2020/2021: Great eats in Manchester during a pandemic

I don’t need to tell anyone how monumentally horrendous the last year or so has been. A lot of us have grieved for people we loved and frankly, I’ve lost a lot of faith in humanity over the last year. I personally have sought a lot of comfort in food, so make no apologies for how much I’ve spent or for the extra pounds I’m carrying as a result.

As someone who is interested in food, I’ve really enjoyed the country’s re-focus on cooking and preparing food at home. I’ve loved seeing everyone’s banana bread and sourdough offerings. Long may that continue!

However, the genuine highlights of the last year for me have been provided by restaurants and food providers who have worked their socks off during the pandemic to feed us and give us something to look forward to and enjoy during a really terrible time.

Whether it’s a meal kit, eating outside wrapped in a blanket or via home delivery, restaurants and takeaways have all had to adapt really quickly and they’ve all done an amazing job in what must be the most stressful situation for a small business owner.

Here’s some of the best food I’ve eaten in the last year that we’ve been able to get or have delivered to Manchester. This list is by no means exhaustive, but ones that I particularly enjoyed that I remembered to photograph.

Wholesome Junkies

You don’t need to be vegan to love their food. I’ve long been a fan of their stall at the Arndale Market and we begun buying their mealkits during lockdown. We ended up ordering them three times; we loved making their burgers and they tasted amazing. Also: TOTS.

Siop Shop

I have taken rubbish pictures but I’m telling you, these are the best doughnuts in Manchester. I didn’t think I even liked doughnuts that much before I tried theirs.

Wolf at the door

Slinging out tacos and baos for a quid. Yep, a pound. There’s some really interesting flavour combinations – I’d recommend the chips & curry sauce bao. Have visited a few times for some good, cheap eats and outdoor beers.

Wood

We visited in January 2020 before lockdown came in and loved it. The food was really delicious and inventive and I particularly liked that the cocktail menu was named after rock songs/albums (as you don’t see a lot of rock in fine dining!)

Fast forward to May 2020 it was our first wedding anniversary! With nothing open, we looked to a meal kit to celebrate, so chose Wood’s offering. It was really fun to cook and assemble, with a load of tubs and elements to plate that made it feel like an event.

At time of writing, restaurants are open but only for outdoor dining. Wood are currently serving tacos, so we went last week as I’m a huge fan of a fish taco.

Adam Reid at Home

We visited Adam Reid’s restaurant at the French in 2019 to have his Great British Menu (see my 2019 roundup post for that!). During lockdown, he worked the menu into a meal kit, which we snapped up.

Having had the menu in the restaurant and at home, I was pleasantly surprised by how close the dishes were in flavour! The hash starter and treacle tart dessert are still incredible.

Akhtar at home

This one is not Manchester based, but this is hands down the best value : taste ratio for any meal kit we tried. This curry box contains enough food to feed two people across 5 – 6 meals (or 4 people across 3 – 4 meals). It includes delicious curries, rice and breads. We ordered this box three times and loved each one. They do a meat and vegan version and can vouch for both of them.

SanSan

Launched during lockdown in Prestwich, these are really delicious sandwiches. Their menu changes up quite a lot, but we haven’t had a bad one yet!

Feast by Ed

Also Prestwich based, this was the first time I’d tried potato latkes. They are delicious. Also, perhaps the best turkey sandwich I’ve ever had. We’ve ordered a couple of times to takeaway and I look forward to eating at the restaurant!

Parmogeddon

A parmo is a thing of beauty and parmogeddon do the best ones in town. Usually at Hatch (a street food venue), they were one of the few places who actually delivered to us during Lockdown 1 (side eyeing you, Deliveroo), so we definitely took advantage!

Sam’s chop house

We ordered a Sunday roast meal kit which was delicious and the portion was huge. As they deliver nationwide, for Mother’s Day 2021, I had the ‘famous’ corned beef hash kit delivered to myself and my mum, so though we couldn’t be together, we could cook the same meal and eat it ‘together’ which was really nice.