'A taste of the good times at a fraction of the price'

Celebrity chef Tom Kerridge will be offering diners a ‘too good to be true’ set lunch menu deal at three of his restaurants.

The chef, who owns the Bull & Bear in Manchester’s Stock Exchange hotel as well as the world’s first two-Michelin star pub, will create a £15 set menu, executed by his head chefs across the country.

He said he wants to ‘get the excitement and buzz back into restaurants’ during the cost of living crisis.

Kerridge’s menu will include classic pub favourites, executed to his usual high standard, like cottage pie, lasagne, and jam roly poly pudding.

There’ll be two courses for £15, with the option to add an extra course for an extra £7.50 – and bearing in mind that the cheapest starter on the Bull & Bear’s usual menu is £14.50, that’s quite a bargain .

The acclaimed chef pulled off a similar stunt during the 2008 financial crisis when people were ‘very worried about the money in their pockets’ and says it made ‘absolutely no money but filled the pub with noise, excitement and laughter’.

Tom Kerridge added: “Now, in 2022, it feels like those times are here again. You can’t turn on the TV, look at social media or read a newspaper without the grim news of the cost-of-living crisis.

“So, it is time to bring back the ‘too good to be true’ offer. We are very excited to launch a set lunch £15 menu. Yes, that is right, £15 for two courses (a third course can be enjoyed for an additional £7.50), running across three of our sites. Kerridge’s Bar & Grill in the heart of London at The Corinthia, the one Michelin starred The Coach in Marlow, and the beautiful Bull & Bear in Manchester.”

Read more: A free Chinese festival is bringing street food, lion dancing and karate to Manchester

He continued: “The dishes will champion classic pub favourites or even school dinners, so expect cottage pie, lasagne and caramelized onion sausage with mash followed by old school desserts of spotted dick, jam roly poly and crumble and custard.

“The aim is to get the excitement and buzz back into restaurants without guests having the fear of spending too much money. A taste of the good times at a fraction of the price.

“Please come and join us, and most importantly, make a booking in London, Manchester or Marlow.”

The £15 set lunch menu will be available at Tom Kerridge’s The Bull & Bear in Manchester from Monday 5 September.

Featured image: Bull & Bear

With the nights starting to draw in and ‘big coat’ season lurking just around the corner, we can’t help but turn our thoughts to Sunday roasts, steaming jugs of gravy and big glasses sploshing over with red wine.

It might be way too early to be uttering the ‘C’ word, but after one of the hottest and driest summers on record we’re very ready to get cosy, and nothing says that better on a wet and miserable day than a giant plate piled high with roasted meats, vegetables and gravy.

One of the most simple pleasures in life, there’s not much more comforting than this classic English staple. Let’s just say, we’re very keen for Manchester’s Sunday roast season to recommence in full.

Keep reading to discover our top picks for the best Sunday roasts in Manchester. It’s officially red wine season, baby. Dig in.

Not a reference to Charlotte Bronte, but rather to the owners’ mum, neighbourhood kitchen and cocktail bar The Jane Eyre is a must for any self-respecting cocktail lover. It also serves a cracking Sunday roast.

Start with ham hock and manchego croquettes or a salad of fennel, chilli and crab, before moving onto roast sirloin (£18), nut roast (14) or the selected ‘roast of the day’ (£18), all served with duck fat potatoes, honey roasted carrots, greens, carrot & swede mash, pork stuffing, Yorkshire puddings and gravy.

We’d recommend springing for sides, too. An extra £4.50 will get you a skillet of house cauliflower cheese or truffled potato puree. As for dessert, think tarte tatin (£7) or chocolate biscuit cake (£5), both served with ice cream on the side.

Read more: Why this Manchester restaurant is the undisputed king of the Sunday roast

Housed in a former Victorian Courthouse on Deansgate, Hawksmoor manages to be chic, glamorous and entirely unpretentious all at once. Designed to share, roasts here can be split between two or three people – with starters, mains, sides and puddings all included and priced from just £50.

Mains choices include perfectly-pink cuts of bone-in prime rib, chateaubriand and sirloin, as well as Dartmouth lobster with garlic butter, whilst sides span the likes of creamed spinach, macaroni cheese, grilled bone marrow, carrots, roasties, cabbage and – or course — giant Yorkshire puddings.

We’re talking Yorkshire puddings bigger than your face, crispy beef fat roasties, unlimited jugs of bone marrow gravy, and an oozing skillet of cauliflower cheese made with a four-cheese blend of Ogleshield, mozzarella, Stichelton and ‘good Cheddar’.

Carnival at Escape to Freight Island

Brought to Escape to Freight Island by Hawksmoor co-founder Richard Turner and the team behind iconic Liverpool bistro Belzan, Carnival celebrates open fire cooking and offers a Chef’s table experience like no other with a full view of the grill.

