Where to find Manchester’s gourmet mushrooms

From the team that brought you 3 Hands Deli, Another Hand opened in February 2022 in the unit just next door. With a sleek new look, the casual dining restaurant brings brunch, lunch and a relaxed dining experience to Deansgate Mews, Manchester’s newest hotspot.

Ah, those awkward encounters when you bump into someone at a party and can’t recall their name or where you know them from. This is how the conversation goes. “Cibus – you remember, stall at Levy Market. No? OK, pop-up pizza place above Fred’s Ale House…”

Coined from the 19th-century nickname for Manchester, Cottonopolis is a quintessential Northern Quarter joint, with its wooden floors, towering beams and exposed brick in a grade II listed building. Walk through the grand entrance and you’re greeted with high tables, booth seating and atmospheric lighting, as well as a sweeping bar and an open kitchen producing billows of steam from bamboo baskets.

The Edinburgh Castle is a fortification for fortifying yourself, full of hearty British fare. This defence against hunger has two parts. No, not motte and bailey, but an upstairs restaurant and a downstairs pub. Upstairs, downstairs and all the connotations that go along with that.

The downstairs is a traditional old pub with a welcoming drinking zone and a separate eating area. Traditional pub or not, this is much more than just some Scampi Fries. In fact, this is some of the very best pub food in the city.

The UK’s most exciting ‘no menu’ restaurant. 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.

With its neutral hues and natural foliage, stripped-back bricks and leather booths, The Alan is a tranquil space in which to enjoy breakfast, lunch or dinner – the open-plan kitchen serves all day from first thing till late evening – or indeed coffee and cocktails in the bar.

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.

OSMA is a clever contraction of Oslo and Manchester, the home cities of its two owners. However this portmanteau is even more well-travelled than that. Ingredients are local, lunches are Scandinavian and evening meals are an ever-changing roster of small plates from further afield.

For Street Urchin, think less about raggedy kids hanging about Victorian mills (although it is on the edge of Ancoats) and more about seafood delicacies. Fish is plentiful on the menu at this English market diner, although meat gets a look-in too.

Serving a unique Caribbean-Colombian combo, Cafe Sanjuan is the creation of Luis Felipe Sanjuan, who hails from Barranquilla, a bustling seaport on the Caribbean coast of Colombia – his mum Viviana helps in the kitchen to keep it real; his dad, also Luis Felipe, does deliveries.