Blink and you could miss it. There is no signage apart from a neon burger, three floors up. The nondescript building, sandwiched between the bars Socio Rehab and Keko Muko in the Northern Quarter, is Manchester’s newest restaurant. Behind a boring brown door, up some very steep stairs, is a loft apartment space converted into a wonderland of burgers and booze.

The venue has a wackiness about it, which makes your senses overload. The walls are inscribed with Charlie Sheen’s infamous rant, slap bang next to huge portraits, a jukebox and skateboards. The bar is brightly lit, but the rest of the rooms are disguised in a spider’s web of low lighting. Leaving an air of mystery; photography is not allowed (it was hard to not constantly snap away).

The food will make your mouth water. Like me and my friends, you will want to devour this small, yet amazing, menu. With names like Triple Nom and Animal, they make you smile with delight. There are fries covered in chilli and cheese, and must try the Suicide wings, they will make your mouth tingle with joy. Don’t worry; they won’t blow your head off!

The cocktail menu is a must. I recommend the silly titled Bitch Juice with its delicious mix of sloe gin and fruit juices. Don’t expect beautiful glasses, they all come in jam jars.  It’s a marvellous receptacle and great recycling!

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Almost Famous | Bars, Restaurants (Burgers) | Burgers from £ 5.50
High Street, M4 1HP
Wed – Thu 12:00 – 00:00, Fri 12:00 – 02:00, Sat 13:00 – 02:00, Sun 13:00 – 23:00

Manchester is a wet city. You know that, we know that. It’s one of those things we all know. So what is the best thing to help you get warm? Yes, that’s right. Soup.

Soup Kitchen is in the heart of the northern quarter tucked on the edge of Stevenson Square. You can walk past it and miss it, but please don’t. This bar has a warm feeling. The setup of the bar is communal benches, so when there are a lot of people in there it has an amazing close feel to it.

With a great selection of beers and ciders on draught, which constantly changes, you can always try something new and local to the area.

The menu is simplistic and service is reasonably quick to serve as you wait in queue while it is prepared. The combination of soups, sandwiches and salads are to die for. I love the ham hock, cheese and onion marmalade sandwich (£ 4.50).

Check out the website for the gigs that happen in the club downstairs. Both local and touring bands appear so you should get a great selection of talent passing through. The venue itself is a 300-400 capacity venue so it is perfect for those new up and coming bands. This could possibly be one of my favourite venues in the city.

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Soup Kitchen | Bars, Music, Restaurants (Soup) | Soup from £ 3
31-33 Spear Street | +441612365100
Sun – Thu 11:00 – 21:00, Fri – Sat 11:00 – 03:00

After recently visiting Brussels, home to a plethora of Belgian chocolate shops, on returning home my chocoholic tendencies were in a state of deprivation until I heard on the grapevine of a new chocolate shop having opened in Didsbury. Reassuringly bucking the trend of vendors shutting up shop to sell online, the owner of Cocoacobana found her website so popular that she decided to open up a ‘real’ store.

Selling a saliva-inducing selection of handmade white, milk and dark chocolates, it is chocolate-lovers heaven, with all items beautifully wrapped, making them look almost too good to eat. Only almost though!

With late night opening on Thursday’s until 21:00 I have no excuse not to nip down and get my chocolate fix (naturally justifying it as being for Christmas or birthday presents!). I’m particularly partial to the orange flavoured chocolates, but there are also more adventurous options to try such as basil flavoured truffles, all out on display making it very hard to resist!

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Cocoa Cobana | Shopping, Snacks | Handmade chocolates £ 1.50
128 Burton Road
Mon – Wed & Fri – Sat 10:00 – 17:00, Thu 10:00 – 21:00

Named after the late local historian, the Fletcher Moss is one of the few consistent pubs in the area, and by this I mean it always provides friendly, efficient service, drinks are reasonably priced and it retains the traditional English pub feel to it. I also like the fact that where most pubs have a target clientele which they deliberately appeal to, the Fletcher Moss always has a wide cross-section of customers from students and young professionals to families and retired locals (and even the occasional dog has been known to make an appearance).

Being a ‘proper’ pub and being owned by Hydes brewery, they serve ‘proper’ drinks such as cask ale, as well as the more mainstream beer, lager, cider and wine. The only downside is that it doesn’t serve food (though this is probably what has enabled it to retain it’s ‘pub’ status instead of being coerced into joining the current ‘gastropub’ trend), so a lukewarm Pukka pie and a packet of pork scratchings are about as exciting as it gets on the sustenance front.

The pub holds regular events such a pub quizzes, acoustic evenings and race nights. What I really like though is the fact that they have board games available to play and it’s not unusual to see a group of punters engrossed in a game of Scrabble…….though personally I’m more of a ‘Mouse Trap’ kinda girl.

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Fletcher Moss pub | Bars, Coffee & tea | Wine from £ 3.20
1 William Street, Didsbury | +441614380073
Mon – Sat 12:00 – 23:00, Sun 12:00 – 22:30

For an alternative perspective of Manchester, the underground tour offers an unusual opportunity to see what lies beneath the well-trodden streets. Accompanied by an informative guide and an eager tour group, we all trundled in unison through the secret doorway which led to a seemingly never-ending stone staircase.

Lit only by the flicker of light offered by our torches, we descended into the depths of the city before emerging into a large, slightly sinister chamber. The sound of our voices echoed eerily, and the cold chill of the Autumnal air seemed somewhat poignant now having plunged into a new Manchester I had not witnessed before. This appeared to accentuate our sudden departure from the hustle-bustle of everyday life going on in the streets above.

