Manchester’s go-to fried chicken shop Yard and Coop has gone all-out for Easter this year, serving up deep-fried dippy chocolate eggs with churros for soldiers as part of its Easter menu.
After fans went wild for its deep-fried Creme Eggs last year, the Edge Street favourite has one-upped itself again for 2023 by releasing a whole array of battered chocolate goodies.
Ranging from the Cadbury’s classic to Reese’s, Hershey’s, and Lindor Salted Caramel varieties, customers can order these naughty treats inside Yard and Coop’s Northern Quarter restaurant all Easter week long.
Taking their eggs and soldiers game to the next level, each egg is dipped in tempura batter before being deep fried until crisp, then served with churros soldiers ready to be slam dunked into a waiting hot, gooey chocolate middle.
Image: Yard and Coop
Image: Yard and Coop
Priced at £5 each, customers are invited to the chocolate egg of their choice – with dunkable fillings ranging from Reese’s peanut butter to Lindor’s salted caramel, Hershey’s cookies and creme, or the well-known Cadbury ‘egg’ fondant classic.
Launched on Monday 3 April, the deep-fried ‘dippy eggs’ are available at Yard and Coop up until Easter Sunday itself which falls this year on 9 April.
First launched by twp friends united by their love of fried chicken back in 2015, Yard and Coop has been a mainstay in the Northern Quarter for the past eight years.
A go-to for all things fried chicken, not to mention saucy wings, sticky nugz, cocktails, beers and other bites, other menu must-tries include the epic Massive C*ck burger.
A mixture of Buttermilk fried chicken thighs, not nugz, bacon, cheese sauce, handmade waffle, onion rings, creamy slaw and a mac n’ cheese filled Yorkshire pudding with lashings of Dr Pepper BBQ, Ranch, and Sriracha mayo), it’s then finished off with three BBQ wings – with owners instructing you to ‘bring your tape measure’ because ‘size matters’.
Featured image – Yard and Coop
Eats
Lively Irish pub Nancy Spains set to open in Manchester for the first time
Daisy Jackson
An Irish bar famed for its live music is heading up to Manchester for the first time, and is promising £2.50 pints to lure us in.
Nancy Spains will be venturing out of London for the first time promising to bring the ‘ultimate traditional Irish pub experience’ to the Northern Quarter.
If you were to ask what the hottest trend in hospitality is right now the answer would, apparently, be Guinness. We’re drowning in the stuff.
This latest opening is more about Murphy’s, another Irish stout, than Guinness (they actually won’t serve Guinness at all) but the craic will be much the same.
Nancy Spains is actually set to open almost directly opposite the aforementioned Salmon of Knowledge, taking over the former Corner Boy unit on Stevenson Square in the heart of Manchester.
To celebrate its opening, the pub will be serving its first 5000 pints of Murphy’s for just £2.50, so that it can show off the atmosphere that’s established it as ‘one of London’s favourite pubs’.
They’re promising an array of Irish whiskeys behind the bar, live music performances, and a lively late-night setting.
Nancy Spains was set up by three brothers who travelled all over their home county of rural Kerry researching Irish pubs, before launching two venues down in London.
They want it to balance a traditional pub with the vibrancy of the city.
Peter O’Halloran, co-founder of Nancy Spains commented, “We’re so excited to be launching in Manchester, bringing Nancy Spains to the heart of the Northern Quarter.
“After the success of our two venues in London, it was only right to bring Nancy Spains’ infectious spirit and Irish pride to Manchester. Slainte!”
Nancy Spains will open its first Manchester pub on Saturday 15 March at 21 Hilton Street.
Lucky Mama’s – The Italian restaurant serving pasta in a dough bowl and ‘pregnant’ pizzas
Daisy Jackson
Lucky Mama’s is a local sensation, thanks to its slightly whacky but delicious Italian creations like pasta served in a bowl made of pizza dough and its latest offering, a ‘pregnant’ pizza.
What on Earth is a pregnant pizza, you ask? Firstly we should stress this is a nickname we’ve bestowed upon the dish, rather than Lucky Mama’s chosen branding.
But essentially it’s a helping of fresh pasta that’s folded into the bubble crust of the pizza, like a half-calzone.
Lucky Mama’s started life when founders Mamadou Dhiam and Gaby Santos set up a trailer in their backyard in Eccles in the depths of lockdown.
But thanks to a formidably loyal following that’s spread the word of Lucky Mama’s far and wide, it now has two pretty pink restaurants in Greater Manchester.
Back in 2022, they threw open the doors to their Chorlton restaurant, before returning back to home turf for spot number two in Monton in 2024.
The recipes are fresh and pretty authentically Italian up until the last step, when they throw a curveball by loading their pasta into unconventional vessels.
‘Pregnant’ pizzas at Lucky Mama’sTraditional Roman pizzasLucky Mama’s pink restaurant in Chorlton
Their pasta pizza bowls are what they’re best known for and they fly out of the kitchen – this is where pizza dough is placed around a metal bowl before being baked in an oven.
Then it’s piled high with freshly made pasta, with popular flavours like cacio e pepe, mushroom alfredo, and rasta pasta.
Pasta is available in a regular ceramic bowl too.
You’ll find Lucky Mama’s at 565 Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton; and 217 Monton Road in Eccles.
Georgina Pellant -
4th April 2023 
