New on Confidential Guides: 40 North West restaurants and bars to have on your radar

Lock 84 is the all-day restaurant and bar inside four-star hotel The Reach, which opened on Ducie Street in summer 2024. With its preference for locally-sourced ingredients and chic, characterful design, it feels more Northern Quarter independent than international hotel chain. In reality it sits somewhere between the two.

Loom & Ladle Bistro is the restaurant in Manchester Marriott Hotel Piccadilly – and a destination in its own right.

Rain Bar is a pub from JW Lees in an old umbrella factory. It’s a beautiful building and looks even better now after its recent refurb. The jewel in the crown though, or the spoke in its brolly, is a large outdoor area to the rear overlooking the Bridgewater Canal.

This Italian sandwich shop opened on Tib Street in early 2025 after making a name for itself at Kargo MKT on Salford Quays. Ad Maiora, a Latin phrase which translates as ‘towards greater things’ captures both the jaw-stretching size and the superlative fillings of their schiacciata sandwiches.

Asmara Bella is a friendly, female-owned restaurant specialising in Eritrean and Ethiopian cuisine. There aren’t many places serving habesha food in Manchester and this is the only one in the Northern Quarter, so if you have an urge for injera, this is the place to come.

Surprisingly inviting for a basement cafe-bar, Baby E Coffee & Deli is a tucked-away spot for brekkie, brunch or lunch in the Temple Building on Dale Street. In the evenings it turns into a private hire venue and is just the right size for birthday celebrations, baby showers, and the like.

Bada Bing began life as a pandemic era pop-up before owners Sam and Josh took a few years off. They were content to let it become a happy memory but random people in bars kept telling them bring Bada Bing back. So in autumn 2024 they did, opening this new place on Oldham Street.

Bar Etna is regularly voted as the best place to eat in Altrincham. Locals love its authentic Sicilian dishes and friendly, welcoming atmosphere but with food this good, they can’t expect to keep it to themselves.

Bohemian Arts Club is a stylish speakeasy cocktail bar on Stockport’s Underbank, ran by Katie Ogden and Tom Ogden, the lead singer in Blossoms.

Cantaloupe is a simple yet brilliant Modern European bistro. The food is unfussy but with a team who have worked at Where The Light Gets In, Climat, The Creameries and The French, it’s no surprise that it’s also precise, achieving the almost unbelievable with humble and restrained ingredients.

The Cracked Actor is a small blues bar on Stockport’s Underbanks. It looks like a little old boozer but inside it has a pretty raucous atmosphere, live music and a great selection of craft ales.

Situated next door to thatched pub The White Bear, Cranford Cafe & Sandwich Bar is a long-serving local favourite for takeaway sandwiches and cakes and eat-in cafe fare.

Damò is an Italian restaurant with a reputation for fresh pasta. Local food lovers revere its lasagne – it could be one of the best in the North West, never mind Altrincham.

Turkish barbecue restaurant Elif is part of the ST Hospitality group, which also owns Bistro Franc on Hanover Street. And much like the French restaurant, it doesn’t overcomplicate things. Chances are you’ve arrived at Elif in the hopes of eating an array of near-Eastern dishes; hot and cold mezes, skewered, flame-cooked kebabs, and salads, which is exactly what you’re getting.

Fluffy Fluffy Liverpool is part of a dessert café chain that began life in Toronto, Canada before expanding into the UK. It’s best known for its jiggly and airy soufflé pancakes – created by whipping egg whites into soft peaks and cooking them very slowly at a low temperature.

The Ivy is an exuberant over-the-top place that’s perfect for glamming up and going out. As such, it couldn’t have found a better city to call home than Liverpool.

Leopard Pie is a lockdown baby. The pizza, with its slow-fermented 3-day dough, was perfected when everyone else was messing around with banana bread and getting to grips with Zoom calls. Now they’re a bricks-and-mortar business in Worsley.

With just 32 covers and a four-day week, Li-ly by Aiden Byrne is a smaller operation than the Michelin starred restaurants this acclaimed chef has headed up in the past, but it’s no less ambitious. It’s just that now his ambitions have changed.

Italian restaurant, bar and deli Lina Stores opened its first Manchester venue in the same year it celebrated its 80th birthday. The original was a shop in Soho known for its Italian produce. Eight decades later, there are nine Lina Stores in London plus three in Japan, and as of spring 2025, one in Manchester. Better late than never, guys.

Lost and Found, an elegant restaurant and bar in the old town hall in Knutsford has mastered the art of looking gorgeous whatever time of day you visit. In the mornings sunlight floods through the huge arched windows and sets off the burnished gold tables and bar. While in the evening the blue velvet sofas, statement lighting and and dark wood give a glamour that helps build the buzzy atmosphere it’s known for.

Man Tsuen Ho’s may be a relative newcomer to Liverpool’s Chinatown but you wouldn’t know. Everything about it looks like it has been on the spot since 1988 and not changed a jot.

