The restaurant world will have all eyes on a French tyre manufacturer on Monday, as the Michelin stars are doled out. Some will be cementing their reputations as the very best chefs in the world while others will be starting out on that very same journey.
Manchester’s Mana got the city’s first star for decades back in 2019, and having snagged a ‘Green star’ for its sterling sustainability efforts, Stockport’s surely Star-worthy Where The Light Gets In teased us with the possibility of another last year.
Read more: 'I had the best pie of my life on one of Manchester's last cobbled streets'
But some restaurants will never in a million years bag themselves a star. Does it matter? Nope. They’re all still amazing. Here are some of our absolute faves…
Fat Pat’s
Not all Michelin starred restaurants are on boujee streets with red carpets on the pavement and a man with a hat on outside. That said, Fat Pat’s location, hidden down a ropey alley in Chinatown, would be enough to scare away any likely Michelin inspectors. Still, the hoagies they poke through their hole-in-the-wall hatch all day are the stuff of dreams, so it’s their loss.
88 Portland St, Manchester M1 4GX
Banh Mi Co Ba
Some of the best Vietnamese gear in the city is coming from this unassuming lunch spot slap bang in the middle of Oxford Street. Sidestep the queues for the burrito place next door (it’s fine) and pick up a heavenly braised pork bao bun sandwich, a sturdy banh mi or a bowl full of broken rice with crispy fried tofu.
87 Oxford St, Manchester M1 6EG
Ornella’s Kitchen
Denton isn’t likely to be the Manchester neighbourhood to snare the city’s next Michelin star, but that’s not to say that Ornella Cancila isn’t making pasta that would bring a Michelin judge to their knees at her fabulous cafe. A star may not be forthcoming, but her bucatini carbonara with crisped up guanciale deserves one on its own.
10 Manchester Rd, Denton, Manchester M34 3LE
Cafe Marhaba
Another backstreet location to give the Michelin judge’s the heebie-jeebies, what Back Piccadilly lacks in kerb appeal it makes up for in Cafe Marhabas. Calling it a ‘rice and three’ somehow feels like it’s being lined up with some lesser spots, churning out curries in volume. This bastion of Pakistani cooking is much more than that. A bowl of nihari and a naan is all you need.
36 Back Piccadilly, Manchester M1 1HP
Pollen
There are hundreds of moving parts going into being awarded a Michelin star - sourcing, ambience, service, sustainability, and that’s all before the quality of the cooking. But order one of Pollen’s breakfast buns - a browned potato brioche roll with streaky bacon, butterhead lettuce and smoked onion mayonnaise - and they’d be kicking out the stars like a Pez dispenser.
42 Aytoun St, Manchester M1 3GL
Mr Hong’s
What Mr Hong’s lacks in cheffy Michelin-ness, it more than makes up for with the number of bullfrog dishes on the menu. If bullfrog is not your thing, there are pork dishes cooked with billions of dried chillies, restoring soups, proper sweet and sour, and skewers for days, some of which come in at under a quid. Find anything under a quid in a place with a Michelin star, and we’ll eat our hats.
45-47 Faulkner Street (upper ground floor), Manchester M1 4EE
Mi & Pho
Down there in deepest Northenden, this casual Vietnamese place does things with sweet, sour and salty that would be the envy of any high end place with a star on the door (or two or three). Their papaya salad is a thing of joy, as are those deep bowls of soup and noodles. You can keep your gels, gases and foraged flora.
384 Palatine Rd, Northenden, Wythenshawe, Manchester M22 4FZ
Mama Flo’s
While everyone loves the A6, it’s hard to imagine the Michelin inspectors navigating it in order to stuff themselves full of curry goat, pepper steak and jerk chicken. And fried chicken. More fool them, frankly. Mama’s Flo’s is an absolute gem, serving up some of the very best Caribbean food in Greater Manchester. And if stars were handed out for personality, Flo would have three already.
314 Buxton Rd, Stockport SK2 7DD
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