- Manchester
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United Kingdom
Lovely little cafe next to the Mersey Valley visitor centre. Great quiches, pizzas and sandwiches. Home made breads and cakes. Great veggie breakfast (served all day) - yum. Small and friendly and will go that extra yard to suit your wishes.
Walk or bike from Chorlton and cross the meadows.
Scrumptious.
Super for lunch.
Sale Water Park, M33 2LX. Just off the M60.
tel: 01619696775
A fantastic venue for a wonderful lunch. I highly recommend this award-winning cafe, run by 'The Modern Caterer'. The menu is packed with a number of mouth-watering choices, all of which are home made. A main course plus a drink will cost around £5-£6 so not expensive for good food. Great to call in just for a coffee to take in the pleasent atmosphere. Also during fine weather outside tables are available to enjoy your meal alfresco.
Located inside the Whitworth Art Gallery, Oxford Rd, Manchester M15 6ER and opposite the MRI Hospital
Opening times:
Mon to Sat 10am till 4.30pm
Sun 12noon till 3.30pm
This is a little gem located in Morley Green just outside Wilmslow and a short distance from Manchester Airport. I recommend the all-day brunch. Not exactly cafe prices but this is not your average cafe, it's an upmarket version. Good service and excellent home-produced fayre.
Morely Green, Wilmslow, SK9 5NU 5mins drive from Manchester Airport, 10 mins from Hale Barns
Home to the world famous Irish music session fronted by the award-winning Grace Kelly.
Holder of the world record for biggest Irish session held in a pub.
Session every Wednesday, live Irish music every Saturday and Sunday. Friendly staff, cosy atmosphere.
Opening Times
Monday 11am - 11pm
Tuesday 11am - 11pm
Wednesday 11am-11pm
Thursday 11am - 11pm
Friday 11am - 12midnight
Saturday 11am - 12midnight
Sunday 11am-11pm
www.myspace.com/unionpub
Union Irish Music Lounge
845 Stockport road
Levenshulme
Manchester
M19 3PW
0161 224 1271
A little disappointed not to see m19 Bar in sunny Levenshulme village not get a mention in the top ten guide (www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/apr/09/manchester.musicbars). It's home to Acousticfest - Manchester's premier acoustic showcase, which has been running for about three years and has hosted acts from as far away as Australia in its monthly acoustic festivals.
Highlights have included live sessions from Tom Hingley of Inspiral Carpets fame, Mike McGoldrick (BBC Instrumentalist of the Year), Eleanor McEvoy (from Ireland's best selling folk album - Woman's Heart).
Watch out for its A-A Festival from April to August featuring more than 80 acts including an Alternative Glastonbury weekend in June and Dylan Festival in August.
847 Stockport Road
Levenshulme
Manchester
M19 3PW
0161 224 8135
www.myspace.com/acousticfest
www.m19bar.com
The Trafford Centre is probably the best shopping centre I have visited. There are so many shops to choose from - and there is a shop for everyone!
From clothes, accessories, sportswear, gaming, homeware, beauty and more - you are certain to come home with a car full of shopping bags.
There are also lots of great restaurants, bars and cafes to suit everyone's tastebuds after you've worked up an appetite from all that shopping - from Indian and Spanish cuisine restaurants to cosy coffee bars - you're bound to fine somewhere to satifsy the whole family.
As well as shops, bars and restaurants, the Trafford Centre is also the venue of many events such as fashion shows, dances and other competitions- it's also appeared on Channel 4's '10 Years Younger'.
So if you're looking for somewhere to shop, shop, shop - and then relax, the Trafford Centre could be right up your street!
Check out the Trafford Centre website for more information
Fantastic basement club in the centre of Manchester. Great staff and good drinks. Just make sure you have your dancing shoes on...
46-50 Oldham St
Northern Quarter
www.mintlounge.com
Best Indian restaurant on the Curry Mile. Despite its name, it's the only place you can find south Indian food in Manchester - bhel puri, masala dosa, uttapam. Friendly service, reasonable prices, good for vegetarians.
177 Wilmslow Road, Rusholme
New restaurant on Cheetham Hill Road Manchester, Amazing, amazing curries and kebabs. I go there all the time and it gets better and better. Go and see for yourself.
www.kebabishoriginal-ch.co.uk
0161 834 4544 (Near Manchester Victoria Stn)
The 'Hidden Urban Project' is a new addition to the alternative shopping market. Usually housed inside bars, the project provides a relaxed atmosphere that shoppers can enjoy. A pint whilst you shop? I'm recommending it because this should be the future of shopping.
28-30, Oldham Street , Manchester,M1 1JN
Recently checked out the Modern for a 'working' lunch with a friend, who suggested the venue to me as she'd heard rumours that we would be in for a real good treat, mmm. And I wasn't disappointed.
