Your best shot: 28 independent Manchester coffee shops

Atlas Bar is known as one of the originals of Manchester’s modern cafe-bar scene. And for its extensive collection of gins – over 570 varieties and counting.

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.

When Peter Street lost its Caffe Nero it gained Haunt, an independent coffee shop and wine bar. Stepping inside, you feel like this corner spot in the beautiful St George’s House, with its views of the Midland Hotel and Central Library, has finally got the classy occupier it deserves.

All The Shapes has that relaxed café-bar, all-day-eatery thing nailed. It’s the sort of place where you feel equally comfortable rocking up with toddlers in tow or drinking your way through the craft beer range until closing time.

If you’re serious about your coffee, Ancoats Coffee Co has to be your first port of call in this part of the city. Inspired by owner Jamie Bowland’s time spent in the flat-white Mecca that is Melbourne, this is a destination for people who really care about what goes in their cup.

Another Heart To Feed in Manchester’s NQ is one of our top brunch spots. It’s a coffee shop inspired by coffee culture capital of the world, Melbourne. There’s a tempting array of breakfasty-stuff where many dishes have a Middle Eastern slant. You’ll find ingredients like dukkah, labneh, hummus and halloumi sprinkled across a menu that has more than its fair share of Ottolenghi-style magic.

à bloc is a neighbourhood cafe near Stamford Park in Altrincham. It serves good coffee and brunch dishes but it’s the doughnuts that have mythical status here. Don’t leave without one.

Open in Liverpool since 2010, Bold Street Coffee is something of an institution over there and the place to go if you’re in need of caffeine sustenance. Breakfast, brunch and all things cheap and lunch-like are also on the menu, while the art-adorned walls make it a great place to chill out.

California Coffee & Wine is a ray of SoCal sunshine. The Cal-Mex flavours served up are fresher and sharper than typical Tex-Mex offerings and everything feels clean and wholesome – if you give the sausage and bacon mega stack a swerve.

The food doesn’t take itself too seriously, it’s just there to be enjoyed. Expect dishes like San Fran salmon, all scrambled eggs and wilted spinach with some spectacular smoked fish from the Manchester Smokehouse or ranch beans with tortilla, smashed avocado, Cali salsa and plenty of zing from fresh chillies and spring onions.

If you want to experience Northern Quarter cafe culture in its purest form, head to Ezra & Gil Hilton Street, just off Stevenson Square. With its loft-style decor, brunchy food, and cool-casual vibe, it’s a self-proclaimed ‘neighbourhood hangout’ which has been popular since day one.

While lockdown marked the end for some businesses, for others it was a chance to expand into surprising new territories. Here’s one we couldn’t have predicted back in January 2020: Factory Coffee – a takeaway coffee hatch within long-established Manchester tailors Dooley & Rostron. 

After keeping the Northern Quarter fed and watered since 2014, Federal claimed another foothole, this time on Deansgate. Dishing up brunch favourites such as French toast and eggs on sourdough, plus bigger plates such as the hummus and sweetcorn falafel sandwich and steak and eggs, it’ll set you up alright.

Foundation Coffee House Northern Quarter is the first of three locations in the city centre from this homegrown brand. This spacious original site in Grade II Listed Sevendale House sets the tone for its siblings on Portland Street and Whitworth Street. Namely sleek, minimalist design and a cultish devotion to premium, single source beans.

Grindsmith Media City has been keeping the creatives and apartment-dwellers of Salford Quays fed and caffeinated since 2016. 

Idle Hands have a super-tight following – who helped by setting up a crowd-funding campaign in their honour when the chips were down – and, as a result, there’s a strong community focus at this coffee shop and kitchen, which started life on Piccadilly Station Approach in early 2015.

This greasy spoon with indie cool is a true Mancunian institution. Established in 1978, the Koffee Pot used to live on Stevenson Square before it moved round the corner to Oldham Street. Nowadays it’s a café by day and taco bar by night. Think bar that does fry-ups and you’re on the right track.

Named after the owner’s kids, Leo and Rubes 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).

Patiscerria and small-batch Italian hand-roasted coffee – that’s the name of the game at the award-winning Lupo Caffe Italiano.

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

ManCoCo sits in the railway arches on Hewitt Street between HOME Arts Centre and the Castlefield Gallery. It’s not the easiest place to find but it’s worth the initial effort – we think they serve one of the smoothest and most aromatic coffees around. And it’s reasonably priced considering the city centre postcode.

Where once there were printing presses, now it’s all coffee presses. This daytime cafe and hangout spot in the black-and-silver ex-Express building keeps the MacBook posse fuelled with caffeine, cakes, “killer scran and all the central heating and wifi you could need”.

The Old Fire Station is a café, bar, bakery and brewery tap with a real community feel. It’s a part of the University of Salford but it’s open to everyone.

Clean lines, stripped wood, potted greenery, local art, yoga brunch… these are just some of the calming factors at Chapel Street’s one-stop coffee shot shop Procaffeinated, where your daily caffeine fix will leave you refreshed rather than climbing the whitewashed walls.

After an initial stint tucked away in an archway near Piccadilly, this airy bakery and cafe moved to a spot overlooking New Islington’s marina. Since then Pollen Bakery has bagged Best Food and Drink Retailer at the Manchester Food and Drink Awards, and been listed in the Sunday Times top 20 UK bakeries.

Pot Kettle Black was born out of owners Mark Flanagan and Jon Wilkin’s time spent travelling (and playing rugby) down under. They brought back to the rainy city a sunny vibe along with the Antipodean art of brewing the best coffee and cooking up “vibrant, easy-going food”.

Smoak Coffee is a small coffee and bagel shop on Barlow Moor Road. The caffeine options are very good – roasted fresh every week – with a regularly changing single origin coffee and excellent filter coffee too.

Head to this Welsh-inspired daytime cafe for “gwasanaethau coffi a thoes”, or coffee and pastry services. It’s known primarily as a donut shop but it offers a little more on the sweet treats front, including a number of specials, plus a few baked savoury snacks.

With a very vintage vibe, homemade cake and cocktails, and tempting hot and cold plates dished up all day every day in the heart of the Northern Quarter, Sugar Junction is the perfect go-to for ladies who brunch.

Wax and Beans is a vinyl and coffee combo where you can indulge all your passions at once. Affectionately known as Beansies, it’s Bury’s only independent record shop, set in a handsome Grade II listed building right in the middle of town.