One of Manchester’s most iconic restaurants has been reborn, with Cibo now ready to open its doors in the former Rosso sitehere in the city centre.
Rosso was a firm favourite for famous faces and a popular spot for a high-end Italian meal before it suddenly closed its doors last September.
It had been owned by footballing legend Rio Ferdinand since 2009 and was famed for its luxurious interiors.
But the incredible space at the top of King Street is ready for a new lease of life as part of the Cibo restaurants group, who have spent millions refurbishing it.
Cibo has transformed the already decadent Manchester city centre dining space into something even grander (Credit: The Manc Eats)
The new-look Italian restaurant is now filled with decadent materials like marble, gold and leather.
It’s a jaw-dropping space, thanks in part to the building’s Grade-II listed pedigree, which comes with a huge domed ceiling and marble pillars.
Cibo has added some lovely ornate olive trees to the doors and built a curved wall of wine that towers all the way up to the ceilings.
Brown leather chairs, embossed with Cibo’s logo and gold studs, plus marble tabletops only add to the opulence.
Gorgeous, right?
The huge restaurant will have space for 165 diners in the main restaurant and 20 downstairs in the private dining room.
Cibo is a well-established name on the North West restaurant scene, already operating restaurants in Wilmslow, Hale and Disley.
Click or swipe through the gallery below to see inside Cibo Manchester:
It was originally meant to open this city centre venue last November but has instead spent several extra months (and almost £3m) carefully restoring the building’s original features.
Cibo Manchester’s menu will be filled with crowd-pleasing Italian dishes, including pizzas, pasta, grills and seafood.
After round-the-clock work since September, the restaurant is finally set to open on Saturday, 6 April.
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 -
5th April 2024 
