A TikToker that is famous for ordering massive Chinese takeaways left owners of a Manchester restaurant ecstatic after he paid them a visit this week.
Best known as Big John, or @boshtokk on TikTok, the dad of professional boxer Johnny Fisher stopped off at Happy Seasons in Chinatown for one of his signature massive scrans on Thursday leaving fans blown away.
Filling his table with food and even posing for a picture with its owner, the hilarious TikToker went in: ordering a whopping nine plates of food including fried monkfish and bean curd, triple roast meats, salt and pepper pork chops, soft noodles, egg fried rice, stir-fried veg and pork, sweet and sour king prawns and tender beef brisket.
As if that wasn’t enough, he also opted for several steamed baskets of dim sum – digging into Har Gow and Siu Mai dumplings stuffed with pork and prawns on top of everything else.
In a video uploaded to Happy Seasons’ Instagram page on Thursday, you can hear Big John explaining each dish to the camera before looking up and spouting his catchphrase ‘bosh’ before adding that the food looks ‘delicious’.
In a post that has been liked over 1,000 times, Happy Seasons wrote: “Had the pleasure of serving @itsbigjohn1. Thank you for coming up north and stopping by china town John, we hope you’ve enjoyed the food.”
A former boxer himself, today Big John is mostly famous for ordering mega Chinese takeaways on TikTok and saying ‘bosh’.
One of his first viral videos saw him order what, for him, was a standard takeaway – leaving viewers staggered as he opted for practically the whole menu in one sitting.
His original TikTok @Wilbatross was banned at 400k followers, but he has since created another which has already racked up over half a million likes.
A certified Chinese takeaway connoisseur, we’re not sure we know anyone with more enthusiasm for putting in a big order than John.
As he says, “Some things can’t be stopped. Big John eating Chinese is one of them.”
Featured image – Happy Seasons
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 -
21st April 2023 
