharing their sadness at the closure of its Manchester site.

One person wrote: “beautiful space, beautiful staff and beautiful community.”

Another said: “Sending love to all the instructors !! :(((( gutted”

Someone else commented: “THE BEST CLASSES. I’m gutted.”

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Featured image: The Manc Group

News

‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data

Danny Jones Danny Jones the average price of a pint in the UK by region

Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.

Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.

The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.

While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.

@the.manc Just trying to walk home and the Northern Quarter keeps tempting me in for a pint. 🙈 #themanc #manchester #mcr #northernquarter #spring ♬ original sound – The Manc

The average price of a pint per region in the UK

  1. Wales – £4.21
  2. North East – £4.28
  3. Northern Ireland – £4.42
  4. Scotland – £4.42
  5. Yorkshire and the Humber – £4.42
  6. North West – £4.42
  7. West Midlands – £4.42
  8. East Midlands – £4.42
  9. East England – £4.56
  10. South West – £4.93
  11. South East – £4.94
  12. London – £5.44

That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.

Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.

Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.

Happy hour Manchester – The best drinks deals in the city centre
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.

London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)

While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.

To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.

CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.

Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…

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Featured Images — The Manc Group

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