Manchester has not always been as glamorous as this mural in the restaurant of the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel implies. Nor has its city centre been as replete with restaurants, wine bars, pubs and cafés as it is today.
Growing up there in the 1960s and 1970s, I can recall only three restaurants in the city centre: Mario & Franco’s for Italian; the Stanneylands Vth Inn for steak; and The Gaylord for cautiously spicy Indian food. There was a fourth, the ultra-expensive French restaurant in the Midland Hotel, which I can remember my parents visiting only once.
The transformation began in June 1996 when the IRA detonated a 1,500-kg bomb in the city centre. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but the opportunity to redesign what had been destroyed was seized upon by the combined talents and inspiration of the late Howard Bernstein and Sir Richard Leese, who set about rectifying one of the city’s major disadvantages.
Even though many would flock into the centre to work, they would all leave for home after work. The population of Manchester city centre in the early 1990s was just 400.
On my most recent visit last month I was struck by the sheer amount of inner-city living that there now is, with plenty more accommodation being built, and there is still no shortage of prosperous suburbs. All sorts of factors have contributed towards Manchester being the UK’s fastest-growing city. Manchester is the country’s most popular university: the student population was more than 44,000 in 2024, of whom a quarter are international. There’s the city’s music scene, initially fuelled by the popularity of the Haçienda nightclub and Factory Records, an independent record label. And of course there’s the draw of not just one but two football clubs with a truly global following. All have contributed to this extraordinary change.
The old and the new merge on almost every street. Many of the new restaurants have been designed in ground-floor spaces, leaving a lot of the ‘old Manchester’ evident in the photo above. I spent an afternoon wandering with my eyes focused on first floors and higher and was invariably transported to a former era.
We began our tour a 15-minute walk away from Piccadilly Station in Ancoats, where I worked in the mid 1970s, an area that could best be described then as ‘dank’. Today, the cobbled streets remain but the whole area is much brighter, with warm hospitality much in evidence.
Our destination was Erst restaurant but we were early, so we headed next door to Cocoa Cabana for a coffee and our introduction to the architecture of modern Manchester, as indicated by the claims on the building opposite.
Erst occupies a corner site with a modern interior – grey concrete with regulation pipes and ironwork evident in the high ceiling – and empty bottles of encouragingly good wine along the window ledge. There is an open kitchen and a modern menu that begins somewhat predictably with Carlingford oysters and ends with a 700-g (25-ounce) grilled sirloin with brown butter and lemon.
Between the two were quite a few pleasant surprises. A grilled flatbread topped with charred greens and parmesan which proved that being flat is no longer a necessary attribute of a flatbread.
A dish of beetroot, ajo blanco and green chilli was exquisite, as was a raw bream tartare, topped with blood orange and radish. Even better was crab, tomato and agretti topped with chilli, and a dish described simply as ‘mussel rice’ that was full of colour, warmth and mussels. The caramel flan was disappointing, with too sweet a syrup.
Their wine list is attractive, well priced and clearly aimed at a crowd willing to experiment. We drank glasses of a 2023 Grüner Veltliner from Meinklang (£7.50), a 2022 Chenin Blanc from Clément Baraut (£12.50) and a 2022 Poulsard from Jean-Louis Tissot (£9.50), making for a bill of £113.85 for three.
There was a sense of déjà vu about our lunch the following day in the city centre at Higher Ground, which bills itself as a ‘modern and thoughtful Manchester bistro and bar’. We arrived early to find the restaurant not yet open – again – so we headed opposite for a fortifying margarita at the lavishly decorated Namii Kitchen opposite. As at Erst, glass is a prominent feature at Higher Ground, as are wine bottles, although here they are full and stored at the back of the restaurant. The menu is another single piece of paper printed in black ink.
The background here is, however, more international. The three partners – chef Joseph Otway, Daniel Craig Martin and Richard Cossins – met while working at Dan Barber’s renowned restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns in upstate New York before heading off in various directions, including stints with Noma in Copenhagen and with chef Simon Rogan, before regrouping in Manchester where they decided to open at first a pop-up in an elevated location aptly named Higher Ground. They then opened a natural wine bar, Flawd, which still flourishes today, before opening a permanent site in the city centre to which they attached their former pop-up’s name.