An enlightening insight into the history of Manchester and the tunnels ensued as the tour guided us through tunnel after tunnel, each offering a new story, an interesting fact or a fascinating anecdote. After a thorough exploration of the tunnels the tour continued by returning to street-level, which evoked a feeling I imagine to be analogous to stepping out of a time machine.

Acclimatising once again to 21st century life and the realisation that what I had just witnessed wasn’t merely an illusion, I followed the tour guide as we now traced the tunnels from street level. Once again this was punctuated with historical updates and little-known nuggets of information before the tour concluded – a two hour Manchester enlightenment for me!

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Underground tunnels | Art & culture | Adult ticket £ 9.00
Midland Hotel
Pre booking only – Oct, Nov & Dec

The Police museum is a little known attraction tucked away on the edge of the North Quarter. Only open on Tuesdays the museum is an unusual and interesting place to wile away a few hours in the company of the highly knowledgeable and enthusiastic curators who have an abundance of hilarious true stories to relay to amuse (and shock!) visitors.

Aptly housed in an Victorian Police station, it is possible to venture into the cells, which, tiny as they are, would have held up to twelve prisoners at a time. To say the cells were merely simple would be an overstatement, with the wooden pillows still present to accentuate their meager state.

The old charge office is accessible and provides details of how prisoners would be booked in, as well as the forensic science opportunities (or lack of!) available at the time. Police uniform and memorabilia are on display, in addition to a selection of historic Police vehicles used. A wealth of information about the history of the Police Service and the evolution of forensic science are also contained in this small museum, with a separate room housing an assortment of weird and wonderful weapons that have been seized over the years.

Presumably for kids but seemingly just as appealing to adults is the dressing up room containing various items of historic Police uniform for those wannabe Inspector’s. Don’t worry, you’ll be in good company if you do decide to partake as the curators also don the uniform!

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Police Museum | Art & culture | Free
57A Newton Street | +441618563287
Tue 10:30 – 15:30 (Thu during school holidays)

Like every city in the world, Manchester has its fair share of Italian restaurants. In fact just like New York many years ago we had an area nick named ‘Little Italy’, which was home to many Italian families, Ice Cream vendors and Italian eateries. Whilst ‘Little Italy’ is no more, the option of finding a great Italian meal in the city still remains. Like many other cities in the UK we are plagued by the Italian chain restaurants, but if you seek something a little more independent, then check out Dough.

Dough offers a huge selection of Pizzas (many for different dietary requirements) and a decent number of options beyond. The atmosphere is very relaxed and the wrap around windows provide a great vantage point to watch the world go by.

I would recommend the West Indies Pizza, which offers slow cooked lamb, with peppered banana and mango chutney.

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Dough | Restaurants (Italian) | Pizza £ 9
75 – 77 High St, Northern Quarter | +441618349411
11:30 until late daily

You can see how popular this deli is by observing the queues at lunchtime. This is a superb deli in the heart of Manchester city centre.

Visitors will find a wide variety of sandwiches for sale, but I would recommend you head for the counters at the rear of the deli. Here you will find both hot and cold food to temp you. My favourite is the Greek Meze, which although it is meant for just one person, you could easily share it.

You can choose to sit in and eat your meal, but getting a seat at peak times can often be a nightmare. I would suggest (particularly if the weather is good) that you opt for a takeaway, and take your food to nearby Spinningfields.

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Katsouris | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Greek Meze £ 5
113 Deansgate | +441618191260
Mon – Fri 07:30 – 17:30, Sat 09:00 – 17:30, Sun 10:00 – 17:00

The Castlefield area of Manchester is a popular place to take a stroll. Here you will find the Manchester ship canal, with many colourful barges dotted along the route. A very popular bar in the area is the long standing Dukes 92. As you stand outside facing its current building, take a look to the left and you will see a (very) small lock keepers cottage.

This is the location of the first Dukes 92, which started life as a small café. Over the years both the popularity of the area and the size of Dukes 92 have grown, and now you will find the larger Dukes 92 offering a great bar and restaurant.

The area directly outside the bar really comes alive in the summer months, as together with the upstairs terrace this is a perfect sun trap. If you fancy sipping your wine in the sunshine, then my suggestion is get here early to avoid being left without a seat. Dukes 92 offers a great BBQ selection on a sunny weekend day. 

If visiting on a day when the sun is not playing out you will find a warm atmosphere inside, and the cheese and pate menu will soon satisfy you.

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Dukes 92 | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (Pub food) | Snack £ 6.00
18 Castle Street | +441618393522
12:00 – till late daily

I had heard about Unicorn long before I had either seen or visited the store, and given that everything I had heard had been so positive, decided that I needed to take a trip there myself. The name ‘Unicorn’ doesn’t provide much in the way of clues as to what may lie within…….it’s a shop selling wholesome and organic produce!

The first thing that hit me was the smell; immediately on entering there was the most delicious aroma emanating from the store. I’m not able to liken it to any particularly food, just a lovely blend of flavours that made the shop itself seem good enough to eat. Be warned though – it’s very popular and can get a little hectic. Last time I visited it opened at 11:00 – I arrived at 11:05 and already the car park was full, with people queuing down the road to get in.

Once in store though, it’s one of those places that makes food shopping an enjoyable experience rather than a chore. It may not be as large as a supermarket, but the fact that they provide trolleys gives some indication of the quantity and selection of food on offer. As well as the fresh but pre-packed food from nuts and bread to cereals and fruit, they also have a deli counter filled with fresh tasty snacks proving that it’s possible to be healthy and have food that tastes good…..who would have thought it was possible!

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Unicorn | Shopping, Snacks | Fresh bread £ 1.25
89 Albany Road, Chorlton | +441618610010
Tue – Fri 09:30 – 19:00, Sat 09:00 – 18:00, Sun 11:00 – 17:00