Five Greater Manchester restaurants have been named as some of the best places to eat in the UK. Bookings site OpenTable collected the reviews for the best 100 restaurants in the UK, with the results being published today.
The list, which has also drawn upon dining metrics including diner ratings, percentage of reservations made in advance, and five-star reviews, also includes well-known Manchester spots and spans everything from fine dining and acclaimed steak spots to casual dining. Well-known eateries in nearby Cheshire, Lancashire and Derbyshire have also made the cut.
Highlighting some of the top spots favoured by diners this year, the Manchester additions include Bar San Juan in Chorlton and Karen's Diner in Prestwich. Moving into the city centre, upscale dining spot The Ivy Asia also features as does Hawksmoor and the recently launched Higher Ground.
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Higher Ground, which is described as a 'British bistro and and bar', opened in February but has already been name-checked in the September edition of the Michelin Inspectors' Favourite New Restaurants. In June, the restaurant also placed at 51 in the National Restaurant Awards Top 100 - the highest rated for Greater Manchester this year.
It's joined on OpenTable UK Top 100 list by fellow city centre haunt Hawksmoor. The top London steak restaurant expanded to Manchester in 2015, opening a spot inside Grade II-listed Courtside building on Deansgate and makes the most of the building's original features with lots of reclaimed materials from the era.
The brand was founded by Will Beckett with childhood friend Huw Gott in 2006 and has grown to become one of the UK's trendiest steak restaurants. The menu features the very best dry-aged beef, sustainable seafood and seasonal farm produce from the UK.
Just around the corner is The Ivy, which by all accounts was the biggest openings of 2018. Encompassing 535 covers it spans several restaurants concepts including The Ivy Brasserie, The Ivy Roof Garden, and Ivy Asia - as well as a private dining space.
The Ivy Asia's starter menu spans everything from raw and cured delicacies and maki rolls to tempura and fried dishes, as well as dumplings, baos. Mains include specialities such as the Kashmiri chicken skewers, Wagyu beef steak with crispy garlic and slow-cooked pork belly.
Outside of the city centre, and also making the top 100, is Bar San Juan on Beech Road. Extremely popular with residents and visitors alike, for the best 13 years the laidback eatery has been serving up classics daily specials. Dishes span chilled gazpacho, chilled gazpacho and ojunudo trufada - a spreadable chorizo from Majorca on toasts.
Last but certainly not least, Karen's Diner, the viral Australian-American restaurant concept where waiters are purposely rude to staff. The interactive dining experience, which encourages customers to ‘complain until the cows come home because we literally don’t care’, opened in Prestwich in 2022 and has become a hit on social media with fans sharing their dining experiences.
