A new vegan pasta restaurant has opened in The Royal Exchange, bringing entirely plant-powered plates to Cross Street as it takes over the former Vertigo site.
Called Pastan, inside diners can expect to find a variety of handmade pasta dishes and other delicacies, all made with premium ingredients and cooked in full view of the restaurant.
Serving a fully plant-based menu, favourites include the likes of loaded, deep-fried gnocchi, Dolce Vita (vegan carbonara), Green Velvet (a pea and shallot ravioli dressed in a salsa verde) and Catalonia (black cavatelli pasta made in a rich tomato sauce, spiced with apricot harissa and rosemary).
Image: Pastan
Image: Pastan
Elsewhere, pasta fans can dig into vegan Buffalo ‘mozzarella’ as part of its Portafina starter – a vegan spin on the popular Caprese, with added tomato, basil and olive oil – or opt for a shitake caesar salad, made with pulled exotic mushrooms, cashew ‘parmesan’, deep-fried gnocchi, Heura ‘chicken’ nuggets, lardons and vegan mayonnaise.
Dishes on the menu are set to change according to the season, and Pastan has partnered up with Carbon Free Dining – an environmental initiative that enables restaurants to mitigate the environmental impact of their meals by planting life-changing fruit trees in the developing world.
Speaking on the new opening, Pastan Co-founder Jerome Ibanzes-Fawcett said: “Our love for food, fresh pasta, our concerns about sustainability, and passion for the hospitality industry was the driving force behind the creation of Pastan.
“We think Pastan will be a great addition to the already thriving vegan community in Manchester”.
Image: Pastan
Image: Pastan
Co-founders Dean Fawcett and Jerome Ibanzes-Fawcett have worked in the hospitality industry for over twenty years.
After the success of their pop-ups in Neal’s Yard in Covent Garden, Notting Hill and Bristol, they opened their first permanent restaurant in Barbican, London. In addition to their brand new Manchester site, the pair plan on opening more locations in Bristol and Brighton towards the end of 2022/ early 2023.
Their new location, nestled in the heart of Manchester in The Royal Exchange, boasts a relaxed and cheerful vibe with aalk-ins and bookings both welcome.
To find out more and book a table, visit Pastan’s website here.
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.
The Manc -
22nd November 2022 
