The best genuinely cheap eats in Manchester

This one feels almost illegally cheap. Bunny Jackson’s (and their sibling establishments Junior Jackson’s, Bunny’s Karaoke and Bunny’s Country Club) offer almost obnoxiously cheap wings. They start at 20p for a classic sauceless version, and go up to £1 a pop for the ‘hotter than the sun’ variety. We wouldn’t recommend this as a regular weekday lunch, but sometimes you can’t argue with a plate full of chicken for under a fiver. These also hit the spot when post-work pints have accidentally encroached into tea time. 

Up in Bury, on the world famous Bury Market, Chadwick’s have been making the most sought-after black pudding to their secret family recipe for generations. If you’re going to enjoy this Lancashire speciality anywhere, it should be here. Tony and Many get through hundreds of puds every day, and real connoisseurs know it’s enjoyed right away, piping hot and topped with loads of homemade mustard. The experience will set you back a whole £1.40. Unreal.

Chorlton Food Store’s in-house baker Rabea uses fresh dough to make lahmacun (‘lah-ma-jun’), pressing and stretching spiced minced lamb into the bread, stretching it out as he goes until it’s paper thin and then adding cheese, and, if you like, mushrooms and onions too, before it heads into the revolving oven. Have them rolled and ready to eat out of the paper, or sliced up like a pizza with some fresh parsley and salad on top. Best bit? A small lahmacun is £3.49, or get a large for £4.49.

There are a few places in Manchester where you can get this beloved Caribbean sarnie, but Chicken Run in Moss Side is widely regarded to have the best. In fact, it’s arguably their signature dish. In short, it’s a fried chicken sandwich, but purists will tell you the devil’s in the details. It’s served on a festival – a sweet Jamaican dumpling – and doused in salad cream. For under £7, we’d struggle to think of a more indulgent lunch.

The Northern Quarter is absolutely full of trendy cafes creating outrageous sandwiches on really nice bread, but nowhere is doing it more reasonably than Companio. Every day at their Spear Street spot they make loads of soft, dusty ciabatta-esque subs and fill them with classic combos like ham and mustard mayo, egg and cheese and of course, a BLT. The most you’ll ever pay for one of these is £7, and that’s for the fancy, slow cooked meat options. Everything else is around the £5 mark. You need never pick up a refrigerated supermarket sandwich again, as long as you get down early enough, before they sell out.

A co-op and cafe that’s been championing all thinks chickpea since way before the city was full of vegan and veggie options, Eighth Day was founded in 1970. As well as being a haven of cruelty-free groceries and supplies, you can eat fresh and cheap plant-based food in their cafe. Their dal of the day is a lunchtime failsafe – a hearty and filling red lentil, tarka or chana will set you back less than six quid.

Over in Ladybarn – you know Ladybarn, that bit between Longsight and Burnage – you’ll find Kabul Bakery, and along with it one of the best £4 scrans we’ve ever encountered in this city. We’d recommend making a beeline for the bolani, which is a thinly rolled, half moon flatbread stuffed with minced lamb, chicken, potato or leek. These huge stuffed breads are just £4 for the veggie versions and £4.50 for the lamb and chicken, and for another 50p you can get a pot of homemade red or spiky green chilli sauce, or homemade garlic mayo to dip them in.

Located inside Happy Lemon on Portland Street is Kung Fu Burger, a takeaway spot that serves outstanding Chinese burgers. Their point of difference is that they serve them on a flaky, roti-like bun, which is seriously worth a try. Prices start at £6.90, and fillings include braised beef, crispy duck and traditional pork. Form an orderly queue.

There are shawarma spots, and then there’s Leve Bakery. Specialising in all your favourite dough-and-chargrilled-meat combos like fatayer, kebabs, and even the occasional burger, the star of the show at Leve B is the mixed shawarma. Served on a samoon or flatbread, enjoy succulent chicken and lamb, technicolour salad, and plenty of chilli and yoghurt for a fiver. At this point, they’re practically providing a public service.

Over in Altrincham, you’re not short of amazing foodie options, though genuine bargains are a little harder to come by. MOST Bakery have been remedying that for a little while now with their sandwich offering, which you can eat in their pretty cafe, or take away. Served in a fluffy-with-a-good-crunch baguette, the chicken and tarragon is a lunchtime hero. And under £6 too, really good value for a fancy sarnie.

Known for their satellite dish-sized pizzas, Nell’s offer a super affordable way to enjoy a slice of the action: slices! While this way of enjoying pizza is pretty ubiquitous in the sates, it’s still a bit of a novelty here. You can enjoy a (still substantial) triangle of perfectly crisp, freshly baked goodness. They start at £3.25 of a wedge of marinara, and go up to £4.75 for more extravagant toppings like ‘Do You ‘Roni Honey’, with ‘nduja, pepperoni and chilli honey.

