Afternoon tea is one of the most quintessential British past times going, and here in Manchester, we have a historic tea room that has been serving it for more than 100 years.
The Midland Hotel has been treating Mancs to this popular afternoon treat since it first opened, so it seemed only right that we popped over to sample it for ourselves and see what is it that makes this tea room one of the city’s best.
Serving the longest-running afternoon tea menu in the city, afternoon tea has been a staple at The Midland Hotel since its opening in 1903.
It was originally served on the hotel’s roof terrace, which offered stunning views across the city centre, but moved when the hotel’s roof was closed to the public in 1910, relocating to what was then the Winter Garden area of the hotel.
Over time, afternoon tea moved to the Octagon, where it remained for years until the landmark Manchester hotel opened a bespoke Tea Room in 2017, where it has been served ever since.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Today, teas are enjoyed from the newly-refurbished Wyvern Room overlooking St Peter’s Square – replete in soft pinks, creams, and muted sages.
Its popularity continues at pace, with an astounding 800 pots of tea served weekly on average, alongside 600 scones and 55 bottles of Champagne (equalling approximately 330 flutes).
All of the Tea Room’s cakes, scones, and sandwiches are made in-house by the hotel’s patisserie team, and guests can choose from ten loose leaf tea varieties, including three of The Midland’s own beautiful house blends – one of which tastes just like strawberries and cream.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Scones are served silver service style at the table, with thick scoops of clotted and a choice of homemade preserves spanning strawberry jam, raspberry jam, and tart-yet-sweet lemon curd.
Sit overlooking St Peter’s Square, sip on beautiful teas, and, if you really want to push the boat out, Champagne, whilst enjoying some dainty finger sandwiches, cakes, scones, and proper silver service from its impeccable team.
Think crustless sarnies filled with the likes of crayfish and prawn, honey roast ham and broad bean puree, cucumber with mint and poppy seed cream cheese, as well as a shining brioche stuffed with zingy Coronation chicken and a miniature tomato and feta quiche tartlet.
As for sweet treats, these span an assortment of home-baked cakes such as raspberry opera cakes with lemongrass panna cotta, Valrhona dark chocolate mousse with salted caramel and vanilla, and lime and mint Savarins with pineapple and white chocolate, plus everyone’s favourite: scones smeared in jam and clotted cream.
Choices span traditional afternoon tea, a Champagne afternoon tea, and a vegan afternoon tea considered by plant-powered foodies to be one of the best meat-free afternoon tea offerings in the city.
This is where you take your mum, your grandma, your partner or your best friend, to revel in tea, cake, and a few hours of peace just a stone’s throw from the noisy hustle and bustle of Manchester city centre.
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 -
10th August 2023 
