Four restaurants in Greater Manchester have made it onto a top 10 list of the best Sunday roasts in the UK.
A city centre favourite managed to nab joint second place, while the suburbs were represented from Sale to Stalybridge.
Hawksmoor, Greens, Maray and Gladstone Bistro all managed to make it onto this year’s Rate Good Roasts list and have been crowned among the best Sunday roasts in the UK.
The Rate Good Roasts panel sampled more than 200 Sunday dinners across the country, assessing them on everything from meat to venue to value for money.
While the top spot was snagged by The Abbey Inn in North Yorkshire, Greater Manchester absolutely dominated the rest of the list.
Hawksmoor snuck into joint second place, retaining its local title (awarded by us…) as the king of the Sunday roast.
The Deansgate steak restaurant is famed for its perfectly-cooked roast beef rump, served alongside beef-dripping roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, roasted carrots, buttered greens, roasted garlic, and bone marrow gravy.
Hawksmoor Manchester’s Sunday roast ranked joint second on the Rate Good Roasts list for 2024. Credit: The Manc GroupMaray’s Sunday roast was also named one of the best by Rate Good Roasts for Greater Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
In joint fifth was Stalybridge’s Gladstone Barber & Bistro, which is, as the name suggests, part barbershop and part restaurant.
They said they were ‘over the moon’ with placing fifth on the Rate Good Roasts list for this year.
They wrote: “You all know how much we love our roast, and how much this means to us as a team… A massive thank you to the guys at @rategoodroasts and to all of you for your continued support.”
Then in sixth place was Simon Rimmer’s Greens restaurant in Sale, with the list being announced just hours before he announced the closure of its sister site in Didsbury.
The vegetarian restaurant wrote: “Well we are absolutely buzzing to be listed as number 6 by @rategoodroasts for our roasts in the UK!! Especially when we were against some great non-veggie roasts. Thanks guys!!”
And finally representing Greater Manchester’s Sunday roast scene was Maray in Manchester, ranking in 10th place.
The Middle Eastern-inspired restaurant on Lincoln Square serves twists on classics, like roast beef picanha; lemon, za’tar and saffron-roasted chicken; or a spiced chickpea nut roast, all served with crispy fenugreek potatoes, roast carrots, parsnips, butternut squash tershi, Yorkshire puds and thick delicious gravy.
Rate Good Roasts’ Chief Eating officer, Tom Casson commented: “There’s something romantic about a Sunday Roast. It’s an event.
“Whether its an opportunity to see old friends or a family celebration of some kind. You don’t want to be let down. As an adult it almost feels like you are going out, out on a Sunday.
“You want a stand out dish on the specials board (a lamb or a porchetta and a creative main option for our veggie or vegans friends). Personally I want the Yorkshire Puddings big enough to act as a vessel for the gravy. Potatoes need to be in that sweet Venn diagram spot of fluffy and crispy.”
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 -
3rd January 2024 