Priced at 2 courses for £25 or 3 for £29, mains choices include 34 day-aged rump of beef (served pink), roasted porchetta stuffed with peach, sage and pancetta, Mrs Kirkham’s cheese and onion pie, or two-person sharer ‘The Beast’, a chargrilled 1kg porterhouse steak with extra cauliflower cheese.

All served with orange–glazed carrots, summer greens, roasties, Yorkshire puddings and plenty of gravy, extra sides include grilled tenderstem with garlic butter, Lancashire cheese mash potato and herb crumbed cauliflower cheese.

£39.50 for two courses or £46.50 for three, think indulgent mains like salted aged pork belly, dry-aged Hereford sirloin of beef, and confit autumn mushroom tart.

Each dish comes with its own selected sides, with add-ons like crushed black pepper swede, buttered sprout tops, and cauliflower cheese available at no extra cost.

Puddings, meanwhile, feature the likes of chocolate orange choux with hazelnut, Bailey’s ice cream and salted caramel sauce, “lemon meringue pie” with blackcurrant sorbet, as well as a cheese plate of truffled Baron Bigod, quince tart and truffle honey.

With the option to share a roast platter between two or order individual plates, The Refuge is not messing about with its roast dinners.

With a choice of Lancashire beef, rare breed pork loin, half-roast Cumbrian chicken, or a gorgeous vegan pithivier, prices start from £17. All roasts include a Yorkshire pudding, a selection of vegetables and gravy, but further sides like crispy stuffing balls, pigs in blankets and cheesy mash will set you back extra.

As for the roast platter (£44), order this and you can enjoy all three meats with thyme and salt roast potatoes, Vimto-braised red cabbage, glazed carrot, seasonal greens, Yorkshire pudding, cauliflower cheese, and a big pan of gravy. Not too shabby.

Served from 12pm, Sunday roasts at Evelyn’s put a twist on the traditional British weekend fare with a choice of exotic rubs and marinades. Choices here include mustard-rubbed beef sirloin, harissa buttermilk roast chicken, Morrocan marinaded lamb, all served with seasonal root veg and Evelyn’s gravy.

As for vegans, there’s a roasted cauliflower option served with all the trimmings and a special laksa gravy on offer, and if you don’t fancy that, the restaurant also serves a varied menu – with late brunch dishes available until 3pm.

If you’re a person who cares about where your food is sourced from, Elnecot is the place to come. Owner Michael Clay has excellent connections to local suppliers and celebrates quality British produce in every dish.

Served from 1.30pm until they run out, roast choices at this Ancoats favourite include dry aged Welsh wagyu beef, lemon and thyme corn fed Goosnargh chicken, crispy Yorkshire pork belly, slow-cooked shoulder of Yorkshire lamb and a vegetarian or vegan nut roast.

All served with roasties, fluffy Yorkshire puddings, stuffing, roasted carrots and parsnips, sauteed greens, cauliflower cheese and a rich gravy, prices start from £14.50 for nut roast and £16 for pork.

On Sundays between 12-6pm, Argentinian steakhouse Gaucho serves up its bottomless roast dinner. Specifically designed for overindulging, choose from three different joints of meat to enjoy with unlimited quantities of seasonal vegetables and Yorkshire puddings.

All Gaucho’s meat originates from Argentina and comes from premium Black-Angus cattle, bred at hand-selected farms in the southern province of La Pampa, South America. Every cut is cooked in its own drippings, then presented on steak boards alongside all the usual trimmings.

Priced at £32.50 per person, here you can. enjoy 90 minutes of non-stop feasting on prime steak (and make sure you really get your money’s worth).

With its own dedicated margarita and wild spirits bar, The FIrehouse on Swan Street is one of Manchester’s coolest new venues. Attached to Detroit pizza Ramona, it’s housed inside an old MOT garage and offers (as the name suggests) a selection of wood-fired meats alongside fluffy pittas and sides.

Come Sundays, though, the team also offers a roast with roast Cheshire beef rump, garlic and thyme chicken, slow-cooked lamb shoulder or vegan oyster mushroom wellington, with sides including Yorkshire puddings, crisp roast potatoes and flamed chipolatas

Elsewhere, think buttered greens, melting pots of cauliflower cheese, honey-roasted carrots and parsnips, and lashings of house gravy.

The gravy at Station South is so good, that some customers famously drink it from the glass. The ‘cycle cafe for everyone’ has become something of a neighbourhood favourite since opening its doors this summer, and now we’ve got another reason to go. Roasts.

With giant Yorkshire puddings, heaps of potatoes and greens, the plates here are very generous – but you will have to spring an extra £1.50 for a jug of additional gravy. We reckon it works out fair enough though, thanks to the huge portion sizes.

