The Hot 50: the most popular Manchester restaurants

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.

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. 

“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.

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.

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.

Let’s think of two really on-trend, cool countries and combine them into one hit restaurant concept. That isn’t how Sticks’n’Sushi actually came about, but its Japanese food-meets-Danish design theme does feel very much like it should be a Taschen coffee table book, if it’s not already.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Longstanding Thomas Street bar Trof has got ‘top Manchester night out’ written all over its labyrinthine three storeys. But it’s just as well known for its morning-after comfort feeds as its cocktails. The Sunday Roast has a reputation for greatness, and the weekend brunch menu is popular. Go for the full English breakfast or the confit duck hash with sriracha and honey glaze.

Proper traditional-style pubs with good fodder; the countryside (and even the suburbs) is littered with them, so why are they so hard to come by in the city centre? In fact, I reckon I could count them all on one hand. So you could imagine my delight when I found out the team behind The Crown & Kettle and The Rat & Pigeon (two bloody good pubs, if you ask me) were opening a third site slap bang in the middle of the Northern Quarter.

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.

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.

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.

Much-hyped Manchester opening from the Big Mamma Group, Circolo Popolare is Italian dining designed for the Instagram grid. Its big, extravagant dishes look great and if you order wisely, taste pretty good too.

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.

Lennox comes from the team behind Six by Nico, and has taken over its Spring Gardens location. Less gimmicky than its predecessor, Lennox offers popular flavours and recognisable dishes. The focus is on refinement and letting the plate breathe rather than forcing it into an intergalactic-themed feast or a Sherlock Holmes-inspired culinary adventure.

Bar Shrimp is the third opening from the Higher Ground and Flawd team, a seafood bar with an emphasis on DJ nights, cocktails, and a menu designed for grazing rather than full-on dining. With moody lighting, a hip clientele, and a self-stated goal to create an ‘immersive sonic identity’, it’s a fashion-forward kind of place, and priced accordingly.  

With no menu and esoteric wines, Where the Light Gets In doesn’t adhere to the typical fine-dining formula. But it’s been a success for Stockport, thanks to chef-patron Sam Buckley’s belief in doing things his own way.

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.

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.

Bruncho is a relaxed brunch spot on Deansgate focusing on Turkish specialities. The food is healthy and satisfying with a feeling of sunshine thanks to the Mediterranean diet. Of course, if various healthy iterations of poached eggs just don’t do it for you, then stamp on your fitbit and order pistachio baklava French toast instead.

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

Namaste Nepal on West Didsbury’s Burton Road is a relaxed Nepalese spot that is the definition of a much-loved neighbourhood restaurant.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Food hall meets music festival is how we’d describe Freight Island to anyone confused about what they’ll find at this regenerated rail depot beyond Piccadilly Station. 

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.

Mollie’s Diner is the third instalment from the hip motel brand and the first in the North. Think Twin Peaks meets mid-century steakhouse where red vinyl booth seating is levelled up a notch with cushioned ox-blood leather. Diner tropes are played up to with bacon, egg and maple syrup waffles, double cheeseburgers and all-American apple pie.

The Abbey – formerly The Old Abbey Taphouse – is back open in Hulme. And it’s in the capable hands of the team behind Yes and Now Wave, making it a top spot for live music as well as pint and a pie.

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.

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.

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

With basketball hire and live sports in the summer and ice skating in the winter, the only question we have about Courts Club is, what goes on in between?

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.

Bundobust is a huge beer hall serving craft ales in the heart of Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens. It also happened to win Restaurant of the Year at the 2017 Manchester Food and Drink Festival awards, thanks to its stellar menu of Indian small plates.

Handcrafted sushi and charcoal grills are on the food menu in this sleek Deansgate Square set-up, complete with its own ceiling-bothering tree, while your drinks needs are catered for with a contemporary and creative cocktail list featuring Japanese infusions.

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.

Beech Road’s Bar San Juan is almost always bursting at the seams with customers. This unassuming little tapas bar is one of those hidden gems of almost cult-like status and the closest thing to a real Spanish bar anywhere in the North West.

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.