The Manchester Christmas markets are often bemoaned as too expensive, but trust us – if you know where to look, there are actually quite a few places to grab a bargain.
Some people just can’t help complaining about the cost of food at the Manchester Christmas markets – and to be fair, on some things, we’re absolutely behind them.
That said, we’ve done a good rekkie of the stalls this year and discovered spots to get food and drink for £5 and under located in pretty much every corner of the city.
Keep reading to discover where to grab a bargain at this year’s Manchester Christmas markets – from the biggest (and cheapest) portion of chips to the best-value sausages, vegan food, booze and more.
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The Festive Vegan Dawg at Panc is £5 – loaded with onion, mustard and more / Image: Panc
Piccadilly Gardens
The new heart of this year’s Manchester Christmas Markets, the Winter Gardens at Piccadilly prove pretty expensive overall – but you can find some bargains if you know where to look.
Vegans can pick up a multicoloured vegan soya burger at Panc (£5) loaded with onion, pickles, ketchup and PANC sauces on brioche, or opt for either their classic or festive brat dawg – also priced at £5 and served in either a spinach or beetroot bun.
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There are also fries at Panc from £3, with sweet potato fries setting you back £4.50 and vegan dips from £1 if you’re feeling like more of a snack.
If you’re feeling something a bit more traditional, over at Clowbecks Market Stall you can grab a Lancashire cheese potato scramble (£5).
Black peas, meanwhile, are priced at £3 – a northern delicacy.
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Piccadilly is the home of this year’s Christmas Markets, the Winter Gardens / Image: The Manc Group
Piccadilly is also the home of this year’s most-hyped market food, the Korean potato dog. Whilst you can’t quite get these for under £5, the stall also selis spiral potato twists on a stick (£4.50) which are well worth a try.
Hot mulled drinks meanwhile start at £4.50, with draught beers and wine priced from £5. You can get a piste lager for that price, or a house red or white wine.
We also spied mugs of hot Vimto, if you’re after a little alcohol-free sugar boost.
Image: The Manc Group
King Street
You can get your go-to bratwurst down on King street, with a choice of cheese sausage (£5) or white sausage (£5) available – and wash it down with a £4 Kronenburg beer.
Ther best deal on King Street, though, has to be the Sicilian street food stall flogging big square sourdough pizza slices from £3, various stuffed balls of arancini from £3.90, and a coppo misto (a selection of fried specialities like arancini, panzerotto, panelle and crostini) for £5.
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An absolute bargain.
Cathedral Gardens
The first markets to open in Manchester this year due to their proximity to the ice rink, at Cathedral Gardens you can grab loaded mini pancakes and sugar waffles for under £5.
Topping choices are vast and include the likes of caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, apple, strawberry and cherry, as well as more simple classics, like lemon and sugar.
Drinks-wise, those on a budget can also grab a mug of mulled wine or spiced cider, both £5, to wash it all down.
Image: The Manc Group
The Corn Exchange
Jammy Dodger-loaded cupcakes, Nutella-topped confections, and more covered with pick and mix sweeties, chocolate Oreos, and golden pretzels can be found at Zara’s Cupcakes market stall, priced at just £3.50 each.
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There are also cake jars (£5) and old-school puddings (£4) on sale here – perfect for a mad-dash shopping pick me up.
At the Corn Exchange, you’ll also find pie stall The Crusty Pie Company selling every filling variation you can think of, starting from around £2.50. There’s pork and black pudding, Hunstmans pies, chicken and leek, wild boar and mushroom, turkey and cranberry, chicken and chestnut stuffing pies, broccoli and stilton flavours and loads more.
You’ll also find some great gourmet sausage rolls here (£4), as well as giant pigs in blankets (£3) and bags of traditional pork scratchings (£2).
Image: The Manc Group
Exchange Square
Get stuck into caramel cider (£5), classic English mulled wine (£5), and non-alcoholic ginger and honey with orange juice and cranberry (£5) to keep you warm over on the markets at Exchange Square.
You can pick up a portion of dutch fries for £5 here, but be warned – toppings like mayo and ketchup will cost you extra.
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Sausages sit at the firm £5 mark, whether you’re after a German bratwurst, cheese sausage or a spicy one, whilst loaded sugar waffles with toppings like hazelnut spread, lotus Biscoff or lemon and sugar all come in around £4.50 – and it’s the same for pancakes.
You can also pick up some tasty nibbles to take home, ranging from various nuts and stuffed olives to multiple flavours of Turkish delight, for under £5.
Image: The Manc Group
Market Street
There’s not much to report food-wise here, with the majority of stalls focusing on selling gifts and other trinkets – it is a retail district, after all.
We did spy a massive stall selling pick and mix though, so if you’re looking for a mid-shop sugar boost we’d say you can certainly get your fill here for a fiver (and relive your childhood tuck shop nostalgia).
Exchange Street
With a big focus on beer and wine, Exchange street is dominated by bars selling all the usual suspects – plus Baileys, boozy coffees, gin and tonics, and other spirit mixers.