Crucially, none of them is a Mancunian. As I explain in the chapter ‘The stranger’s advantage’ in my book The Art of the Restaurateur, that which is missing in a city is most obviously spotted by someone who has not grown up there. I cite the example of the culinary inspiration Australian-born Michelle Garnaut imported into Hong Kong and China; similar inspiration Alan Yau, born in Hong Kong and raised in Norwich, introduced into London; and the warmth of service St-Louis-raised Danny Meyer introduced to New York. The Higher Ground trio actively chose the potential of booming Manchester over the cost of setting up in London, and have introduced a combination of fun and appreciation of the importance of the raw ingredients in Manchester.
These attributes are best explained by reference to their seasonal tasting menu priced at £40 per person. On the reverse is a map of the UK and Ireland with their principal suppliers clearly marked, including reference to their own Cinderwood Market Garden in Nantwich, Cheshire, where recently apparently the ground ‘has been frozen’. Happily, they have contacts with other farms and suppliers.
The same quality of produce and cooking shines through their à la carte dishes. They practise whole-carcass butchery and were just moving from beef to pork. We began with their own warm wholemeal rolls and Lancashire butter, a delightful combination, before moving on to slightly stodgy fritters of green pea purée covered in grated Quicke’s cheddar; a beautifully dressed dish of beans, salt beef and beetroot; the Isle of Mull cheddar tart with pastry almost as rich as shortbread pictured below; potato-stuffed pasta; and a necessary bowl of mustard greens with an appetising burnt-leek vinaigrette. I finished with a bowl of Yorkshire rhubarb, custard and sherry trifle delivered by a smiling Asian chef.
We drank well, too. I enjoyed a couple of extremely enjoyable glasses of 2022 Cabernet Franc Le P’tit Clou from Bruno Rochard (£10 each) while JR chose a glass of lightly cloudy 2023 Bianco Ventitre from La Distesa (£12) and another of Zvari 2022 Rkatsiteli from John Okruashvili (£11). The total bill was £130.50.
Sitting by the window with, in my case, a full view of a bustling and heavily populated kitchen, brought home to me yet again the anomaly of running a restaurant correctly. While every restaurant’s most obvious goal is the giving of pleasure to as many as possible, this can only be achieved if those in charge are as serious, hard-working and professional as this trio obviously are.
As restaurant customers, Mancunians have long been appreciated, as shown by the continued success of northern outposts of Hawksmoor, Dishoom, Sexy Fish and Caravan which have flourished in the city centre since 2015, 2018, 2023 and 2024 respectively. But is there still a significant difference between Manchester and London, I wondered? I asked Chris Ammermann, one of the three New Zealanders who have made Caravan restaurants such a success in the UK, for his opinion. He gave this thoughtful response.
‘We always come back to Danny Meyer’s rule of trying to create something that reflects what is outside the front door. [In Manchester we are] nestled in the heart of St John’s new cultural quarter of the city between the famous old Granada Studios and beautiful new Aviva Studios. Our aim is to be a restaurant for the community of locals and businesses and an extension of the fantastic cultural events that take place in the area.
‘Manchester is a fun town, which is contagious every time you visit. People are fun and friendly and there’s a discerning food scene as well. It made us think of hospitality in a new way again. We really just wanted to be a part of it and bring our own laid-back NZ vibes and back it up with great food, drinks and friendly service.
‘We’re in a new area, which reminds me of King’s Cross at the time. The weeks start quietly and build into very busy weekends, supported by visitors to Aviva Studios and the Science and Industry Museum. We designed a space that feels cosy with a few people in it but can fill up and be vibrant and bustling. You can move between the different spaces: the huge bar, the roastery in the day, main dining room with energy from the kitchen, the more private yellow room and PDR. We installed the coffee roaster like in King’s Cross to add a layer of energy and for transparency in coffee roasting.
‘Many of the differences between Manchester and London are only subtle but they do add up, and ultimately we want people to use the space how they want to, so that it becomes very much a Manchester restaurant synonymous with this exciting new area.’
Erst 9 Murray St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 6HS; tel: +44 (0)161 547 3683
Higher Ground Faulkner House, New York St, Manchester M1 4DY; tel: +44 (0)161 236 2931
Caravan 6 Good Yards St, St Johns, Manchester M3 3BG; tel: +44 (0)161 507 7200
Every Sunday, Nick writes about restaurants. To stay abreast of his reviews, sign up for our weekly newsletter.
