House of Fu, the popular Yorkshire ramen restaurant with a huge following in Leeds, is making its way over to Manchester.
Eyeing up a new home on Portland Street, the restaurant has submitted plans with Manchester City Council to take over the former Leaf site.
Having first begun life as a street food pop-up, House of Fu has revealed it will bring its Toyko and LA-inspired Japanese dishes across the Pennines for the first time – just a year on from opening its first brick and mortar site in Leeds.
Brought to Manchester by the team behind Leeds’ Belgrave Music Hall, Headrow House and Ox Club, diners can look forward to a range of different umami-rich ramen and noodle dishes, as well as dumplings, small plates and sides when it opens its doors later this year.
As for drinks, think frozen yuzu margaritas, homemade kombucha and cans of session sake from Kampai, as well as.a solid sake and wine list and craft beers sourced from local breweries.
ADVERTISEMENT
Image: The Hoot Leeds
Fried cauliflower with gochujang hot sauce, house shichimi spice blend, sesame and QP vegan mayo. / Image: The Hoot
House of Fu’s pork gyoza are made freshly in the restaurant every day. / Image: The Hoot
From homemade gyoza to handmade noodles sourced right here in Manchester, there’s a lot to get excited about – all thanks to head chef Ben Iley, who spent nearly a decade at some of Japan’s finest restaurants before coming home to work on the House of Fu project.
With an impressive CV that includes Aquavit, The Tokyo American Club and Fujimamas, he landed in Leeds following nine and a half years Japan, only to be introduced to the Belgrave team ‘the very same day.’.
ADVERTISEMENT
From that initial introduction, it would take six years for the concept to fully come to fruition – first beginning life as award-winning street food pop-up Fu-Schnickens before ultimately becoming the ramen restaurant it is today, with Ben taking a short detour into live fire cooking as the Head Chef at Ox Club somewhere in the middle.
Original Fu ramen in a tonkatsu broth, and fried cauliflower. / Image: The Hoot Leeds
When House of Fu opened in Leeds last summer, he told The Hoot: “I first met these guys and we spoke about doing this in 2014.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The year that I was over in Japan, the guys behind this, Ben Davey included, who was working in Belgrave at the time, had a pop-up […] doing bao buns, chicken wings and that kind of thing, and that’s the year that they won best street food of the year or whatever it was, so they thought right, ok, we’ve got something here, let’s expand and look at building a restaurant, let’s do ramen […] and so they needed to find someone who could do ramen.
“Probably the day that I arrived back from Japan, a mutual friend between myself and Ash hooked us up and said ‘this guy’s just come back from Japan, these guys want to do ramen, like off you go!’ and I was like ‘wow, what an amazing opportunity.'”
In the summer of 2019, ahead of opening the first House of Fu site, Ben took the directors on a intense three-night dash through Tokyo – all eating and drinking their way in a blur across the city in the name of research.
Ramen choices range here from classic tonkatsu broths to miso chicken and mushroom options, and a special ‘green ramen’ made using a shitake dashi. Prices sit between £12 and £14 for ramen bowls, with diners given the option to add on ingredients to suit themselves from just £2 each.
ADVERTISEMENT
There are also rice bowls and ‘super bowls’ to choose from, as well as sides like kimchi, chilli crunch rice and a ‘sunshine salad’ with Japanese radish, mizuna, jalapeno and yuzu.
Having been incredibly well-received in their hometown, House of Fu is now branching out with a second site here in Manchester.
The new restaurant is tipped to open in early 2023, although an exact opening date is still yet to be confirmed.
Owners Simon Stevens and Ashley Kollakowski said of finding their ideal Manchester site at Bruntwood Works’ West Village Building: “Manchester is home to some of our favourite restaurants and shops and it’s been great getting to know the city a little more whilst looking for a home for House of Fu.There’s such an exciting food scene in Manchester and there seems to be more great openings announced every week, we’re really excited to be part of it!”
Feature image – The Hoot
News
Full list of road closures set to be in place for Manchester Day 2024
Emily Sergeant
Manchester Day is back for 2024 this weekend, and the full list of road closures set to be in place has been confirmed.
Now that schools are officially out across Greater Manchester, and the summer holidays are well and truly here, the hugely-popular Manchester Day is making a return once again this Saturday 27 July, and as always, it’s set to be “the day summer officially starts” in the city centre – with a massive celebration of “all things Mancunian” on the cards.
The theme of this year’s annual event is ‘Let The Games Begin’, and it’s inspired by the international summer of sport, just 2024 Olympics kicks off over in Paris.
The day will be packed full of free events and activities to get involved with.
Some city centre roads will be closed on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 July for Manchester Day.
