London’s most popular ramen restaurant is teaming up with the chefs at New Wave Ramen in Mackie Mayor for a one-off takeover next week.
Kanada-Ya specialises in authentic Tonkotsu ramen and is generally considered one of the best of its kind in the capital.
First founded by Kanada Kazuhiro in Yukuhashi Japan back in 2009, the restaurant is known for its signature ramen bowl, which features a top-secret sauce imported from the original restaurant and hand-made by Mr. Kanada himself.
The signature tonkotsu ramen at Kanada-Ya features wood ear mushroom (kikurage), finely sliced spring onion, chashu pork belly, a sheet of nori, and firm but bouncy noodles / Image: instantonium
Based around an extremely time-consuming signature tonkatsu broth, the rest of the signature bowl here is built from wood ear mushroom (kikurage), finely sliced spring onion, chashu pork belly, a sheet of nori, and firm but bouncy noodles.
There’s also an option to add a hanjuku (soft boiled) egg to either dish for an additional £2.
The dining event will run at Mackie Mayor across two days, with tickets to reserve a bowl priced at £10 each.
Dishes will also be available for walk-ins on the day, but it’s recommended you don’t chance it based on how popular New Wave Ramen’s previous takeovers have been.
The restaurant offers whole host of delicious ramen bowls including a truffle bowl, but at the Manchester takeover there will be just two on offer: their signature Tonkotsu and Chicken Paitan / Image: Guan Cha
As well as their signature Tonkotsu ramen, Kanada-Ya will also be offering their signature Chicken Paitan ramen at the takeover with toppings like beni shoga (red pickled ginger), nori, sesame seeds and takana (pickled crunchy mustard leaf).
Ramen-making is definitely a marathon, not a sprint – but it’s the time-consuming preparations that set good bowls like Kanada-Ya’s above the rest.
“Myself and the team at Mackie Mayor are delighted to bring Kanada-Ya to Manchester,” said Philip Cook of New Wave Ramen about the upcoming takeover.
“Their bowls are amongst those that first ignited my own passion for ramen, and an exciting U.K. ramen scene has grown alongside their own expansion over the last seven years. They have to be considered the originators, and our customers in Manchester are in for a real treat.”
Aaron Burgess-Smith of Kanada-Ya added: “New Wave Ramen has given us an incredible opportunity to share the ramen that we’ve been making for the past seven years in London with Manchester.
“Our broth is incredibly rich and overflowing with umami and I’m excited for Mancunians to finally experience it, too.”
With three sites in London to date and plans to open two more in the autumn, who knows – we might even be so lucky as to see one announced in Manchester later this year.
For now, though, this could be your only chance to try their bowls – so we recommend putting 11 and 12 August in your diaries immediately.
Find Kanada-Ya popping up in the New Wave Ramen kitchen at Mackie Mayor next week. Grab your tickets 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.
Georgina Pellant -
3rd August 2021 
