An Insider’s Guide To Manchester
EAT
Mr Hong’s
I love Chinese food – anything spicy and fried chicken. We celebrated our Michelin star with a trip to my favourite local restaurant, Mr Hong in Chinatown, where I always order the cumin lamb and the garlic and chilli ribs. It’s a Szechuan restaurant that I recommend to anyone who’ll listen. The trick is to ask for the blue menu – that's where the good stuff is.
Higher Ground
This is a great bistro run by lovely people. The team have worked in some incredible restaurants and settled in Manchester, where they also have a wine bar, Flawd, and a market garden called Cinderwood from which we source some of our veg at Skof.
Visit HigherGroundMCR.co.uk
Nell’s Pizza
Nell’s is a New York-style pizza joint that serves thin, crisp 22-inch pizzas. The dough is perfect, and they make the most brilliant dips. I get the ‘Magic Number’ with ricotta salata and salsa verde, and order vodka sauce for dipping. Perfection.
Visit NellsPizza.co.uk
Pollen
I go to Pollen at the weekend for their special. It’s a croissant baked like a muffin (a cruffin) that always hits the spot. The team creates lots of seasonal flavours, so you never know what’s coming up – last week, it was rhubarb. There’s a site in central Manchester, plus another one in Ancoats by the canal, surrounded by a beautiful garden.
Visit PollenBakery.co.uk
Special Mentions
Cardinal Rule makes great fried chicken and biscuits, and there's a brilliant Indian restaurant in Prestwich called Ahaar. If we’re out for dinner in town, The Sparrows does the best spätzle and dumplings.
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DRINK
Track Taproom
At this open-plan brewery, they’ve fitted out the lovely taproom with cool design features. You can pop down for pizzas and try dishes from various restaurant pop-ups. It’s a proper little community up there and I love it.
Visit TrackBrewing.co
Sadler’s Cat
This is our local boozer by the restaurant, and it’s home to a huge pub garden out on the square. The restaurant has huge windows one side that let in plenty of natural light, but most stand outside to enjoy pints in the street. It’s a buzzy spot – we love seeing customers enjoying drinks there before coming to us for dinner.
Visit Sadlers-Cat.pub
Schofield’s Bar
Schofield’s is a classic, brilliant cocktail bar. They’ve somehow managed to combine the meticulous attention to detail of a hotel bar with the relaxed atmosphere of a casual barroom. They serve the best cocktails in town, as well as the perfect pint of Guinness. I recently had their ‘White Cargo’, a twist on a classic where they’ve added Sauternes. The perfect end to any evening.
Visit SchofieldsBar.com
NQ64
This is a video game bar in the northern quarter. It’s a basement stuffed full of classic video and arcade games. We’ve had some great nights out there – it’s so easy to get very competitive and lose track of time.
Visit NQ64.com
Special Mentions
Manchester has some brilliant bars and pubs. Stray is just around the corner from the restaurant, and a lot of guests head there before dinner for a cocktail. We’ve worked with Balance Brewing to create custom beers for the restaurant, and their tap room is worth a visit. Bar Shrimp is perfect for a night out.
STAY
Mollies
This has just arrived in Manchester. It’s beautifully done and in the Old Granada TV studios, so it has bags of heritage and atmosphere.
Visit Mollies.com
The Dakota
This is a lovely hotel, just across the road from the station. A lot of our guests stay there, and the staff are fantastic. It’s fairly affordable, but it feels luxe.
Visit DakotaHotels.co.uk
The Stock Exchange
This hotel occupies a beautiful old stock exchange. It’s grand, polished and tucked away. Now head chef Niall Keating is there, we often head down for Sunday lunch in the restaurant, which is in a spectacular room on the old trading floor. A stay there is a real treat.
Visit StockExchangeHotel.co.uk
SHOP & VISIT
Private White VC
This is one of the few clothing manufacturers left in the UK and they’re making the most beautiful coats and jackets, all in a mill building not half a mile from Skof. Just going there to meet the team is a great experience.
Visit PrivateWhiteVC.com
Ross Parlane Barbers
RPB is more like a social club. It’s always a good laugh and full of interesting people, so you get more than just a haircut.
Visit RPBNQ.com
Vinyl Revival
Manchester is still a music city, and this place has it all – rare records, new releases, memorabilia, the works. I often go in for a browse when I get a day off. Music is a massive part of the restaurant and I’m always after inspiration.
Visit VinylRevivalMCR.com
The Frog and Bucket
The Frog and Bucket is a legendary comedy club. I love live comedy and it’s the best place for it in Manchester, hands down. It’s intimate, but you often see huge names practising shows before they go on tour.
Visit FrogAndBucket.com
Special Mentions
I’m a huge comedy fan, and we get some of the best comics touring through Manchester. You can see them in the bigger venues like the AO Arena (which has a few dishes of mine on the menu in its Mezz restaurant) and Factory International or in smaller, more intimate spaces such as Band on the Wall. We’ve also been out to Media City to see shows like 8 Out of 10 Cats filmed live. It’s so good to have that going on here. The RHS Bridgewater Garden is a really lovely escape from the city – I could wander for hours around the grounds. Stockport is also having such a moment, with great shops and some incredible restaurants popping up – I'd head over to Cantaloupe.
Check out SkofManchester.co.uk and follow @ChefTomBarnes on Instagram.
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