From the Elite Bistro team behind Sticky Walnut and Kala, this charming neighbourhood bistro in Didsbury Village is, without a doubt, one of the best places to grab a roast south of the city centre.

Priced at 2 courses for £25 or three for £29, mains include roast beef, pork belly, sirloin (for two) and chicken, each served with their own dedicated list of perfectly paired sides.

Elsewhere, you’ll find confit chicken terrine, beer battered salt pickles, pan-fired sea bass in a langoustine bisque and a chestnut mushroom and goats curd linguine. A must-visit this, trust us, and if the egg tart is on simply order it and don’t look back. You’re welcome.

For proper country feels, head to The White Hart at Lydgate for a bang-up Sunday feast. Priced at £29 for 2 courses or 3 for £35, those after a traditional roast can tuck into grass fed Hereford rump of beef, Easingwold pork belly or roasted Yorkshire chicken.

All roasts are served from 12-8pm with Yorkshire puddings, roasted potatoes, cauliflower cheese, honey glazed carrot, savoy cabbage, crispy stuffing, apple and red wine sauce. Alternatively, swing for the coronation cauliflower, crispy haddock and chips or pan-fried stone bass if you fancy something a little different.

This multi-award-winning country gastropub has had some impressive accolades of late, not least an ebullient new inclusion in the Michelin Guide.

All roasts here come served with crispy potatoes, carrot and swede mash, braising vegetables, buttered cabbage, Yorkshire pudding and gravy. Choose from Derbyshire beef sirloin, High Peak lamb shoulder slow roasted overnight, or a ‘chicken of the woods’ mushroom and truffled Baron Bigod tart with seaweed gravy.

A regular haunt of some of Glossop’s most esteemed foodies, technically it’s not in Manchester but we’re not letting that get in the way of a great scran – and neither should you.

A new food hall concept is opening inside one of Manchester’s most historic buildings, taking on a space where the old Natural History Museum once stood.

Brought to life by the team behind Peter Street aperitivo bar Haunt, the new drink and dining hall will sit just around the corner on Museum Street inside the Grade II-listed St George’s House building.

Called Exhibition, it will bring together three independent kitchen concepts alongside two different in-house bars managed in-house and (as you might’ve guessed from the name) a range of dedicated exhibition spaces.

Aiming to push the boundaries of Manchester’s vibrant entertainment scene with the addition of changing works from local artists and a theatrical performance element come nightfall, it will sit inside a stunning period building rich with local history.

Interiors have been stripped back to the bone, leaving not much more than an industrial shell of exposed brick and beams behind.

The new 6,000sqft food hall will serve local beers on tap, an extensive wine list and premium spirits, with locally-brewed craft Manchester Union Lager poured straight from a specially-installed tank.

There will also be a second bar dedicated to seasonally-changing cocktails which will celebrate a new spirit every quarter.

Not much has yet been revealed on the food yet, with operators only saying that kitchens will be serving up ‘innovative seasonal menus with a refined flair’ and offering a mixture of small and large plates.

Then, after dark, the 400-capacity venue will play host to nightly DJs and entertainers, showcasing the very best of Manchester’s creative scene.

Owners are keen to embrace the rich history of the site as they breathe new life into it with the opening of Exhibition.

Based within the stunning settings of St George’s House, which was built on top of Manchester’s old Natural History Museum following its demolishment, this corner of Peter Stret has a significant past.,

As well as once being home to Manchester’s Natural History Museum, it sits above the site of the 1817 Peterloo Massacre where hundreds were injured following peaceful protests for parliamentary reform.

And that’s not all. It is also the very place where the body of Hannah Beswick, also known as the Manchester Mummy, was found. 

A wealthy woman with a pathological fear of premature burial, upon her instructuions following her death her body was embalmed and then kept above ground to be periodically checked for signs of life.

Read more: Charles White: How the Royal Infirmary’s founder became the guardian of The Manchester Mummy

It’s something the team are keen to celebrate, as they prepare to open Exhibition this Autumn.

Sam Wheatley, Operations Manager said: “We can’t wait to start welcoming people to Exhibition this Autumn, and hope to bring something different to Peter Street. It’s been a passion project for the whole team, and we can’t wait to see this incredible space brought back to life.

“Nurturing local businesses and artists is integral to Exhibition, and we’re so excited to share our venue with some of the most talented people from across the region.”

Feature image – Geograph / Supplied

The people's voice of Greater Manchester.
Our aim? To make sure you’re in the know, entertained and educated on what’s happened, or what’s happening, in our great city.

39 Princess Street, M2 4FN [email protected]

Copyright © 2022 The Manc The Manc is a trademark of The Manc Creative Ltd