The Hot 50: the most popular Manchester restaurants

Skof is the acclaimed Manchester restaurant from chef Tom Barnes (formerly of L’Enclume). Having secured a Michelin star in 2025 and retained it for 2026, Skof is celebrated for its precise Modern British menus, earning ‘Restaurant of the Year’ honours for its sophisticated yet accessible dining experience.

Higher Ground, the permanent restaurant from the team behind Flawd, opened its doors in February 2023. Taking up residence in Bruntwood’s Faulkner House on Faulkner Street, it offers a chilled bistro experience with a focus on championing the finest North West produce.

There is quite some experience behind owners Julian Pizer and Max Yorke at Another Hand, including time spent at Cottonopolis, The Edinburgh Castle and Hispi. In this intimate restaurant on Deansgate Mews, they put it to excellent use on an ever-changing, seasonal menu that takes advantage of some of the best suppliers in the region.

The Black Friar stood empty and unloved for almost 20 years before reopening in summer 2021 after a substantial renovation project. Now a modern British restaurant and a traditional pub, it has established a reputation for hearty, thoughtful, home-made dishes that keep people coming back.

Louis is the next big thing from Adam and Drew Jones, the brothers behind Tattu and Fenix but it’s something very different to both. Modelled on a glamorous New York of yesteryear, Louis is the sort of place you expect to see Frank Sinatra propping up the bar with a martini in hand.

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. 

The Sparrows serves up a variety of fresh, handmade continental pasta and Central and Eastern European dumplings in an unexpectedly airy space underneath a railway archway in Red Bank.

10 Tib Lane was one of the brave new openings of summer 2021; a time when securing staff and supplies, never mind diners, was an ongoing challenge for everyone. If you can launch a new restaurant in that environment, you must be doing something very right – so it’s no surprise that years later, it’s still going strong.

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.

San Carlo is Manchester’s most famous and, some say, best Italian restaurant. Run by the Distefano family, it’s said to have one of the largest turnovers in the UK. It’s also the place to be papped and you’ll sometimes see a bank of photographers outside to prove the point.

Fenix is a simple, rustic Greek restaurant as re-imagined by World of Interiors. The palette of creams and neutral stones is minimalist and sophisticated. It’s rather pared back considering Fenix is from the team behind Tattu but still a sense of opulence prevails.

“Yet more small plates in Ancoats?” we hear you cry. Well yes, but trust us, Erst is worth your attention. This is a place for serious foodies so don’t come looking for mac n cheese balls. Plenty of other places can satisfy that filthy craving for you.

El Gato Negro is an upmarket Manc-Spanish fusion restaurant that really, really works. Originally from Yorkshire, chef Simon Shaw has created an indulgent, three-storey church to his passion for the best in Spanish food and wine.

The River Restaurant at The Lowry Hotel is Manchester’s classic fine dining restaurant. Huge names that have run the kitchen include Marco Pierre White, while diners have included Jose Mourinho and Kylie.

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.

Diecast is a party venue and ‘creative neighbourhood’ five-minutes’ walk from Manchester Piccadilly station.

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. 

Kallos Cafe & Wine Bar has lit up Salford’s dining scene like a thunderbolt from Zeus himself since it opened in March 2025. It already has a host of loyal locals who love both its easy-going Mediterranean brunches and superb coffee as well as its modern Greek meze dining and well-chosen wines.

Eagerly awaited fine-dining restaurant Maya opened with local chef Gabe Lea at the helm but by the end of 2024, he’d done a switcheroo with Sean Moffat over at Edinburgh Castle.

Located 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 to big plates of pasta to desserts and holiday memory gelato, eat in or take away.

Owned and managed by Giuseppe Lombardo from Naples, Vesuvio brings the flavours, techniques and passion of Southern Italian cooking to Worsley in a big way.

The restaurant has built a reputation for offering some of the most varied and true-to-its-roots Neapolitan food to be found in Greater Manchester. Fans of Cicchetti Manchester might recognise Giuseppe’s cooking – he was head chef there before he left to open this place.

Found in the former E & A Auto Services garage depot on Swan Street, Firehouse is the sister restaurant to Ramona’s Detroit-style pizzeria. It’s 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 the chilled out party ambience.

The Mekong Cat is a teeny restaurant in Stockport serving food from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. It’s the second opening from Y Sok who is also behind the hugely popular Kambuja in Marple.

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.

Chotto Matte brings more high-rise, high-glam energy to Manchester. With stunning city views and swish Nikkei cuisine, it’s a place to see and be seen with instagrammable small plates bedecked with tiny flowers and chic cocktails.

