The brand new Chips @ No.8 chippy is ready to reopen in Prestwich – now with a beautiful restaurant space included.
Fans of the award-winning takeaway will now be able to sit inside the much-larger space as they devour what’s considered by many (myself included) to be the best fish and chips in Greater Manchester.
Chips @ No.8 hasn’t moved far – it’s actually just drifted next-door – but the improvements are vast.
Now three times the size, the new-look space is split into a takeaway, a bar, and a restaurant.
The upstairs restaurant is the biggest change, serving a seafood-focused menu that isn’t necessarily all about the fryer.
The tasteful space has huge tall ceilings, exposed brick, and colourful chippy-inspired art on the wall.
This part will launch later this month with a concise ‘from the kitchen’ menu that will expand and change once they’ve tested the waters.
But the chippy itself is raring to go from today.
The upstairs restaurant at the new Chips @ No.8You can now get cans of local beer to take away with your chippy tea
Visitors to the new Chips @ No.8 will be able to place their order from the counter before heading into the bar area for a pint while they wait.
There are also fridges full of cans to take away, featuring some big local names like Seven Brothers, Zapato, and Pomona.
The menu down here is blissfully unchanged, which means you’ll still find chips fried in beef dripping, British fish fried in a perfect crisp batter, and a full menu of pies.
Owner Dan Edwards has piled a lot of love into this place, and says it’s ‘easily the most challenging thing’ he’s ever done.
The new Chips @ No.8 is ready to open just next door to its original siteChips @ No.8 has a new bar space inside where you can eat-in with your chippyOwner Dan Edwards outside the new Chips @ No.8
In a statement he shared this morning, Dan wrote: “So, after what feels like forever, we will open the new shop today.
“We started this project nearly 12 months ago and it’s come close to breaking me many times. Easily, the most challenging thing I’ve ever done, but we’re there now!
“My wife is clearly an angel for putting up with me during this whole time. Marie, I love you more than you can imagine
“Couple of things to note:- we’re not opening the restaurant area for a few days, so that we can ‘bed in’ the new systems. We don’t wanna give anything short of the best. We’ll let you know when we’re ready.
“We’re also gonna introduce the “from the kitchen” menu slowly, with more items being added as we go.
“The last thing, is it’s going to be walk ins only, there’s no booking system. We know there’s lots of you who want to secure your seat but it’s a non negotiable unfortunately.
“What we can guarantee, is we have an amazing space, an amazing team, and amazing customers. Over the next week or so, go easy on us if things aren’t quite right. I promise we’re all trying our best with new everything.
“Here’s to the next (and final) stage. Chips @No.8 is all grown up and we can’t wait to share it with you!”
The new Chips @ No.8 opens on Tuesday 11 June on Clifton Road.
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 -
11th June 2024 