Sometimes you don’t want glamour and modern fusion though. You want exactly what made you fall in love with Chinese food all those years ago. It’s prawn cracker as a madeleine moment.

The Martlet Kitchen is a very welcome addition to Rochdale’s food scene. The restaurant in the refurbished town hall serves robust British food in an impressively grand setting.

Mother Marys is an Irish bar with a big focus on live music. There are two stages plus an impressive new sound system – it’s as much a gig venue as it is a bar.

Pho You is a modern Pan-Asian restaurant specialising in hearty pho and other traditional family-style dishes. It feels really authentic, serving food you won’t find at big-chain Asian restaurants. Fish balls aren’t yet a universal delicacy.

You’ll find Pip on the ground floor of Treehouse Hotel Manchester, decked out in the same tastefully playful theme as the rest of the building. Furniture is mismatched and the restaurant is laid out in a spacious manner whilst still giving off a cosy, homely vibe. 

Piqniq is bound to be bread and shoulders ahead of other sandwich purveyors – it’s the newest venture from La Chouquette after all. So if the freshest baguettes and artisan filled croissants are your thing, you’d best head to Didsbury pronto. There’s no chance of a late lunch though; this place is often pretty much sold out by 1pm.

Heading into Pomegranate, an independent cafe on Old Hall Street, you’re met with bright neon signs, leafy wallpaper and reams of foliage surrounding a wooden clad juice bar. Inside you’ll find nutritious dishes and super-powered drinks that don’t compromise on flavour in the name of being healthy. 

Porta Didsbury is the fourth instalment in Ben and Joe Wright’s North West micro-empire of tapas bars. The new restaurant is in Simon Rimmer’s old Greens restaurant and although the place is unrecognisable the name must have an influence because the walls are a cosy dark olive green. There’s more meat though; pork belly and butter bean is a standout special.

The Italian couple who run Portobello in Hadfield know how to make an impression on a local community. Their restaurant Osteria Sapori Di Casa was much loved in Whalley Bridge for over a decade – and much lamented when it closed in early 2025 because they wanted a better work-life balance.

Ramen Shop is the new name for Tokyo Ramen but little has changed. Spartan and stripped back is the only description for this place – and that’s both the menu and the restaurant itself. With barely enough space to swing a noodle, the place only accommodates 20 walk-ins. It’s not a sociable place, more a utilitarian slurping station.

A trip to Knutsford on a sunny day isn’t complete without stopping by at The Real Fruit Creamery for a generous scoop of their handmade gelato. The good stuff is freshly made in small batches on site using real fruits, locally sourced whenever possible. Creamy, rich and allegedly lower in calories than normal ice cream (can this be true?) it’s a dessert-lovers dream.

Already buzzing Renae is the latest addition to Thomas Street in the Northern Quarter. Centred around a genuine love for music, it exclusively plays records from their curated vinyl collection which is displayed behind the bar.

In a little hamlet of cottages just outside Knutsford you’ll find The Roebuck Inn, an 18th-century pub that looks like it fell out of the pages of Country Living magazine. If you’re searching for for rustic, cosy dining with food that’s a level above, it won’t disappoint. 

The Salmon of Knowledge is an Irish bar in Manchester’s Northern Quarter providing drinker’s wisdom at the bottom of a glass of stout. It’s not just about Guinness, even though it’s as popular as black gold at the moment. If you love your stouts, there’s a range of Irish brewers represented on the bar, from the better known Murphy’s to the less-so (at least to English palates) Franciscan Well.

Sampa seems an unlikely concept – a Brazilian/Modern British chef’s table fusion restaurant. Even more unlikely, it’s found in the basement of Calcio!, a sports bar in the Northern Quarter. Chef Caroline Martins is the driving force that makes everything come together perfectly.

Side Street is another one of those all-day creative spaces that segue (relatively) seamlessly between morning coffee and late-night events. Whether you’re tapping on your laptop or tapping your toes at a musical happening. Side Street has the right atmosphere for both.

Stow on Bridge Street specialises in live fire cooking, cocktails and wine. It feels like the sophisticated cousin of the owner’s longstanding Northern Quarter bar Trof. Think cool but also cosy and intimate with two distinct spaces; the chic monochrome cocktail bar, and the earthier, softer restaurant with an open kitchen dominated by live flame grills. 

Almost Famous may be no more, but after a crowd-funding operation Super Awesome Deluxe is its new burger iteration, riding the smash burger trend.

The Trading Route, named for its location near the River Irwell and its ties to Manchester’s industrial heritage, is a collaboration between Manchester Union Brewery, Trof NQ, and the Wandering Palate in Monton. If you know any of that bunch, you know you’re in for a treat.

Nestled in the heart of Cheshire estate Carden Park, sits a triple AA rosette restaurant: The Vines. Elegantly laid out with neatly arranged furniture, dazzling white napery and a sleek 70s-style mahogany wine bar in the far corner of the room, the restaurant feels at once cohesive and welcoming with an air of timeless tradition.