15 cool new hotel, restaurant and bar listings in Manchester

With its neutral hues and natural foliage, stripped-back bricks and leather booths, The Alan is a tranquil space in which to enjoy breakfast, lunch or dinner – the open-plan kitchen serves all day from first thing till late evening – or indeed coffee and cocktails in the bar.

From the team that brought you 3 Hands Deli, Another Hand opened in February 2022 in the unit just next door. With a sleek new look, the casual dining restaurant brings brunch, lunch and a relaxed dining experience to Deansgate Mews, Manchester’s newest hotspot.

Open in Liverpool since 2010, BSC is something of an institution over there and the place to go if you’re in need of caffeine sustenance. Breakfast, brunch and all things cheap and lunch-like are also on the menu, while the art-adorned walls make it a great place to chill out.

BOX is all about big-screen sports, booze (including two-for-one cocktails) and blokes singing – “bandeoke” is a thing and it exists here – live music Thursday to Saturday, shuffleboard and tournament-themed food (Six Nations served up fiery dragon fries and a burger de Paris).

Serving a unique Caribbean-Colombian combo, Cafe Sanjuan is the creation of Luis Felipe Sanjuan, who hails from Barranquilla, a bustling seaport on the Caribbean coast of Colombia – his mum Viviana helps in the kitchen to keep it real; his dad, also Luis Felipe, does deliveries.

South Bramhall’s Crown & Conspirator is a Cheshire Pub Co gaff, so you’re promised a warm welcome, an honest pint, a fine glass of wine or a classic cocktail, and food that’s “crafted and cooked by our knowledgable, local chefs who take pride in knowing local palates”.

The Fountain House is the newest lodger of the Gothic-arched Memorial Hall sitting one corner of Albert Square, and its modern old-fashioned surrounds and plentiful portions of proper pub grub – mostly British but with a little European inspiration – do the imposing building proud.

Hutch up near one of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the new Second Floor Deli Bar and take in the views over the adjacent Cathedral and Medieval Quarter while taking a weight off those shopped-out feet and tucking in to some hand-selected nibbles and a well-earned glass or two of fizz.

There’s three floors of street food fun at Hello Oriental. A Chinese bakery and cafe is joined by Vietnamese restaurant Rice Paper Pho, an Asian-inspired Downtown Oriental food hall, and a supermarket stocking everything from frozen dim sum to sake.

This cha chaan teng-style “tea restaurant” is the Hong Kong equivalent of a greasy spoon and serves the region’s typical Canto-European crossover cuisine, the result of its colonial history, fusing British and southern Chinese elements in a real east-meets-west repertoire of dishes.

“Flames and flora” are promised by South Manchester’s South American-inspired grilled meat joint Jardim – Portuguese for “garden – and we’d also add in “fancy”, as Fazenda and Tast co-owner Robert Melman is the name on the Altrincham churrasco’s chequebook.

It’s got neon, it’s got pastels, it’s got faux foliage, it’s got innovative cocktails and it’s got Pan Asian cuisine with a definite lean Vietnam-wards. It calls itself “authentically modern”, but faithful to the Vietnamese way of life, it recommends ordering food for the table, tapas style.

“Steins, brines, and good times” – that’s how the saying goes at American-inspired Salt Dog Slims, new over from Liverpool, although tbh it’s probably more of the former and mostly the latter, but then who wants to get in the way of a fine rhyme as we all just try and rub along in this world?

Tipples of Manchester is a gin specialist store, with 100 bottles and counting – but, as they say themselves, “you can’t have a spirits shop with only gin now can you?”, so the floor-to-ceiling shelves are also creaking under the weight of 700 spirits, liqueurs, bitters, syrups and more.