GRILL ON THE ALLEY MANCHESTER (MATTYB RECOMMENDS)

It wasn't the first time that we had visited Grill On The Alley in Manchester when we visited last month however when we received an email that they were offering discounts on table bookings so that people could sample their new menu and with a visit to the city planned, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to give them another shot. So, off we popped with our reservation ready to see what delicious new treats they were serving up this springtime.

REFUGE MANCHESTER (MATTYB RECOMMENDS)

It's funny how you can walk past somewhere fairly regularly and not even notice it's there. When we travel up to Manchester for concerts and theatre visits we often get off at Oxford Road and we'd never noticed Refuge before. We spied this offshoot of "Volta", a successful Manchester restaurant by chefs Justin Crawford and Luke Cowdrey (also know as the Unabombers - according to their website anyway!) online when planning a birthday meal in the city and we loved the sound of the menu so we decided to give them a try. Off we popped on the train to Manchester once more ready for a delicious celebration meal.

GRAFENE MANCHESTER (MATTYB RECOMMENDS)

Why we booked a table at Grafene earlier this month is still a mystery to us? Not in a bad way you understand but its just we can't remember where or how we discovered it! Having booked said table weeks in advance for a pre-theatre dinner we ventured up to King Street in the Deansgate area of Manchester city centre on quite a wet and windy Friday evening to see if there was method to our apparent madness.

ALBERT'S SCHLOSS MANCHESTER (MATTY B RECOMMENDS)

A Friday night visiting Manchester for a little boogie at it's famous arena meant that it was time to give another of the city's new food and drink offerings a whirl and this time it was the turn of Albert's Schloss in the trendy Deansgate area of the city centre that caught our eye. Inspired by the Bavarian and Bohemian areas of Europe; it boasts on its website of being the first Tankovna in Manchester as well as having its very own bakery and "cook haus". I didn't know what what a Tankovna was but it sounded intriguing so off we went to go check it out.

TAKE PART IN THE LEGENDARY CAKE AND BAKE SHOW COMPETITION!

The Cake & Bake Show in Association with Argos is the UK’s only dedicated baking show and arrives at ExCeL London on 7-9 October and EventCity Manchester on 10-13 November. Online entries are flooding in for one of the key highlights, the prestigious Official Show Cake and Bake Competition, where keen bakers from around the UK compete for a much-coveted winning rosette awarded for Best in Show, then Gold, Silver and Bronze within each category, along with a host of fabulous baking related prizes from Bosch and Kenwood, supplied by Argos. 

PER TUTTI MANCHESTER (MATTYB RECOMMENDS)

I'm up in Manchester a lot for concerts and gigs and normally I have an idea about where I'm going to eat before each visit. This week however I traveled up sans schedule and stumbled across Per Tutti as I got off the train at Deansgate. I didn't know anything about the place or what I was in for so with zero expectations I headed through the door ready for some food.

MOWGLI MANCHESTER (MATTYB RECOMMENDS)

When I finally got round to visiting Mowgli Street Food in Liverpool last year I was incredibly delighted that I enjoyed it as much as I expected too what with all the positive comments I'd heard about it from my friends and family. Because of this, I didn't think twice when there was a possibility of visiting their new opening in Manchester over this Valentines weekend to see if they could carry over the good work to a second city. So off we went on an extremely cold Friday in February to the newly revamped Corn Exchange in Manchester's bustling city centre. 

URBAN COOKHOUSE MANCHESTER (MATTY B RECOMMENDS)

Manchester's food scene continues to grow and grow with numerous new places to eat popping up on what almost seems to be a weekly basis. One such venue is the Urban Cookhouse which was handily close to the hotel we were staying in during our latest visit to Manchester and with an appetizing looking menu on offer we thought we would go check it out!

ROZAFA MANCHESTER (MATTYB RECOMMENDS)

I spend quite a bit of time in Manchester going to concerts and gigs and several times I had walked past Greek restaurant Rozafa and thought "you know what, we should really give them a go one day". Today that day finally arrived and we finally took a walk down to see if the food could take us back to our holiday in Rhodes a few years ago. The weather certainly was doing that as it was in the centre of a Great British heatwave so all Rozafa needed to do was provide the authentic Greek dishes to send us back to that fabulous island!

ALCHEMIST NEW YORK STREET MANCHESTER (MATTYB RECOMMENDS)

Everyone loves a cocktail! Boy I know that I do and having stumbled across the Alchemist New York Street smack bang in the centre of Manchester online and seeing the fabulous concoctions they serve I knew I had to give them a go. With a menu of delicious sounding food also on offer would it be a case of too much style of substance. It was time to find out!

RICE BOWL MANCHESTER (MATTYB RECOMMENDS)

To have over 700 reviews on TripAdvisor and still be in the top thirty restaurants in a major city is no mean feat and The Rice Bowl in Manchester is currently rocking those statistics. I'd heard great things about this Chinese stalwart of the Manchester food scene however when a friend and I rocked up here just before Christmas to be turned away due to being too busy I knew I had to come back armed with a reservation. Somewhere this packed has to be doing something right!

BISTRO 1847 MANCHESTER (MATTYB RECOMMENDS)

I'm not a vegetarian, however having lived with a pretend one for nearly nine years I've become accustomed to eating many a meat free meal and a lot of my blog recipes are veggie friendly. I do get frustrated that some eateries are off limits due to a lack of veggie options that Jon actually likes (risotto and goats cheese are a no no) so Bistro 1847 is a godsend. Whenever we have visited in the past there has always been top notch meat free farye that is so beautifully presented and delicious that it makes you wonder why you ever need a slab of meat on your plate. With the arrival of their new Autumn menu we decided it would be a great time to see if their new dishes excelled as much as those we had enjoyed so much in the past. Sure enough, it was once again an absolute treat!