The best spots for sandwiches in Manchester

These guys describe their offering as ‘next-level Italian sandwiches’, and we can’t help but think that’s justified. With a location in Media City and one up in Ancoats, this is the place to visit when your lunchtime hunger won’t be satisfied by a meal deal. You can order online, from tried-and-tested combinations like the Regina (with mortadella, burrata, pesto, pistachio and rocket) and the beef-brisket loaded Americana. Or build your own from an extensive list of quality deli ingredients. Then simply saunter right up to their handy collection window to secure the goods – be prepared to make your colleagues jealous. City boss Pep Guardiola (and the squad) count themselves as huge fans.

Tucked away in a lesser-known courtyard on Murray Street, Ancoats Deli is exactly what you want from a neighbourhood spot. There’s wine and charcuterie and the like for lazy afternoons, but it’s the sandwiches that are the showstoppers. Served on wedges of focaccia, fillings are an Italian-inspired combo of cured meats, fine cheeses and interesting condiments, which also happen to be available to buy from their well-stocked pantry section. The chicken caesar focaccia is every bit as good as it sounds.

Inspired by the girthsome sandwiches seen in classic mob drama The Sopranos, founder Sam emerged with the concept in lockdown, quickly creating a cult buzz with its giant sarnies, served out of a secret hatch in Ancoats, loaded up with salami, gabagool, Swiss cheese and provelone. All the good stuff. Fast-forward to 2024, and these much-loved hoagies have returned with their own dedicated deli on Oldham Street, an ever-popular lunch spot for the denizens of the Northern Quarter.

Founded by Virginia-via-Texas-imports Gab and Dustin, Cardinal Rule care as much about their fried chicken as they do the thing they serve them on. Arriving in Manchester after falling in love with the beer scene, they were shocked to find that the ‘biscuit’, something both had grown up with, was both unknown and unavailable in the UK. What followed was an intensive process of trial and error to recreate the stodgy, crispy, flaky carb which is a staple in most southern US states. It’s the perfect vehicle by which to enjoy their chicken, which is brined overnight in buttermilk and fried until perfectly golden and textured. We’d follow them wherever they go, but you can currently find them in Northern Monk Refectory.

Small but perfectly formed, friendly and unbelievably tasty, Companio Bakery has been selling baked goods to the good people in and around Ancoats since 2015. More recently they expanded their operation into a cafe space in the Northern Quarter, and with it started using their freshly baked bread as the base for some outstanding grab and go sandwiches. Coming in at around the £6 point, which is significantly more reasonable than a lot of comparable ‘posh sarnies’, they have a raft of classic combos like egg mayo, BLT and pastrami and pickle. Just get down earlier rather than later, because these do sell out every lunch time.

There’s a queue outside Moss Side’s Chicken Run at almost any time you could pick to visit. Many are there for Caribbean classics like jerk chicken, curry goat and saltfish and ackee, but if you’re serious about fried chicken you’ll skip straight to the chicken split, a sub-sized festival (a slightly sweet Jamaican dumpling) stuffed with shredded fried chicken and dollops of salad cream. Basically, the best chicken mayo sarnie you’ve had in your entire life. Basically, queue now, thank us later.

Whether you like it or not, a hole in a wall down a sketchy alleyway off Portland Street is responsible for some of the most primo sandwiches in the city. A Fat Pat’s Philly cheesesteak will cost you £15, and with fries, £17. Not cheap, but you have to acknowledge that these are possibly the best around, and that comes at a premium. Also, there’s the argument that a whole sub – a soft milk roll, made on site fresh every day – will feed two. Nonetheless, the cheesesteak is an utter triumph, as is the hot honey fried chicken and the absolutely stuffed eggplant muffuletta. One for payday, but so worth it.

Gooey, though better known for their audacious sweet treats, are also responsible for some the very best sandwiches in the city. Their reuben is stuffed with folds of salt beef, sauerkraut and Russian dressing. The tofu sando had Lizzo going nuts on TikTok and causing roadblock queues. But the egg mayo is ‘the one’. A raft of chopped egg mayo surrounding a perfectly soft boiled egg in the middle. It’s a work of art.

An off-shoot of the ever-raucous Kennedy’s Irish bar in Altrincham, The Irish Deli is a much more sedate affair, a wholesome pantry packed with Irish grocery favourites like Kimberley biscuits, Club soft drinks and Pure Roast Coffee. They’re a cafe too, which is mostly sandwich-led, the main player being the Hot Chicken Fillet Roll, an absolute classic of Irish cuisine. It’s a comforting baguette stuffed with a fillet of breaded chicken, mayo and any other stodgy delicacies your heart desires, along with salad and whatnot. A saviour of many hangovers on the other side of the Irish sea, and now in Alty too.

Serving the hungry workers of Deansgate since 1969, Katsouris is a Greek deli in the most old school sense. At lunchtime, the place is in a controlled state of chaos as people queue up to have generous portioned sandwiches, salads and meat and rice boxes constructed for them. They source their bread from that other deli institution, the Barbakan in Chorlton, which you can then stuff with cured meat, salads, pickles, sauces and other bits and bobs to your liking. They certainly aren‘t stingy either, these reasonably-priced feasts will keep you full all afternoon. Don’t even think about grabbing a meal deal instead.

We’ve come a long way from the era of the greasy Breville, dug out of a cupboard a couple of times of year to fashion those hot pockets of molten cheddar. Northern Soul’s grilled cheese game is first rate, and while the New Yorker might be loaded up with pastrami, and the one with macaroni might be a carby bombshell, the ‘classic’, with its three cheese mix on golden sourdough, is the one. Find them on Tib Street in the Northern Quarter.

Breakfast is often called the most important meal of the day. In Pollen, it objectively is. Not since it debuted its legendary cruffin, to queues of people outside its original bakery under the arches at Piccadilly, has Pollen attained such perfection. The bacon is streaky, the eggs are fried perfectly and the brioche bun is soft and brown. Simple, but devastating. For veggies, there’s a cheddar, kimchi and watercress alternative that equally delivers breakfast salvation.

From humble beginnings delivering quality sarnies during lockdown, Rack now has a branch in Stockport, one in Sale and another in the Arndale food market, each smashing it with their take on the traditional lunchtime butty, but done really, really well. So that chicken mayo? Might sound basic, but it’ll be the best chicken mayo you’ll ever have. And don’t start us on that beef birria; fall-to-bits Mexican-style brisket, served with dipping broth. They do four variations on the cheese melt, and the fried chicken sandwich with a chilli and burnt lime may dressing is simply not to be messed with.

Okay, so Rustica’s sandwiches might lack the intensive process of Fat Pat’s or the Edinburgh Castle, but it’s an institution nonetheless, 20 years in the sandwich game, with owner Jeanette a beloved face in the Northern Quarter. Its eminence is evidenced by the queue of hipsters, hi-vis labourers and general office folk which snakes past the sex shop next door pretty much from when they open at breakfast time. With most sandwiches barely breaking five or six quid – and less in some cases – it’s an affordable option that’s not a depressing fridge-cold meal deal from the supermarket. The Moroccan lamb and chicken are classics, as is the legendary ‘Milano’ (served on a granary ‘frisbee’). Anywhere serving up spam non-ironically has our vote.

Manchester’s Vietnamese food scene is thriving, and there’s an abundance of places we could have tapped for the quality of their banh mi, but the one at Viet Shack arguably takes it. Think chunks of slow-cooked pork belly (always boasting a generous layer of crackling) and shards of sharp pickled carrot, cabbage and coriander, on a crisp baguette. That’s it. Simple but fantastically good.