Grappenhall, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: Ex-Manchester House chef, Aiden Byrne’s attractive pub is cutely situated opposite said St Mary’s Church in one of the scenic commuter towns on the Cheshire/Greater Manchester borders. Steaks, burgers, pies and the likes of lobster and chips typify its quality gastrofare; and they also serve pizza and snacks from their garden ‘shack’.

2024 Review: “An excellent local restaurant with talent in the kitchen (Miarisuz Dobies) and professional front of house” (his wife); regulars are “never disappointed” by the French- and Central European-inflected food (including five- or seven-course tasting menus), with “every detail wonderful and made in-house”.

“As always, this stalwart remains the best meal you can enjoy in South Manchester”, according to admirers of Patrick Hannity’s classy West Didsbury brasserie, which celebrates its 40th anniversary next year – “they just get everything right without bragging about it”, delivering “delicious food without unnecessary complications”. The venue has a large and longstanding fan club, but also picks up new converts (“I’d never quite got the appeal before but on my last visit each course was excellent”). Top Menu Tip – “save some space for the sublime courgette fritters”.

“The food is something to shout about” at this “great country pub” that has served the village for more than 250 years – “it’s all cosy, warm fires in the winter and a great sunshine patio to catch the sun on a summer’s evening”. (“We class it as our local, but it’s more about food than a local pub, although it’s great to sit at the bar and chat to the friendly staff”).

2022 Review: “An amazing bar and signature cocktails” are hailed in early reports on this two-year-old haunt in the characterful arches beneath Manchester Central station, from the people behind the successful Manchester Gin brand. Though its selection of small plates is not the main point, nor is it an afterthought.

“Spectacular views (Manchester weather notwithstanding)” are the headline event at this “fashionable restaurant and celeb bar in Manchester’s vibrant Spinningfields district” – the city’s highest dining room, no less, and part of the glam London group, recently re-christened ‘Evolv’. While it has been dismissed in the past as a one-trick pony, what feedback there was this year was very positive, with one reporter commenting that, “so often the view is the attraction and the basics suffer — but not here, where the service and food match the view”.

2024 Review: TV chef James Martin’s over-18s-only, industrial-chic flagship shares a home in the historic Great Northern Warehouse with Manchester235 Casino; the location is “slightly odd”, to be fair, “but once you’re seated in the restaurant you forget about it” – and can focus on the “absolutely delicious food” (be it an “excellent tasting menu” or slap-up afternoon tea).

Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan was – as of mid 2025 – rumoured to be on the verge of buying a £1 billion stake in Richard Caring’s restaurant empire, of which this famous brasserie chain is the crown jewel. Presumably, he’s more interested in ‘rolling out’ the brand in The Gulf and beyond rather than dropping by for a Salmon Fishcake and ‘Ivy Chocolate Bombe’, but if he’d asked the opinion of our annual diners’ poll, we’re not sure that he’d sign on the dotted line. “How can a restaurant with this heritage produce such uninspired, tick-box food?” is a question merited by its poor ratings, ditto what explains the “very slow and disinterested service”? The answer may be that “you don’t come here for the food, obviously” but for the “gorgeous” interior design and “picturesque” locations that continue to underpin their appeal. Let’s hope for the Sheikh’s sake that the middle classes of the Arab World are as undiscerning as those from the UK!

“Always delivers and you can rely on excellence every time!” – the Deansgate outpost of this super-successful steakhouse chain occupies a late-Victorian former courthouse, next to Spinningfields, and is celebrating its tenth year in the city in 2025. As at all its siblings – which are increasingly international with the expansion of the group – its core offering is a mouthwatering variety of well-matured, top cuts from grass-fed beef sourced around the world, all expertly prepared and washed down with the “varied and interesting, if pricey” selection of wines and cocktails. It’s a reliable way to spoil yourself, but “the evening can get very expensive”. Top Tip – “Set lunch on a Monday when you can bring your own wine for £5 represents excellent value”.

“Much more than a pub!” – this once abandoned Victorian boozer was resurrected in 2021 after a decade and a half in the doldrums; now a globetrotting and “high-quality” restaurant out back (‘The Glass Room’), plus a front room offering more casual but “solid” grub, it’s “worth walking out to” the borough of Salford, in the Greater Manchester ‘burbs, to enjoy – and if you take your friends along for the ride they’ll be “duly impressed”.

