OPENING TIME
MANCHESTER’S FOOD AND DRINK SCENE DOESN’T STAND STILL FOR LONG... HERE ARE SOME NEW SPOTS TO TRY
THERE’S been a whole host of new restaurants opening in the city over the past month or so, from smart sushi spots to indulgent fried chicken joints. And with that, these are the ones you just have to try...
10 Tib Lane
Though it opened its doors almost exactly a year ago, the fantastic 10 Tib Lane has just revamped its entire menu, and it’s all - seriously, all of it - dazzlingly good. And it was pretty good before. There are mussels with musky French cider and crisp, salty french fries, sirloin steak with a generous blob of zhug - the Levantine sauce with coriander, chillies and garlic - triplefried patatas bravas, lamb and broad beans and a perfect spiced chicken thigh grilled and served with a pineapple salsa and charred corn. The Sunday roasts are among the very best in the city, and the Happy Hour, with discount cocktails and oysters at the bar for a quid a pop, just makes us want to go every night of the week.
Kitten
Fire, sushi and cocktails. Three words that define smart new Japanese ‘izakaya’ restaurant Kitten, on Deansgate Square beneath the skyline-dominating towers. An izakaya is generally an informal after work type bar, serving drinks and snacks, but with its thoughtful, beautiful design, this place is a bit more elevated than that. From mackerel tartare to expertly crafted ngiri which are pretty as a picture and seared wagyu on squid ink sushi rice, Kitten is making quite the entrance.
Bird of Prey
US-style fried chicken and waffles are the MO for this new gaff on the Circle Square development the old site of the BBC on Oxford Road. Load up on double-dredged chicken strips, buffalo (or for the foolish, ‘insanity’) wings, and oozing fried sandwiches, washed down with shakes and classic fountain sodas. OK, you’re not going to get many of your five-a-day here, but there’s a time and place for that sort of thing.
Pollen
Anyone who queued up for bread and pastries in the wind and rain back when Pollen was serving up out of its archway underneath the tracks of Piccadilly station will feel a huge sense of pride to see how far it’s come. Now with a second location at Kampus, the new patisserie and restaurant is the next stage in the journey, a beautifully designed spot with fantastically good food. The new set egg buns are a thing of beauty, and the croissants, as ever, are individual works of art.
Neon Tiger
A corner of Manhattan on Bridge Street, this bar and restaurant where everybody will (hopefully) know your name is set to become a New York-style neighbourhood hang-out - informal and relaxed, but also with some spectacular snack food on offer. Thai BBQ is the angle, with flames and grill marks on everything coming from the tiny backroom kitchen in this winding tardis of a location. Great cocktails, cold beers and things on sticks. Not sure what else there is?
Salvi’s Deansgate Square
Now properly open, after a month or so in ‘soft launch’ mode, Salvi’s owner Maurizio Cecce has a bit of everything at the new place on Deansgate Square - there’s a deli, a bar, an indoors-outdoors terrace and, of course, a very nice restaurant, festooned with plants and fitted with stylish banquettes. It’s the type of place anyone would want at the bottom of their skyscraper.
Rudy’s Chorlton
OK, perhaps if you’ve seen one Rudy’s you’ve seen them all, but if you’re passing either by or near Chorlton, their latest outpost is very much worth stopping by. On the site of the old Lloyds TSB, the now-nationwide chain will be baking the best pizza in the locale, along with serving up some very decent cocktails and aperitifs, all combined with the usual casual Rudy’s atmos.
Dokes Prestwich
From the people behind Elnecot in Ancoats, Dokes has expanded from a spot in the Society foodhall, hidden down the steps by Bridgewater Hall, to a new site in Prestwich, priding itself on using British, home-grown - or cured ingredients, from the flour to the pepperoni, from the famous Trealy Farm on its pizza.