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In terms of what you can get for a fiver, though, you’re looking at boozy coffees with brandy or rum (£4) and hot chocolate with whipped cream (£3).
Food wise, Prestwich restaurant Triple B (run by the Eat New York team) has a stall down here, and whilst the – frankly epic – bagels are well over £5, you can treat yourself to french fries with house seasoning for £3.50 or go for the ‘goofie’ fries with garlic and cheese for £5.
There’s also a stall down here selling wax-coated mini wheels of cheese for £5 a pop, and bratwursts again sit at the £5 mark – with a choice of either German or smoked sausages.
Image: The Manc Group
St Ann’s Square
Head to St Ann’s Square for square pizza slices and Peroni (£3-5), big portions of Dutch chips with two sauces (£4), and plant-based vegan cakes in flavours like blueberry lemon, espresso almond, and berry and lime from £2.50 per slice.
Wonderwurst is selling extra-large bratwursts down here for £5, in what might be the best value-for-money sausage deal at this year’s markets.
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Elsewhere, you’ll find reams of German bratwurst and salami pre-packaged to take home (£3-5); a Spanish kitchen selling tapas and nibbles like serrano ham, pinchos, manchego, Catalan fuet, and Spanish chorizo for under £5, and sweet treats like apple strudel and kaiserschmarrn (scrambled pancakes) down by the church.
In the bars, Gluhwein sits around the £5 mark for flavours like cherry, original and raspberry, and you can also bag a cider for £5 here. Specials, however, cost slightly more.
Oh, and don’t forget the Lotus Biscoff cookie pies (£4) and giant truffles disguised as Christmas puddings (£4) over at Gingerbread House Confections – they can be eaten cold or easily heated up at home in the microwave.
They are easily one of our favourite finds at this year’s markets.
Featured Image – The Manc Group
News
10 major restaurants and bars that have closed in Manchester already this year
Daisy Jackson
We are barely a quarter of the way through the year, and already it feels like Manchester is having a brutal year of restaurant and bar closures.
Already this year we’ve bid farewell to restaurants that should, in any other economic climate, stood the test of time.
We’re talking long-standing neighbourhood favourites, restaurants that have caught the eye of the prestigious Michelin Guide, local institutions, and award-winning bars.
But, with the hospitality industry battling ever-increasing costs and a stark lack of support from the Government, we might be seeing a lot more of this to come, industry insiders have warned.
We’ve rounded up 10 restaurant and bar closures that have shocked Manchester already this year.
Climat
Climat has laid their finances bare in their closing statementMichelin-recommended rooftop restaurant Climat has closed its doors with immediate effect
A real wake-up call for everyone about the dire circumstances facing hospitality landed last month, when Climat closed its doors for good. Despite a Michelin Guide recommendation, rave reviews across the board, and an enviable location with views across Manchester, the finances for the restaurant just didn’t stack up. And they were brutally honest about those finances in their closing statement. Climat’s founder listed an annual energy bill of £112k a year, a 33% increase in staff wages, and a jump in business rates from £12,000 a year to £38,000 a year among the reasons for its closure.
One of the Northern Quarter’s longest-standing restaurants announced it would be closing its doors for good back in February. In a brutally honest statement TNQ said that it had become ‘no longer viable’ to run the restaurant, listing costs like an £8k a month energy bill. This independent business said it was focused on paying the staff ‘every penny they’re owed’ and finding them all new jobs in the industry.
KAJI
Glitzy Manchester restaurant KAJI has quietly shut downKAJI
KAJI opened on Bridge Street back in 2022, a big glitzy, futuristic restaurant space with a modern Japanese menu, which quickly drew in all sorts of glamorous customers (like when Ilkay Gundogan’s wife – who had famously described Manchester’s restaurant scene as ‘horrible’ – actually liked the food here).
But despite a rebrand from MUSU to KAJI and pulling in some impressive chefs, it appears that this glamorous spot has closed for good last month, with repossession notices now in the windows.
The restaurant remained silent on its closure, but it’s no longer possible to book a table here.
Restaurant Orme
Restaurant Orme in Urmston has announced its shock closure. Credit: Instagram, @littlemcrhouse
This is a bit of a weird one because it hasn’t actually closed yet – but Restaurant Orme in Urmston has notified followers that with ‘great sadness’ they are intending to sell the business.
In a statement, the Michelin-recommended restaurant acknowledged the ‘significant economic pressures’ facing the restaurant industry, writing: “We find an increasing disparity between perceived value and the true cost of operations, rendering long-term sustainability unfeasible.”
But they also detailed that a break in their lease has allowed them to ‘thoughtfully consider’ their circumstances and make the ‘right choice for our growing families’.
You’ve still got time to visit, but I wouldn’t delay.
Topkapi
Just this month, we’ve had to bid goodbye to a bit of a local institution.
