The best restaurants in Sale

Blanchflower pride themselves on making every single thing on their menu in-house, including the bread and pastries. No two visits are the same, and they seemingly manage to excel in complex, intricate brunch dishes just as masterfully as the classic bacon butty. And if you just fancy one of the aforementioned pastries and a perfectly poured flat white, they can do that too. With a prime spot right in the middle of bustling Stanley Square, we’d recommend getting down early to beat the queues, especially on the weekend.

Walk into the small but mighty Ceresis in Sale Moor, and you’re greeted like long-lost family, and fed in much the same way. The pizza they sell is also properly Italian, which of course sounds like an obvious statement, but as the likes of Rudy’s, Nell’s and Ramona show, you don’t have to be Italian to make pizza. Where Ceresis sits above the crowd is the pedigree that comes with it. Valentina was trained in the pizza-ly arts by perhaps the most preeminent pizzaiolo in all of Italy – Gabriele Bonci, who Vogue magazine once called ‘the Michelangelo of Pizza’, thanks to his services to ‘pizza al taglio’. Basically, it’s the good stuff.

This spot in Sale hasn’t been around for very long, but in the short amount of time it has built up a reputation for its authentic South Indian cooking and modern, vibrant interiors. Their speciality is obviously the dosa, of which there are heaps of variations. Veggies and vegans are well catered for too, we’d recommend the gobi cauliflower and kadai paneer. If you like to mix it up from your standard curries once in a while, Dosa Kingss is a jewel in the crown of Northenden Road.

A bona fide neighbourhood spot, The Fat Loaf is a family-run restaurant in Ashton-upon-Mersey combining classic bistro dishes with a whole array of independent, craft beers. They’re big on steak and seafood, as well as meat-centric small plates like beef rib croquettes and crispy pork tacos. The atmosphere is as welcoming as they come – most customers are regulars, and chances are if you’re a regular, the chef knows how you like your steak cooking. Plus, you can pop in to pick up wine and beer for home. The people of Ashton-upon-Mersey are sat on something really special here.

Not a restaurant, but well worth a dedicated trip to Sale. Grapefruit is housed in a cute, detached black and white building above the tram stop, with an ornate design on the peaked roof above its door. Locals adore it for its ever evolving range of independent coffee brands and the team’s absolute passion for what it does. As well as the daily grind, there are regular takeovers from the likes of Obadiah, Plot Roasting and Dak Coffee Roasters. Sweet baked treats include such swoonworthy creations as raspberry and pistachio buns, grapefruit Turkish delight fancies, and blueberry and lemon meringue friands. There’s often queue of people patiently waiting for their coffee on the bridge, and we can often be found among them.

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). Sale is happily one of them. 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 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.

With spots in Sale and Horwich, Sokrates Taverna have some unapologetically retro blue awnings, which are the universal signpost for classic, family-friendly Mediterranean food. And once inside, that proves to be the case. Baskets of fresh pitta bread, tender lamb skewers, stuffed peppers, golden rings of calamari and generous, warming plates of moussaka. Bring the whole gang, order a bit of everything, and you’re guaranteed a flavoursome evening with old-school, friendly service.

Sale’s Michelin-listed The Perfect Match has a fanatical following, and it’s easy to see why. Its Sunday roast is perfectly executed – dry-aged rump, crispy rolled pork belly, or crispy tofu, with roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, Yorkshire puddings, the works. Best of all, you can get two roasts and a bottle of wine from their excellent selection for £45.

Petisco – meaning tasty morsel in Portuguese – specialises in tapas from the other side of the Iberian peninsula. It’s in good company, with a unit in Stanly Square alongside Zumuku, Blanchflower and the like. On the menu you’ll find things like salt cod fritters, wild boar meatballs and a Portuguese bean stew, as well as as many breads and dips as your heart desires. It’s a really pretty spot – a mix of contemporary and rustic features – and is as good for group dining as well and more intimate date nights. The drinks menu is comprehensive, but a carafe of white and peach sangria often goes down well.

Hidden round the corner from the main drag of Sale town centre, Yard Burgers’ set up lets the food do the talking. They operate out of a shipping container in the backyard of a hairdressers, overlooking a supermarket loading bay. But what it lacks in a bougie location, it more than makes up for with the quality of the output. Their classic American cheese burger and ‘Snobby Cow’, with onion chutney and truffle mayo, are cracking. The definition of no-nonsense.

Every neighbourhood worth their wasabi has one. Zumuku is a contemporary Japanese restaurant serving all your flavoursome faves, from karaage chicken to katsu and teriyaki, via some creative interpretations of the uramaki roll – like spider futomaki with soft shell crab, and vegan varieties with avocado and mango. More fusion than deeply authentic, but absolutely loads of fun. Can’t decide? Go ‘omakase’ (meaning chef’s choice) and pick a sharing platter.