Veganuary at The Corn Exchange

Banyan in Manchester’s Corn Exchange has something for everyone and one of the best outdoor drinking and dining spots in the city.

If it’s all-day eating you’re after, all-day eating you’ll get at Cosy Club Manchester, and as you study the menu under the watchful eye of a selection of taxidermy and portrait paintings, you’ll quickly notice that there really is something for everyone here.

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.

Döner Haus brings Berlin Kebabs (or kebaps as they’re known) to the Corn Exchange. The menu is supplemented with platters, schnitzel and bratwurst dishes, plus salads if you must.

There’s a bit of a 70s motorway services vibe going on at Döner Haus, all tan leather banquette seating and lots of brown. It looks good nevertheless and the food looks great, or as great as doner meat, flatbread and their various accoutrements ever can look.

Purveyor of healthy and often vegan Indian street food and home cooking, former barrister Nisha Katona’s Corn Exchange Mowgli was the second after launching on Liverpool’s Bold Street in October 2014, so this is Manchester’s original branch and technically pre-chain.

The first Pizza Express opened in London in 1965, and it has continued to bring consistent, family-friendly, quality pizza to the masses ever since. The Corn Exchange branch is not the only one in Manchester, but perhaps one of the prettiest.

As you might expect from the name, Vietnam’s national dish pho (pronounced “fuh”) is at the heart of the menu here. Just shy of 20 versions of the nutritious and aromatic noodle soup are cooked fresh daily in the Corn Exchange kitchen.

From the same team behind Piccolino, Riva Blu Manchester aims to bring a little bit of La Dolce Vita to The Corn Exchange. With a sleek cocktail bar, open kitchen, and alfresco terrace, it’s styled on the high-society glamour of the 1960s, and “modern Italian” cuisine is the name of the game.

Salvi’s – or Salvi’s Mozzarella Bar & Restaurant, to give it its full name – claims to be Manchester’s first independent Neapolitan restaurant and deli, and it is certainly somewhere to head if traditional, authentic Italian cuisine is on your mind.

Sixes Social Cricket opened in the Corn Exchange in August 2021, bringing a different kind of sporting experience to Manchester City Centre. Already a popular concept down south, Manchester might not be quite as bowled over with Cricket as it is with football, but don’t let that stop you.

The second of their city centre venues, Tampopo Manchester Corn Exchange has the same wok-fresh East Asian menu as its older sister on Albert Square, but with a bigger, more style-led setting. Think statement lighting and tiles, splashes of bright colour, and low-lit individual tables instead of the shared bench seating of the original.

One of two The Real Greek restaurants in Manchester (the other is at the Trafford Centre), The Corn Exchange venue brings Greek and Mediterranean cuisine to the city centre – from the same company that brought Franco Manca pizzas to the north.

Everything at Vapiano is ordered via a QR code once you’re at your table, which may be rather au fait nowadays, but it was one of the first places to adopt this menu method early on. The food on offer here is of an Italian persuasion, with antipasti, fresh pasta and handmade sourdough pizza the stars of the show.

In one of the prime locations on the storefront of Manchester’s Corn Exchange, Zizzi is pulling pizza bases and preening its pasta all in the name of bringing people together. Italian food with a few little differences is the Zizzi way. Think carbonara with spicy chorizo crumb or ‘nduja sausage and wild boar linguine.