As culinary icons go, this fine, Grade II space at the heart of Manchester’s most famous ‘dowager’ hotel is certainly up there – an impressive, high-ceilinged chamber where Mr Rolls met Mr Royce on the road to creating the UK’s most famous industrial company in 1904; and until 1957 an early recipient of the city’s first Michelin star. In recent times, Great British Menu winner, Adam Reid, has done his damndest to regain its premier ranking and some fans agree that his “excellent cooking deserves some special recognition as it is stronger than some Michelin star places”. All the menus here are in a tasting format and highly ambitious – there’s the twelve-course ‘Tipsy’ menu for £145 per person or a longer ‘Signature’ menu at £215 per person. The odd reporter considers it “expensive” but custom doesn’t seem to be in short supply. With its “bangin’ soundtrack”, moody lighting, 1970s-metal album menu typography and pared down table settings the seeming aim is to do everything possible to crush the idea that you’re eating somewhere stuffy.

You step into history at this Manchester institution, founded in 1868 and with a menu of Victorian chop house classics (steak ’n’ kidney, Barnsley chop…), a “great wine list and good ale, too” – you can also rub shoulders at the bar with L.S. Lowry, who dropped in every day for lunch during his lifetime and is now a permanent fixture in the form of a life-size statue cast in bronze by Preston-based artist Peter Hodgkinson. Top Menu Tip – you have to try the corned beef hash.

Now landed in Knutsford town centre since 2022, this wine-bar restaurant originated in North London before relocating initially to the village of Audlem, thence here. Chef Chris cooks with sustainable and sometimes foraged ingredients while his partner, Laura, serves wines from small independent producers. Too limited freedback for a full rating, but one local fan says it’s “a small, friendly restaurant serving excellent food”.

2024 Review: “Fabulous breakfasts to start the day with excellent omelettes; flavour-packed soups; and great coffee” (“with that rare accompaniment, a glass of iced water”) are all highlights of the “imaginative creations from the open kitchen” at this funkily decorated, brick-walled bar/diner, which is “open all day” – a model of “simplicity with highly efficient service”.

2024 Review: Opposite a twelfth-century church, this “really good” village outfit is “exactly what you’d want from a good-quality pub”: a “relaxed, friendly and chatty” spot turning out some “perfectly judged” food (not least fish ’n’ chips, though the desserts are also “technical and brilliantly flavoured”).

“Vegan (or vegetarian) and brilliant” – well-travelled chef Eddie Shepherd “works alone, cooking and serving with real passion and exciting techniques”, creating twelve-course meals for £125 per person that are “a must for exemplary plant-based cuisine”. No more than eight guests gather in the dining room of his South Manchester home for each meal – and many are prepared to wait three months for the privilege. In late 2024 it was listed as one of the best 100 vegetarian restaurants in the world by the We’re Smart Green Guide. Top Tip – it’s BYOB, and there’s a fridge if you need to chill your drink.

Set in the landmark Great Northern railway development, this “seriously good” 24-seater bistro has made waves since its 2022 opening thanks to “really smart, creative” small plates (mostly, but not all vegetarian) that champion produce from local ethical growers. “With chefs on view” in the open kitchen, and a “cool” industrial look, it makes the “loveliest of places to relax, work, have fun and eat superbly”. Top Tip – if you’re stuck on the waiting list, try their brand new, more casual Middle Eastern spin-off ‘Jaan by Another Hand’, set in the Exhibition food hall, and showcasing the hugely popular flatbreads from this Deansgate elder sibling.

‘Food by Fire. Cocktails. Nice People’ is the promise on the website of this small, late-2024 opening from Matt Nellany and Jamie Pickles of Northern Quarter burger and pub classics restaurant Trof. The menu focuses on funky, seasonal small plates and – though we have yet to receive feedback – the Sunday Times’s Charlotte Ivers is a fan, hailing the results from “a coal-fired grill, a pizza oven and one of those Green Egg barbecues that every middle-class bloke in Britain salivates over” she waxed lyrical over a side of potatoes with garlic, shavings of Corra Linn sheep’s milk cheese and “enough butter to throw your health indicators off for a year” (“On my deathbed I will think not of those I love or those I have wronged, but of these long, crunchy ratte potatoes…”).

“The great view and wine list” are the stars of the show at this two-year-old rooftop venue above an office block in the city centre – while “the food is decent, too” and offers plenty of “vegetarian and vegan options”. Burgundy and Champagne from small producers are the standout choices on the “very well curated list”, which also takes in the French regions along with English cider and Japanese sake, while “friendly and knowledgeable staff and management” ensure everybody is well looked after.