The best restaurants in Ancoats

An authentic Chinese restaurant in and among the trendy concept bars and restaurants. This Jersey Street spot has a relaxed interior and specialises in dim sum, as well as both Cantonese and Szechuan offerings. Everything is colourful and fresh, but one thing that stands out is their commitment to making sure everyone can enjoy their food – there are dedicated gluten free, vegan, vegetarian and halal menus. One to host your next group get-together at.

A Vietnamese grocery shop-cum-cafe that was one of the first on the stretch of Oldham Road now known as ‘little Hanoi’. Caffiene lovers should add it to their rotation – Vietnamese coffee is a must try, especially over ice on a hot day, and Ca Phe Viet is the best place to give it a go. If you fancy a bite to eat you can grab a bahn mi, the famous Vietnamese sandwich of cold cuts and crunchy salad in a warm baguette. They also do a fantastic pho, that comes in a steaming bowl the size of your head, so we reckon for a good-value lunch, you can’t really go wrong.

Not a restaurant, but more than deserving of a nod here. Meaning ‘company’, this friendly lot specialise in sourdough loaves and ludicrously well-crafted Vienoisserie pastries, and really good coffees. On a sunny lunchtime, grab yourself a black coffee and one of their perfectly laminated croissants or extravagantly filled Danishes, and Ancoats marina could be the Seine.

Headed up by chef-patron Michael Clay, the concept of this up-market Ancoats eatery is pretty simple: source the best possible ingredients from UK producers, and keep it local when and where possible. Then create recipes that celebrate the natural quality of that stock while delivering innovative dishes. Think plates filled with imagination that play to a good sense of humour. Standouts from this award-winning kitchen include the Manchester egg with piccalilli, pig head croquettes, Devon brown crab crumpets, and the iconic, unforgettable disco cabbage.

Synonymous with trendy Ancoats dining, what Erst does, others soon follow. Grab a table in their painfully sophisticated Scandi-inspired dining room, and dive into minimally-presented plates of maximal flavour, and as many flatbreads as you yourself can personally manage.

With a focus on small-scale, low-intervention winemakers, Flawd offers an expertly curated selection of natural wines. Whether you’re an aficionado or just dipping your toes into the world of natural wine, the welcoming, knowledgeable team will help you find something exciting yet approachable. A visit here might involve perfectly paired cheese and charcuterie, freshly baked bread from Pollen, and plates that showcase vegetables in bold and creative ways. The menu is scrawled on a blackboard, a reflection of its fluid nature—what’s here today might be gone tomorrow. It’s excellent year round, but with those marina views, it truly shines in summer.

Fusing together, unsurprisingly, Thai and Hong Kong cuisine, hearts broke across Manchester when Hong Thai suffered a fire in their original spot in the Arndale Market. Luckily we weren’t without their outstanding poh peer massaman curry and tempura prawns for long, as they came back stronger than ever with their own spot on Oldham Road. Convention be damned, we couldn’t think of anything more delicious for lunch than crispy hoisin bites or a brisket noodle soup.

When talking about Manchester’s top restaurants, it would be remiss not to mention the place that brought a Michelin star back to the city centre after 40 odd years. Simon Martin opened mana in 2019 and less than a year later brought home what had eluded other deserving restaurants on this list for decades. But what is it like to eat there? An ever-changing menu takes in at least 12 courses with plenty of special FX from smoke, heat and ice along the way. Commonly recurring ingredients include eel, duck and langoustines all infused with some kind of witchcraft that heightens their flavour and texture beyond anything you’ve tasted before. There’s plenty of Japanese and ESEA influence so you might be presented with a savoury chawanmushi or a kakigori dessert. The wine list includes show off bottles aplenty but also rarer finds and surprisingly affordable options. It might feel like the kind of place you need to dress up to the nines for but we’ve seen plenty of people dining in sportswear at mana. Very Manchester.

Located up on Oldham Road, opposite the sorting office, Pho No.1 is another key addition to a ‘Nam-filled stretch of road (to such an extent it’s been christened Little Hanoi by some). You’re spoilt for choice when it comes to traditional pho, bun and banh mi. They promise ‘the best pho in town’ and it’s certainly up there, as are their excellent small dishes like summer rolls, salt and pepper tofu, Vietnamese pancakes and an unmissable stuffed betel leaf.

A staple of the Ancoats food scene since well before its recent reinvention as a slick foodie neighbourhood, Rad’s Caribbean takeaway has a hardcore following of lunch devotees. The name is not, as is commonly misconceived, a contraction of Radium Street where they reside, but instead the initials of founder Robert Anthony Davidson, who runs the spot with his family. The menu is a wonderfully straightforward A4 printout featuring classic curries and jerk dishes, as well as British takeaway favourites like chips and gravy. Renowned for their generous portion sizes, these are the type of lunches you start fantasising about from 10am.

Synonymous with Neapolitan pizza around these parts, Rudy’s was founded in Manchester and has since conquered the world (well, many other towns and cities in the UK). Their pizzerias all share a relaxed, minimally cool vibe but they don’t feel like a homogenous chain. Pizzas lean towards the satisfying gooey end of things – a fold or a roll is definitely encouraged when biting into these slices. Toppings are simple, largely authentic and made of really well-sourced ingredients. You can add extra cheese, toppings and oils to your hearts content, making the menu pretty much entirely customisable, and the dessert menu featuring affogato and tiramisu is hard to resist too. Consider the hype well-deserved.

Having graduated from the Arndale Market to also having their own spot on Great Ancoats street (though they still have a takeaway in the Arndale), Viet Shack have been serving up outstanding street food with a big sense of personality for a few years now. Their kiosk in the Arndale offers up some amazing summer rolls, banh mi and their famous quack fries, loaded with crispy duck, sriracha and loads more good stuff. Over in Ancoats the restaurant still has a low-key vibe – it’s full of colourful paper parasols, street market-style – but you can enjoy a more extensive range of dishes including burgers, rice dishes and salads. The cocktail menu is a fun affair too, with loads of Asian-inspired martinis, as well as classics and mocktails too.

Takoyaki Masters began life serving their soft, chewy, slightly crispy octopus dumplings in the Arndale food market, and now they’ve graduated to their own premises on the Oldham Road, which is gradually becoming a food destination in its own right. Their signature dumplings are topped with all sorts of great things, like kewpie mayo, takoyaki sauce, bonito flakes and masago, the bright red fish roe. You can also enjoy an expanded menu of udon soup noodles, okonomi fried chicken with Japanese curry, sushi-style rice rolls and rich rice dishes topped with fried eggs. It’s great to have them back.