Topkapi Palace has closed its doors on Deansgate after almost five decades in the city, making it the longest-running Turkish restaurant in Manchester.
This one triggered a wave of discussion, with one local operator warning: “If we keep letting places like this go, we lose more than food, we lose culture, history, identity.”
Peaky Blinders
Peaky Blinders bar in Manchester has closed with immediate effect
This one maybe stuck around for a bit longer than anyone expected, if we’re being honest, but the enormous Peaky Blinders-inspired bar on Peter Street shut down back in March.
Peaky Blinders opened back in 2018 in the former Sakana site, with plenty of nods to the popular Netflix series – including oil paintings of the main characters on the wall.
Peaky Blinders said in a statement: “It is with an extremely heavy heart that we unfortunately have to announce the closure of Peaky Blinders Manchester with immediate effect. We are devastated it has had to end this way, but grateful for the journey.”
It was known and loved for its epic happy hour deals and its bottomless brunches, but glitzy Spinningfields bar Banyan shut down right at the start of this year.
It’s part of the Arc Inspirations group that also operates Manahatta and Box, and still operates another Banyan across town at the Corn Exchange.
Their sign in the door read: “Thank you so much for your custom over the years, we’ve loved being part of this wonderful city and have made so many friends.
“Don’t be a stranger, we’d love to continue to welcome you to our Banyan bar in the Corn Exchange. Team Banyan.”
House of Fu
One of Manchester’s coolest ramen spots quietly closed its doors in March, saying the site just ‘doesn’t click’.
House of Fu opened just two and a half years ago on Portland Street, following major success across in Leeds.
They wrote: “It’s been a wild two and a half years. To say the economic landscape has been challenging would be a bit of an understatement, but sometimes a site just doesn’t click. You live and hopefully learn.”
Project Halcyon
Project Halcyon also made the Top 50 Cocktail Bars list. Credit: The Manc GroupProject Halcyon also made the Top 50 Cocktail Bars list. Credit: The Manc Group
Project Halcyon was formerly named one of the best cocktail bars in the UK, famed for its speakeasy-style setting that drew inspiration from Prohibition-era Chicago.
But it closed for good back in February, writing: “Project Halcyon has poured its last cocktail.
“It was with sincere regret that due to unexpected challenges at the ownership level we must close our doors for the foreseeable. Though we say goodbye, the memories live on.
“Thank you to everyone who shared in our craft, our community, and our story.”
Simmons
London-born bar brand Simmons closed their Manchester site just over a year after opening their first Northern location, right in the heart of one of town’s busiest nightlife strips.
An otherwise well-established and popular chain down south, Simmons had a total of 15 different bars in central London, but things clearly didn’t quite take off as planned here in Manchester.
They wrote: “It’s never easy to say goodbye. We’re incredibly proud of what the team built here and so grateful to them, as well as everyone who joined us over the past year.
“We’ve had some unforgettable nights. We love Manchester, and we hope to be back under the right conditions.”
Renting is now cheaper than buying across much of the UK – but not in one Greater Manchester area
Emily Sergeant
New statistics have revealed that renting a property is now cheaper than buying one across much of the UK.
But in one popular Greater Manchester area, it still remains the other way around.
According to leading property platform Rightmove, which has analysed the latest price data, the average monthly rent in Great Britain is now lower than a typical new mortgage payment – with the average advertised monthly rent nationwide being £1,547 and a new mortgage on a typical home currently costing around £1,670 a month.
This means that renters, for the first time since June 2025, are coming out £123 a month better off than buyers.
Rightmove says that, to arrive at that figure, it used the current average asking price of £373,971, paired with the average two-year fixed rate of 5.35% recorded so far in April, and with calculations assuming a 20% deposit and a 30-year term.
So, what has changed then? Well, the simple answer is that mortgage rates have gone up.
Renting a home is now cheaper than buying one across much of the UK / Credit: Benjamin Elliott (via Unsplash)
The average two-year fixed rate sat at 4.24% in February, but by April, it had climbed to 5.35%, and unfortunately, that increase is enough to push a new buyer’s monthly payment above what many people are currently paying in rent.
The national picture does not tell the whole story though, however, as there are real differences from one part of the country to another, largely driven by local property prices.
As mentioned earlier, there is one popular Greater Manchester residential area where buying is still cheaper than renting overall, according to the latest data – and that is Salford.
In Salford, the average asking price of a property is £245,478 with an average monthly mortgage repayment being £1,096, whereas the average monthly rent sits at £1,323, so this means that a +£277 difference.
Rightmove property experts say Salford is helped by ‘more affordable’ property prices keeping borrowing costs ‘in check’.
“Mortgage payments have risen quite sharply in a short space of time for new buyers,” commented Rightmove property expert, Colleen Babcock.
“It will be interesting to see whether more would-be buyers turn to renting temporarily while rates remain high, particularly when monthly costs can exceed average rents and the timing of rate cuts is still unclear.”
Georgina Pellant -
2nd December 2021 
