A rare thing: top 10 steak restaurants in Manchester

Based in the unit of Stanley Square that was once home to Sale Food Hall, Canteena Bar & Grill is serving up hearty Modern British meals in a food hall-style setting.

Dakota Grill Manchester is the work of former Malmaison owner, Ken McCollough and it is as dark-hued and handsome as the successful boutique hotel chain. It’s an inviting place with flickering candlelight, very retro-sexy – sure to be the setting for many a first date.

The focus at Dakota is on steaks which are very good – all grass-fed, 28 day-aged, hand-cut Aberdeenshire beef cooked over hot coals.

Open since the end of 2018, Etçi Mehmet’s carefully prepared, predominantly meat dishes are flame grilled or oven roasted for the best flavour, with steaks a speciality and carved table side by your server. 

Fazenda loosely translates from Portuguese into “big farm”, but think more luxe surroundings than your average barn: dark corners and plenty of wood, yes, but lots of coppery golds, muted brown leather and cowhide upholstery, and cream church candles.

For many people, Argentinian restaurant Gaucho Manchester is the destination in the city for very good steak paired with very good wine. Housed in a converted Methodist church on Deansgate, with an open kitchen, and the original church organ still in-situ, it’s also known as one of Manchester’s best-looking spaces for dining.

The first Hawksmoor steakhouse outside of London opened on Deansgate in 2015 and is a confident affair. Well sourced steak and attention to detail have created a place like no other.

Mackie Mayor is a cosmopolitan food hall located in an 1858 Grade II listed market building on the edge of Manchester’s Northern Quarter.

Thomas Studd and his wife Sarah established their Chop House in booming Cottonopolis in 1867, and it’s still going strong, serving up top-end pub grub in the famous tiled back room restaurant along with flagons and snifters in the bar and on the sunny St Ann’s Square terrace.

Pendergast’s Steakhouse offers a less butch take on the traditional macho steakhouse. There are standout cuts of beef but you’ll also find small plates, seafood and lighter mains as well as carefully-thought out dishes for vegetarians and vegans.

The eponymous restaurant of Simon Wood, MasterChef winner and local lad from Oldham, is an accomplished affair. The décor – muted natural tones in a glass-clad new build – places the focus of any meal on the fine, Italianesque (yet often locally sourced) food and wine on offer.