Ornella’s Kitchen is owned and operated by Ornella Cancila, who was born in Castel Di Tusa on Sicily’s north coast and later moved to Bologna at the age of 19. With her extensive experience and deep roots in traditional Italian cooking, Ornella has created a menu that truly captures the essence of Italian cuisine.

Winsome is a relatively new restaurant in Manchester but it already feels like an established part of the city’s dining scene. Perhaps that’s down to its timeless classic cooking or perhaps the pedigree of the team behind it. 

On the Hush is a popular Northern Quarter cafe bar, winning awards for its bottomless brunch. Loyal customers and visitors to Manchester love its colourful style, imaginative cocktails and casual all-day food offering.

Tender is an elegant restaurant in Manchester’s Stock Exchange Hotel. The food lives up to the grandeur. Headed by Chef Niall Keating, it wouldn’t be a surprise if his cooking here earned him some more of those Michelin stars. He’s on his way to becoming a culinary constellation.

As the first San Carlo Cicchetti, the Manchester restaurant had a lot to prove on opening in 2011. Over a decade and several awards later, it’s still going strong.

Alfredo’s Social is a buzzy bar and restaurant in the parade of independents on Little Underbank in Stockport town centre. It’s a charming location and Alfredo’s Social is the most charming of them all, housed in the historic Grade II listed Winter’s building.

Michelin-starred restaurant Mana is the brainchild of chef patron Simon Martin who mastered his trade at the renowned Noma in Copenhagen. At Mana, Martin has succeeded in carving his own path – one which confuses and delights people in equal measure.

Suki Suki Street Food & Bar is a Pan-Asian street food bar located on Deansgate under the arches of the Great Northern Warehouse.

Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay is the first restaurant that the famed TV chef has decided to open in the city of Manchester, despite already having opened Bread Street Kitchen & Bar in Liverpool last year. 

Baan Phad Thai is a family-run restaurant which specialises in showcasing the cuisine of the Isaan region of North-East Thailand. The dishes are rustic and homely, giving an honest, authentic flavour of South East Asia.

Manchester’s highest restaurant, bar and terrace 20 Stories was the opening of 2018 and still maintains its status as one of the city’s most popular place to eat, drink, be snapped and be seen.

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.

With its Tudor-style facade and picturesque setting overlooking Chorlton Green, the Horse & Jockey has always had the potential to be one of Manchester’s most notable pubs. In 2025 (a mere 200 years since it first opened) it finally secured its place on that list.

Lincoln Square’s traditional Cantonese restaurant Wing’s has been an institution in the city centre since 2004, when it first found fame through the patronage of Premier League footballers.

It takes more than famous names to keep a restaurant thriving though – and it’s testament to the consistency and quality of the upmarket British-Cantonese food that Wing’s is still going strong 20 years later.

Thai Soul Cuisine is Confidential Guides’ top under-the-radar recommendation when it comes to Thai food. Discover why it’s worth heading out of town for your next brisket massaman curry.

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.

Caravan Manchester is a 2024 opening from a small London chain started by three New Zealanders who settled in the UK a decade ago. They began as a coffee roastery, before expanding into restaurants, and chose Manchester’s new St John’s district for their first venue outside London.

Dishoom is a legend in its own lunchtime and that’s exactly how it likes things. It’s not enough to serve up top-notch Indian dishes in grand surroundings; there’s a story behind the menu too. But when the food is this good it doesn’t need to hide behind tall tales.

Tucked away on Little David Street, surrounded by the trendy setting of new city living neighbourhood KAMPUS, is Red Light; an upmarket LGBTQ+ cocktail bar serving expertly blended drinks.

Bread, buns and other bakes are the name of the food game at Where The Light Gets In spin-off Yellowhammer – but equally important is what else is being blasted to a high heat, and it’s not what you’d expect; if you fancy some ceramics with your sourdough, you’re in the right place.

Named after the owner’s kids, Leo and Roobs is a neighbourhood cafe from the folks behind The Black Friar. It’s all about fresh, healthy, and comforting food, whipped up from scratch by head chef Morgan Lane (formerly with Pot Kettle Black).

Sexy Fish is no mere minnow in the UK dining scene. It’s brought to you by Caprice Holdings, the group behind some of London’s most glam dining spots. Think of it as more of a humongous mermaid – beautiful and ever so slightly improbable.

Lucky Ramen & Sushi restaurant is known for its late-night dining offering of fresh bowls of stewed ramen that are carefully prepared by a head chef with over 15 years of experience.

Exhibition is one of Manchester’s cluster of exciting multi-kitchen concepts (read: food halls) that just seem to be multiplying. In the former home of the Natural History Museum, the location makes it perfect for visitors to Manchester Central, the Radisson Blu and the Midland Hotel.

The first Hawksmoor steakhouse outside of London is a confident affair. Well sourced steak and attention to detail have created a place like no other.