The Martlet, the new restaurant that’s recently opened its doors within the magnificent Rochdale Town Hall, has been given a glowing review in The Guardian this weekend.
Restaurant critic Jay Rayner paid a visit to the grand new space and summarised it as ‘Civic pride meets glorious cooking at a remarkably fair price’.
The Marlet opened in the heart of Rochdale town centre a few months ago, led by award-winning chef Darren Parkinson, who grew up locally in Heywood, and Great British Menu star Tristan Welch.
Their menu is packed with classic northern dishes like Jackson’s rag pudding, and bacon chop with Bury Black Pudding and Denshaw egg – and we here at The Manc love it.
But now it’s also caught the eye of the nation’s biggest food critic, who praised The Martlet’s easy but refined all-day approach to feeding its customers, describing it as ‘smart, witty and generous’.
Jay Rayner’s Guardian review said: “[Rochdale Town Hall] could have installed a modish and frankly annoying pan-European small plates bistro that nobody wanted. Or it could have been a bog-standard coffee and cake job…
“But it is so much more. It’s a broad offering drawing on the heritage of Greater Manchester in a smart, witty and generous way, and all at the sort of prices that will make those used to shaking down their bank accounts for a bit of lunch, sigh deeply.”
Jay Rayner praised the Scotch egg at The Martlet in his The Guardian reviewInside The Martlet at Rochdale Town Hall. Credit: The Manc Group
Of the many locally-flavoured items on the menu, he singled out the Bury black pudding Scotch egg (‘a class piece of work’); the traditional rag pudding (with ‘gravy so glossy you could check your hair and make up in the reflection’); and the pork chop (with ‘a seared ribbon of fat at its back, guaranteed to sustain you through a Rochdale winter’).
He also wrote: “You may find portion size challenging. In these parts that’s quite as it should be.”
Rayner also praised the Rochdale Town Hall itself (how could you not set foot in this building and not immediately fall in love?), saying ‘Whatever you do, make time to drift slack-jawed through these chambers’.
The Marlet has said it’s ‘over the moon’ with its review in The Guardian.
What a shining endorsement for this Greater Manchester town.
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.
Daisy Jackson -
25th November 2024 