A sub-£5 lunch wrap is a rare thing, even rarer in Ancoats, where there seems to be no upper ceiling on the price of such things. The good people at Off The Press on George Leigh Street serve generously-filled tortilla wraps with fillings like crispy chilli tofu, salt and pepper chicken and smokey harissa chickpea every lunchtime. They have understood the brief, and delivered.

Flaky, savoury and slightly oily, parathas are the perfect unfussy snack for mid-afternoon or post-pub sestenance. In Levenshulme, you can enjoy them while you get your car washed too. Paratha Hut – the tiny, plastic furniture-filled cafe behind a Stockport Road car was – has you covered. Starting at just £1 for a plain one, there are also keema, gobi, peshawari and chicken varieties. The ‘mega paratha’ with chicken, aloo and cheese won’t even set you back a fiver.

Pennington Plaice in Leigh has been named one of the top 50 fish & chip shops in the UK, and with queues out of the door on a regular weekday lunchtime, it’s easy to see why. One menu item really stands out though: the ‘Super Barm’. Insanely, it’s in the ‘lighter portions’ section of the menu. It’s a heap of chips, a scoop of vivid green mushy peas and a mini fish fillet on top, all for £5.95. You simply can’t argue with that. 

Up and down Oldham Road you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to Vietnamese restaurants and cafes. If you’re looking to save some pennines though, get yourself down to Pho No. 1. The eponymous pho is obviously outstanding, but the most affordable star of the show is the banh mi (simply called the ‘Vietnamese baguette’ on their menu). It’s a fresh baguette stuffed with a zingy mix of pickle, cucumber, carrot, coriander, chilli and a signature sauce. A budget-friendly sandwich that won’t leave you needing a lie-down after.

It’s astounding that there are people who have not yet discovered the Northern Quarter gem that is Rustica. This old-school butty hatch is the reason why it’s almost impossible to traverse the corner of Tib and Hilton Street on any given breakfast or lunchtime. Known for their quick, tasty sandwiches and always friendly service, this spot is a bona fide establishment. Their most popular combination is the Milano – chicken, bacon, pesto and garlic mayo – on a ciabatta, and it’ll only set you back £4.50. No notes.

Tibetan Kitchen is as authentic as Tibetan food gets in Manchester. Started by the inimitable Sonny and his trademark wide-brimmed rancher’s hat, they have a handful of unique venues across South Manchester including a tented outdoor kitchen at Chorlton Water Park, the peaceful wooden structure in Chorlton Park and a bricks-and-mortar café on the Whalley Range border. There’s loads of dishes to try, but six of their satisfying veggie momos for £6 is an utter bargain.

Arguably the best-known of the Northern Quarter’s abundant rice ‘n’ three cafes, which were originally set up as cheap and cheerful canteens for the predominantly south asian community who worked in the area’s many textile factories. Even though the NQ has changed much over the decades, the rice ‘n’ three cafes have stuck around. At This & That, you can get a plate piled high with rice and three fresh curries from just £6. There’s everything from the trusty chicken tikka masala to the altogether more adventurous lamb and pumpkin. It’s iconic for a reason.

V. Goode Pies have some serious pastry prestige. The shop on Oxford Road was opened by the culinary talent behind Winsome and Madre. That doesn’t mean they don’t recognise the value of an affordable lunch though. Their core range of well-filled, flaky pies are all priced at £6, and that includes classic flavours like meat and potato or cheese, potato and onion, as well as wildcard options like lasagne. You can also make it a meal deal with a snack and a drink for a very reasonable £9.

Another pick from Oldham Road’s ‘Little Vietnam’ quarter, Wow Banh Mi obviously does a cracking baguette, but it’s a different street food staple that’s caught our eye. The crunchy shelled sausage on a stick might be familiar from American TV, but it’s popular in Vietnam, Japan, Korea and beyond. If you’ve got a few more pennies to spend, you could always opt for a souped up version with cheese, beef or potato.

This one is a bit of a no-brainer. Zaytoni have had a presence on Oxford Road for some time, but it’s when they opened their site on Oldham Street (within mooching distance of the Manchester’s Finest office), they really came to our attention. Serving some of the most tender shawarma and flavoursome falafel around, you simply can’t argue with their £6 chicken samoon. It’s a fluffy flatbread stuffed with meat, salad and loads of hummus and sauce. Perfect post-pub cuisine, but so good you can have it for your lunch too.