It was fairly quiet when we arrived and we were allocated (in my view) the best table which presented a 360 degree view of the wintry Manchester skyline, rotating big wheel and all. The decor was formal yet cosy, sophisticated but not intimidating - the dark solid wooden tables and chairs contrasting nicely with the floor-to-ceiling frosted windows, with a nice clear panel you could see out of to admire the view, thank you very much.
Being a huge soup fan, particularly in the winter months (and there's nothing I enjoy more than knocking my own up at home) for starter I opted for the Jerusalem artichoke and rosemary soup with chanterelles. It was delicious, smooth, creamy, satisfying and tasted surprisingly healthy too (although I'm sure it wasn't). My friend forwent the starter and straight on to the main course. Pollock, smoked haddock and Loch Duart salmon fish pie, with wilted spinach and of course a side order of fat chips. A suprisingly generous portion, (she struggled to finish) the pie was dominated to her delight by the salmon (all that omega 3) which was perfectly pink and a wonderful texture. I opted for grilled Goosnargh maize-fed chicken,
braised leeks and Cheshire smoked bacon & a grain mustard sauce.
The chicken was tender with a crunchy jacket, complemented wonderfully by the bacon and the mustard sauce gave it a bit of added va va voom. Resisted desert (but of course tried 'just a taste') of my friend's caramelised quince tart and vanilla ice cream, which outshone event the artichoke soup. A beautiful combination of sweet and sour, the caramel gave it an added twist that was very moreish. The ice cream tasted home-made - which I didn't expect - and had a creamy, custardy texture, which was perfect.
With two diet cokes each to wash it down (it was a 'working' lunch after all) it came to just over £30, astoundingly reasonable for something quite so thoroughly posh. Marks out of 10 - 8.9 and with the starter and desert both scoring a winning 9.9.
Floors 5 & 6
Urbis, Manchester
0161 605 8282
www.themodernmcr.co.uk
A glorious little café-cum-bar-cum-gig venue situated right in the heart of Manchester's Northern Quarter.
Ok, so they may not serve pints, but you can have a massive bottle of Polish Tyskie for around £3 whilst you listen to some of the finest new bands around. It even has conveniently placed benches for the vertically challenged such as myself to stand on.
Plus, it's got a certain ambience about it which really can't be beaten. Perhaps it's the huge dark red walls strewn with fairylights, or the massive lamps hanging from the ceilings, or the lack of air conditioning which doesn't exactly make it the most fragrant of places in the summer, or the manky toilets and general all round gloom, but it's pretty much infamous in Manchester and much loved, as evidenced when Manchester City Council attempted to shut it down in 2004 when local residents complained about noise pollution.
Oh, and the food they do there is damn tasty as well.
www.nightnday.org/
26 Oldham Street
Manchester
M1 1JN
Tasty and healthy Lebanese food from a restaurant often overlooked despite its great position in the Northern Quarter. Better still, if operates a bring-your-own-booze policy, meaning an already cheap meal works out even cheaper. Well worth considering, both by travellers on a budget and locals out to try something new.
69 Thomas Street, Manchester M4 1LQ
+44 161 834 5016
A city within a city. Salford is well worth exploring, if only for the great ale pubs and architectural delights off Chapel Street (a three-minute walk from Deansgate). Salford Quays is just the gentrified (read: largely dull) part of a very characterful city.
Chapel Street and elsewhere, Salford
I love the restaurant, I love the name, I love the food, I love my home town Stockport.
An Indian restaurant, the best curry I ever had. A great name in Stockport.
I found a lovely little clothing and body care shop that sells only fair trade and organic products for all the family. I fell in love with it as I have never been in a shop selling only ethical goods. I didn't even realise at first which really added to the appeal. The staff were really helpful and informative and there wasn't a sign of any unattractive hippy clothing. And apparently they have a fan club that some of their customers have set up on facebook.
They have two shops, in Chorlton, Manchester (15 min bus ride from city centre) and Headingley, Leeds.
www.arkadash.co.uk
Food and drink festival between 5 &15 October 2007. Thirty five bars, restuarants and shops around Chorlton and Whalley Range are taking part. Chorlton joins other areas of Greater Manchester for the annual Manchester Food and Drinks Festival.
All over Chorlton-cum-hardy. For more information pick up a festival brochure from outlets including - Barbakan, Pad-chorlton, Unicorn and Wild at Heart
Loop! is the biggest and best gift shop in south Manchester - prices are keener than city-centre or the local competition and staff are totally helpful.
66, Beech Road
Chorlton
MANCHESTER
M21 9HU
Kebab place, because they have real chicken tikka (not that rubbish on a stick). Top naan breads and tasty salad to go with it, I recommend it with all the salad and yogurt and mango chutney.
Sajan, Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield.
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