Ramsbottom, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: “Great food and also a sense that they are putting back into the community” inspires support for this pub-with-rooms on the village green. Run as a youth-focused social enterprise, supporting young people to access training and paid work experience, it has won a string of awards over its almost ten years in operation. In summer, its ‘Incredible Edible Beer Garden’ comes into its own: almost an acre in size and with lots of interest as well as outside seating.

“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”.

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.

“Great to have a restaurant of this quality in the North West” – Simon Martin won his place in the history books in 2019 when he ended Manchester’s 40 years of pain without a Michelin star with his creation of this award-winning Ancoats champion. By design, there’s a “chilled” ambience created by the large space, where chefs and diners co-mingle naturally as a result of the open plan layout incorporating the kitchen (to ensure that ‘traditional barriers are broken in physical and thoughtful senses’). The cuisine is characterised by its “interesting and innovative approach with some unusual and unique flavours” and enhanced by the “superb” service. Of course, it’s not super-cheap, but no-one seems to begrudge this. The ‘Complete’ tasting menu is £175 per person, with a cut down ‘Extracts’ version available for £110 per person (and at lunch there’s a menu for £70 per person).

“Surrounded by regenerated mills and terraced houses, from the days of the industrial revolution”, Richard Withington’s “trendy but likeable” Ancoats favourite “serves small plates to be shared” at “a perfect pace” in a “relaxed, modern dining room” and is nowadays in our Top-100 most commented-on UK restaurants in our annual diners’ poll outside London. “The kitchen knows how to cook and manage to consistently keep the standard up” – “the conception and execution of each dish is faultless” and the whole enterprise “manages to feel both forward looking and familiar, while offering exceptional value for money”. (“I was made so welcome as a solo diner that I wouldn’t hesitate to eat here alone again, but will definitely be bringing friends!”).

Amongst the newly cleaned and polished dark satanic mills of Ancoats sits The Edinburgh Castle – an early 19th-century pub rescued and skillfully restored with a large bar on the ground floor, and a dining room on the first floor serving pub food with a thoroughbred touch. Try the Sunday roast – “this pub has never done it better in its 200 years!”

“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”.

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”.

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.

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).

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.

2023 Review: “Simplicity” combines with “top quality” at Carlow-born Breda Murphy’s deli-restaurant, a popular destination in the Ribble Valley since 2006 for her Anglo-Irish home-style cooking. “At first it feels overly conservative, but every dish is perfectly cooked, often with a small and interesting twist such as thick-cut lime and soy-cured salmon.”

Opinions are somewhat divided this year on this famous pub with rooms in the Ribble Valley, where chef Steve Smith departed in mid 2024 for the bright lights of Manchester. Fans say its production of “Michelin-starred service, wines and food, all without the aspirations and fuss”, continues unabated and feel “you don’t get much better than this for quality and value”. But it also inspired a couple of disappointments this year, including amongst former fans, who perceive “a lack of heart or passion” to recent meals, or who have found some dishes “uninspired and poorly prepared”. Hopefully teething problems?

“The best… a real pub, with good ales and wine and unbelievable food!” – Gareth & Laura Ostick’s “fabulous” boozer looks just like a normal pub but chef Tom Parker’s cuisine is anything but and “incredible value”. “Glorious seasonal fare is served by a young and enthusiastic team and washed down with interesting wines” either from a four-course menu for £65 per person; or a five-course selection for £85 per person. Some dishes – Herdwick Lamb with olive oil mash – are founded in tradition, but the vegetarian option in particular is a far cry from it, with dishes such as Pickled Cucumber with Wasabi, Buttermilk and Dill.

“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.

‘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 perfect spot for date night…” – “delicious sharing plates, an excellent non-invasive playlist, low lighting and cosy atmosphere” all combine with a “cocktail list to get the romance started” at this hip spot around the corner from Albert Square. “The team are clearly very passionate about what they do” without being overly serious: “they never fail to raise a smile”. Building on their success, they opened a second venue called Posie last year.