Just when you think Greater Manchester has nailed the modern-day takeaway, along comes a new contender – and this time, they brought French tacos.
You’ll find French Taco’o down on Chapel Street, not far past Salford Central and the People’s History Museum.
You’ll also find a fast food dish so weighty Ryanair would probably charge you extra just to carry it onto the plane.
This is the home of the French taco, otherwise known as matelas, which translates as ‘mattress’.
What you’re essentially looking as is what you’d get if you mixed together a gyros, a doner kebab, and a burrito – which is exactly what you want to eat at the end of a night out, on a severe hangover, or when you just want to chow down on some comfort food.
At French Taco’o, they load flour tortillas with a variety of fillings, including grilled chicken thighs, sheesh kebab, falafel and beef patties.
Then in goes Algerian sauce (a spicy, tangy, mayo-based sauce), mixed vegetables, cheese sauce, and – very importantly – French fries.
French Taco’o is a Salford takeaway that specialises in French tacos. Credit: The Manc Group
The whole thing is then flattened and pressed like a panini before being handed over to change your life.
When you cut the French taco in half, the cross-section is giving mosaic tiles, but with pure spud instead of ceramics.
This brilliant takeaway also serves all your usual booze-soaking stuff, like burgers, pizzas and loaded fries.
And it’s not just for late-night – these may be calorific fast food items, but they’re made from scratch with a lot of love.
French Taco’o is not the first French taco establishment in town – there’s also an Airstream caravan up on Oxford Road that specialises in them.
These Greater Manchester French tacos are like a cross between a doner kebab, burrito and gyros. Credit: The Manc GroupYou’ll find French Taco’o on Chapel Street in Salford. Credit: The Manc Group
Robbie Reviews commented: “So so so good here. And the lads who work here are fantastic!!”
Someone else wrote: “I stumbled into this place last year after a night out. The guy is such a nice bloke I’m made up that he’s getting some love from pages like this.”
And someone else posted: “The best French taco thank you Cedric.”
French Taco’o might be the best and most filling £7.99 you can spend in Salford.
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 -
21st August 2024 
