Flat Iron is ready to open the doors to its first-ever Manchester restaurant – and it’s announced a huge Wagyu steak giveaway to celebrate.
The restaurant is famed for having affordable prices but still great quality meat products, utilising the often-overlooked featherblade as well as other cuts of beef.
With prices for a steak from just £14, it’s set to undercut other steakhouses by some margin, working closely with a farm just up the road in Yorkshire to source their meat.
The meat is cured in a special handcrafted meat ageing cabinet (the only Flat Iron restaurant to have one) and can be cooked quickly over a bespoke charcoal grill (also the only one in any Flat Iron restaurant).
The steaks at Flat Iron in Manchester will be served alongside sides like beef dripping chips, crispy bone marrow mash, creamed spinach, truffled macaroni cheese and green salads, plus classic sauces like Bearnaise, peppercorn, and a homemade smoked chilli mayo.
The new 150-cover restaurant spans two storeys in a Grade II-listed building on Deansgate, formerly home to Blacks outdoor clothing.
Steak and sides at Flat Iron in ManchesterFlat Iron steak and garlic mashThe bone marrow garlic mash
It’s a beautiful space – wooden floors, dark teal walls, huge windows, and orange leather banquettes.
That’s all tied in with the original features like ceramic tiles and huge iron pillars around the space.
At the heart of the ground floor restaurant is a magnificent marble-topped bar with a stained glass window behind.
There’s a sizeable basement dining room too for a cosy, moody dining experience.
Guests are greeted with a cup of fresh popcorn on arrival, then handed a tiny meat cleaver at the end of their meal, which can be traded in for an ice cream either on the spot or at a later date.
Upstairs in Flat Iron in ManchesterFlat Iron is ready to open on Deansgate in ManchesterThe basement dining room at Flat Iron Manchester
Rotating daily specials will feature dishes like a truffled triple cheeseburger, Scottish ribeye, and an exclusive 375g rib steak.
Flat Iron’s Head of Beef, Fred Smith, said: “I spend an unusual amount of time trying to source incredible beef and our Wagyu is properly special.
“To celebrate our new restaurant opening its doors, we will be giving away shed loads of this uber-tender beef to the good people of Manchester. Join us on 2nd July and let us know what you think.”
Flat Iron will be hosting a giveaway of 500 Wagyu steaks ahead of its official opening.
The first 500 customers in the queue from 5pm on Tuesday 2 July will be given a free steak, and a sneak preview of the new restaurant.
Flat Iron Manchester officially opens on Wednesday 3 July.
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 -
27th June 2024 