These will include:
🛣️Deansgate 🛣️St Ann Street 🛣️St Mary’s Gate 🛣️Market Street 🛣️King Street
— Manchester City Council (@ManCityCouncil) July 21, 2024
But of course, in order for the all the fun to go ahead as safely as possible, and as tends to be the case for events like these, Manchester City Council says it will need to make some temporary road closures to facilitate it.
The full list of road closures has now been confirmed by the Council, and there’s some major city centre thoroughfares set to be out of action.
Here’s everything you need to know.
Manchester Day is back for 2024 to celebrate the international summer of sport / Credit: Manchester City Council
Manchester Day 2024 – Road Closures
Saturday 27 July
From 6am to 11:59pm, Manchester City Council has confirmed that the following roads will be closed:
Deansgate (Manchester Cathedral to John Dalton Street) – access will be maintained to Marks and Spencer’s car park and Number One Deansgate.
St Ann Street (Deansgate to Cross Street)
St Mary’s Gate (Exchange Street to Deansgate)
St Mary’s Street (Southbridge Street to Deansgate)
Market Street (Exchange Street to Cross Street)
Fennel Street (Corporation Street to Cathedral Street) – access will be maintained for morning deliveries only.
Cathedral Street (Fennel Street to Exchange Square) – access will be maintained for morning deliveries only.
Cateaton Street (Exchange Square to Deansgate)
Barton Square (St Ann’s Square to St Ann Street)
King Street (Cross Street to Deansgate) – no access for deliveries.
All accessible bays, bus lanes, and taxi ranks within the closed areas will also be suspended during from 6pm on Friday 26 July to 11:59pm on Saturday 27 July.
The parking suspensions set to be in place are:
Deansgate (Manchester Cathedral to John Dalton Street)
St Ann Street – including the bays outside St Ann’s Church (Deansgate to Cross Street)
St Mary’s Gate (Exchange Street to Deansgate)
St Mary’s Street (Southbridge Street to Deansgate)
Southgate (St Mary’s Street to King Street West)
Market Street (Exchange Street to Cross Street)
Fennel Street (Corporation Street to Cathedral Street) – access will be maintained for morning deliveries only.
Cathedral Street (Fennel Street to Exchange Square) – access will be maintained for morning deliveries only.
Cateaton Street (Exchange Square to Deansgate)
Victoria Street (Cathedral Approach to Deansgate)
Todd Street (Corporation Street to Station Approach)
King Street (Spring Gardens to Southgate)
South King Street (Ridgefield to Deansgate)
Barton Square (St Ann’s Square to St Ann Street)
King Street West (Deansgate to St Mary’s Parsonage)
St James’s Square (John Dalton Street to South King Street)
Cross Street (King Street to Corporation Street)
Museum Street (Peter Street to Windmill Street)
Marsden Street (Cheapside to Brown Street)
Manchester Day 2024: Let The Games Begin! will take over the city centre on Saturday 27 July from 12pm-6pm.
Check out everything you need to know ahead of the event here.
‘Complex’ Metrolink repairs to the Rochdale via Oldham line could take weeks to complete
Emily Sergeant
Work currently underway on the Rochdale via Oldham line is expected to take several weeks to complete.
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has confirmed that land movement affecting the Metrolink network near Derker has now “slowed”, and this means that detailed ground investigations and temporary repair works have been able to get underway.
In order for trams to run again on the crucial line from the city centre to the two major Greater Manchester towns, TfGM says that a small section of track has to be moved back – also known as ‘slewed’ – into its original position.
The overhead line poles also need to be repaired too, the transport operator revealed.
Rochdale line update
Land movement affecting the Metrolink network near Derker has slowed, enabling detailed ground investigations and temporary repair works to get underway.
To get trams running again, a small section of track has to be moved back into its original position… pic.twitter.com/byERjitdi1
Unfortunately though, due to the “complex” nature of these works, and despite the fact that TfGM says it’s actively looking to “accelerate” the repairs, the project is expected to take up to five weeks to complete in full.
On top of this, the detailed ground investigations will also establish whether any further work to strengthen foundations beneath the track will be needed at a later date.
TfGM has apologised for the inconvenience caused to passengers.
‘Complex’ Metrolink repairs to the Rochdale via Oldham line could take weeks to complete / Credit: TfGM
Speaking on the scale of works currently underway, and how long he expects them to continue for, Pete Sommers, who is TfGM’s Network Director for Metrolink, said: “I’m sorry for the impact this is having, and will continue to have, on people’s journeys.
“We are working to get trams running through the area again, but this remains a complex and challenging issue and it could still be a few weeks before this happens.
“We will of course keep passengers updated, and I’d encourage people to check our social media channels and website for the latest information and advice.”