Manchester eats like a port city without a coast: Cantonese bakeries on Faulkner Street, Rusholme's half-mile of curry houses, Ancoats sourdough and Sicilian pasta, and cask ale poured in railway arches. Three days, one tram zone, endless barms.
A ruined 1858 meat market restored in 2017 into a communal food hall under iron trusses. Pollen Bakery does sourdough and cardamom buns, Fin Fish serves crab crumpets, Honest Crust fires Neapolitan pizza. Open 09:00 Wed-Sun, no bookings, shared benches.
Walk Tib Street to Oldham Street hitting the small producers: The Bread Shed, Nord cheese counters and Manchester's own Lancashire crumbly. Local rule — a barm cake filled with crumbly Lancashire and Bury black pudding is the true regional sandwich.
Britain's second-largest Chinatown, marked by the 1987 Imperial Arch, a gift-built paifang with hand-painted panels. Happy Seasons does roast duck on rice under £11, Ho's Bakery sells custard tarts and BBQ pork buns for change, and hotpot runs late.
An 1888 pub with a sloping mosaic floor and glazed brick barrel-vaulted ceiling listing the drinks in tile. Home of Marble Beers since 1997; Manchester Bitter and Pint are the house cask pours, and the kitchen does a proper pie and mash.
Canalside bakery on the Ashton Canal basin doing 48-hour fermented sourdough, laminated pastel de nata and a much-photographed pistachio croissant. Coffee from Manchester roasters; terrace tables sit right on the water by the marina moorings.
A Puglian-Southern Italian counter that built its name on hand-rolled pasta cooked to order — rigatoni with beef shin and bone marrow ragu is the signature. Ancoats was Little Italy for a century, so the pasta here sits on real historical ground.
Roughly half a mile of South Asian and Middle Eastern kitchens lit by neon since the 1970s, grown from Manchester's Pakistani and Kashmiri settlement. Kabana does canteen-style curry by the tray, while shawarma grills and mithai shops run past midnight.
A Rusholme institution working a live charcoal pit — lamb chops marinated overnight, seekh kebabs and karahi cooked over coals in the open kitchen. The chai and kulfi close it out; booking is effectively required from Thursday to Sunday.
The 1879 market hall that sparked Britain's market-hall revival in 2014, a 20-minute Metrolink ride from St Peter's Square. Shared refectory tables, a fishmonger, Great North Pie Co and a cheese counter; the market is closed Mondays.
Street-food traders and bars inside the derelict Mayfield railway depot behind Piccadilly, a platform-and-glasshouse site abandoned for 30 years. Rotating kitchens do tacos, Korean fried chicken and rotisserie; heated glasshouses run through winter.
One of Britain's most exported modern breweries, founded 2014 in a railway-arch industrial estate ten minutes from Piccadilly. The taproom pours hazy IPA and mixed-fermentation beers straight off tank; check opening days, it runs Thu-Sun.
An 1811 coaching pub with 300-plus whiskies, tiled corridors and murals of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, which happened yards away. Cask ale, pork pies and a coal fire; it sits opposite the Bridgewater Hall on the canal basin edge.