Glossop Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: Fooderati insider Thom Hetherington was amongst those sending out an SOS on behalf of this well-regarded neighbourhood restaurant in his hometown, which was gutted by fire in September 2022. By the end of the month it had crowdfunded the money to re-open and restore its mix of funky small plates (typically you would order 7-8 in a meal), plus gins, cocktails and a thoughtful small selection of wines.

2021 Review: “All the Cambodian food is tasty and authentic”, and for lunch they serve “flavoursome” soups, filled baguettes and noodle dishes at this “small and cramped” operation – which (with its spin-offs) is quite possibly the only restaurant of its type in northern England. In the basement they buy and sell second-hand vinyl – hence the name. Branches have now opened in Altrincham and, most recently, Stockport market.

2021 Review: A “new restaurant serving ultra-fresh fish from Fleetwood” (but also Shetland scallops, Irish sea trout and Cornish monkfish), set up by fishmonger Jamie Barrett, who owns the Marple Fish shop round the corner. A former car spares shop, it's now a hybrid country-pub and beach shack, style-wise.

2022 Review: There’s a “fantastic range of vegetarian treats” at this “great value” Indian – part of the Sachdev family business that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The café, near Manchester’s IKEA, moved into its own site opposite the family’s ASM cash-and-carry grocery a couple of years ago. (It’s named after founder PG Sachdev’s wife Lilawati, who hand-made treats to sell in the early days of the business.)

2022 Review: This Grade II-listed former coaching inn incorporates fourteenth-century Whitehough Hall, whose dining room with a minstrels’ gallery provides a medieval setting for the “excellent food” served here. Former banker Daniel Capper took over the running of his childhood home when a leaseholder failed.

“A very different but great experience” – Sam Buckley’s hipster hotspot has won fame at these atmospheric brick-walled premises in a former coffee warehouse with huge windows, which opened in 2016. It’s “a super space for a romantic dinner”, especially if your date is of a foodie disposition; the “gorgeous food” from a tasting menu at £110 per person puts a major emphasis on sustainability and local sourcing and there are “delicious wine pairings, introducing you to novel wines”, all served by “lovely staff”.

“A pub that can serve ultra-fresh, skillfully cooked seafood is a rare treat” – “this country inn in the hills above Macclesfield” has a “light and comfortable small dining room adjacent to the old bar”. It enjoys “strong support from the village”, which clubbed together 20 years ago to buy the freehold when the pub was threatened with closure.

2021 Review: “You would not realise you are in Moss Side” at the Whitworth’s “beautiful” and “family-friendly” glass-walled conservatory, overlooking Whitworth Park. Its location (above all) and victuals make it an “excellent place for lunch”, with the “three daily changing salads particularly recommended”.

2023 Review: This vast street-food and entertainment concept accommodating up 1,000 visitors in an old freight depot by Piccadilly station is simply “another world” – “a mind-blowing-sized venue and organisation” where “the food is not really the main attraction” – although there is plenty of sufficient quality to earn high ratings, from 15 different restaurants and bars in an “eclectic mix” that ranges from Voodoo Rays pizza, Brad Carter’s One Stop Döner Bar and asador grills from Baratxuri to tacos from Madre.

2022 Review: Patrick Hannity's decade-old spin-off from his Manchester original is less well known than its progenitor but is “usually excellent”, too; the food is “light, balanced and filled with flavour”, incorporating produce from his Peak District farm.

“Simply the best” – Simon Martin’s Ancoats superstar continues to maintain the “outstanding all-round” form that secured its place in the history books in 2019 when it carried back to Manchester the city’s first Michelin star since 1977. “Sublime dishes are cooked with invention and precision” by the squadron of chefs put on display by the open kitchen (you can walk between workstations as the chefs are plating up). They deliver a £195 per person tasting menu, although you can fight the cost-of-living crisis with a cut-down version at £95 per person. Combinations are clever and each dish is intricately crafted. The contemporary space it occupies – at the foot of a modern block – is also full of drama, with a very high ceiling and huge windows.

“Definitely one of the stars of the buzzing Ancoats scene… in fact, the Manchester scene overall” – “a minimalistic interior sets the scene for simple but brilliantly executed dishes designed for sharing” at this low-key zeitgeisty hit: the most commented-on destination in the city in our annual diners’ poll this year. “The highly professional kitchen team are at the top of their game providing fare which is as clever as it is straightforward” (e.g. “the best bread and potato dishes I’ve ever had!”). Aided by its “very helpful” approach to service: “it’s the kind of place you wish was in your neighbourhood. Small plates and a natural (but not too funky) list of wines make it as good a place as any you will find to spend a couple of hours when in Manchester”.