20 places serving bottomless brunch in Manchester

The Alchemist at Salford Quays is the most recent of three Manchester venues and has an outdoor terrace overlooking the water and plenty of gold. And while base metals don’t magically become that precious commodity here, theatre is promised at The Alchemist.

Banyan in Manchester’s Spinningfields is a sleek and chic take on all day drinking and dining.

From bottomless brunches every day to late-night fizz, there’s always something happening. These hybrid anytime venues can be a difficult act to pull off but Banyan gets the balance right. It’s the sort of place where you can just as easily call in for a coffee as have big celebration meal.

The Bay Horse Tavern, to give it its full moniker, describes itself as “a modern take on a Victorian Pub” and, with its dark hues and warm woods, puttering candles and kitschy knick-knacks, and range of gins, craft beers and “other libations”, it may well straddle the eras.

Coined from the 19th-century nickname for Manchester, Cottonopolis is a quintessential Northern Quarter joint, with its wooden floors, towering beams and exposed brick in a grade II listed building. Walk through the grand entrance and you’re greeted with high tables, booth seating and atmospheric lighting, as well as a sweeping bar and an open kitchen producing billows of steam from bamboo baskets.

Describing itself as a full-time party bar and part-time pizza parlour, Crazy Pedro’s is hot on super-chilled drinks, from frozen margaritas to ice cold beers. It’s also the place to head if you haven’t settled the Hawaiian-pizza-isn’t-a-real-pizza argument.

This slick 2020 addition to the Corn Exchange is determined to do something different to other contemporary Indian restaurants. And it largely succeeds, bringing flair and originality to the well-worn territory of street food and small plates.

Named after the first recorded name for Ancoats, Elnecot (meaning ‘lonely cottages’) takes its influence from historical cooking methods with lots of fermenting, a little foraging and a few nose-to-tail dishes.

Found in the former E & A Auto Services garage depot on Swan Street, Firehouse is the sister restaurant to Ramona’s Detroit-style pizzeria. Promoting “Wild. Slow. Days.” the Firehouse is part restaurant, part bar and part performance venue where tables are available to book for dinner and “after dark drinking”. The space is open and airy with a real laid-back feel. White shutters, bleached brick and glitter balls hanging from the high ceiling complete she chilled out party ambience.

Established in 2017 in what was then the outer reaches of the Northern Quarter, Fress remains resplendent in chic black-and-white tiles with splashes of shiny gold, although the culinary focus has shifted from fancy à la carte evenings to fun all day.

If you like steak and you like wine, then you’d best start saving – and start starving – for a trip to Gaucho, where clues to the delights within include a menu listing of Chateaubriand “for gluttony or sharing” and a wine list that stretches to 30 pages cover to cover. 

This upmarket Spanish restaurant, tucked away just off St Ann’s Square, is the definition of a hidden gem.

Let’s get this party started… but not without lining your stomach first, fun fans. With tapas-style dishes for sharing as well as more substantial sit-down dinners, along with signature cocktails “designed to inspire”, Ménagerie is an immersive dining and drinking experience.

Another neighbourhood favourite in the now achingly hip Cutting Room Square. NAM’s light and airy space with its natural parquet floors and glossy white brick bar echoes the light and healthy Vietnamese cuisine on the menu.

The Northern Quarter has never been short of Instagrammable spots with its litany of graffitied walls and shop fronts but bar and cafe, On the Hush, has taken the style inside its doors, bringing a mix of pretty floral drapery and inner-city spray-painted style to its interior.

Whatever level of hunger you’re anticipating, you’ll not have a rumbling tum for long next time you head on up to the Northern Quarter, with the host of all-day eating options on offer at The Pen & Pencil ranging from light bites to proper sit-down dinners.

Predominantly a pizzeria, Ramona incorporates a bakery, margarita bar, coffee counter, stage and Firehouse restaurant, and is found in the rollershuttered ex-E & A Auto Services garage depot on Swan Street, complete with a tree-lined forecourt, now the campfire beer garden.

Bringing new life to Hale village is relaxed restaurant and bar Riva, which cleverly scoops up trade from morning till night with it’s catch-all menu of brunches, lunches, dinners and cocktails.

Based in the Northern Quarter, this friendly neighbourhood bistro and bar is the place to avanti if it’s a taste of traditional Sicily you fancy – from authentic street food snacks through big plates of pasta to desserts and holiday memory gelato, eat in or take away.

WowYauChow is a ‘British Chinese’ from accountant turned restaurateur Henry Yau which has become a firm favourite in Alty. The food is east meets west: Chinese classics with a contemporary British slant, served as small plates to encourage sharing, tasting and hopefully less waste.