Born from the genius and success of The Biospheric Project, 78 Steps is just around the corner…read more(well, 78 steps away) from the urban farming project which has taken Salford and Manchester by storm. The idea behind the shop is local food on a micro-scale, bringing the community in the area locally grown, ethically sourced and high quality produce. Stocking fresh fruit, veg & eggs from local farms, bread from the Barbakan deli in Chortlon and eco-friendly cupboard fillers from companies like Suma and Ecover, 78 Steps has a great range of British products, championing fresh local items and seasonal produce. As well at the shop itself, 78 Steps offer a Wholebox service, delivering fresh food to local people on a regular basis. Boxes start at as little as £5 and contain at least eight varieties of fruit and vegetables, making healthy eating cheap and accessible. Some of the fruits and vegetables have been grown at the Biospheric Project itself - just 78 steps away - making this a truly carbon efficient enterprise.

CSFTS is a Jewish supper club hosted by Sue and Ian Waxman at their home in Prestwich. This one,…read more'Balabusta Delight', was the third they'd hosted and it'd grown in scale to 18 dinner guests from 10 at their first event. The concept of supper clubs is quite simple: you buy a ticket to dine at someone's house and enjoy your meal with a wide range of people you wouldn't ordinarily get to meet. Sounds odd and slightly daunting I know, but having been to a few of these now, I can assure you they are a great way to discover new 'foodie' goings-on in Manchester; not to mention meeting lots of lovely people in the process. Pretty much all of them are bring your own booze, too. On to the supper club itself. Balabusta is a Yiddish expression to describe a good homemaker, so we were imagining delicious Jewish family dishes served straight from the heart of the home. Having never eaten this type of cuisine before, I really didn't know what to expect. We were all seated at a long table in the Waxmans' large dining room and our names were written on the menus so we knew where to sit. After some quick introductions and hellos to some familiar faces, Sue welcomed us all and this swiftly followed by the starter: a trio of fish. This comprised chopped and fried gefilte fish with chrane (horseradish and beetroot sauce) and crispy smoked salmon kreplach (a dumpling) served with tangy tabbouleh (vegetarian salad). The next course was Matzah ball chicken soup with lokshen (flat egg noodles) served with a chopped liver choux bun and traditional breads. After this came the hearty main course: Moroccan roasted chicken, tzimmes (Jewish sweet stew), potato kugel and green beans in tomato sauce with onions and garlic. We needed a slight rest after this, to enable us to enjoy the dessert of an apple and challah (Jewish braided bread) pudding with a pot of creamy sesame halva. This was the highlight of the night for me. With our souls and stomachs fully content, we left for home. It was a great, fun night and I'll definitely be going to another one. Tip: for details of upcoming events, follow Sue on Twitter (@schmalznpepper).

Situated inside the Premier shop on New Bailey Street, you wouldn't expect to find this little pie…read morestand, serving up some great pastry, potato & gravy combinations. Only a few moments from work, we have had Friday lunches from Pie Cottage a number of times - we ring in the morning, put the order in (a large order, of about 20-25) and then collect circa 1pm. The food reaches our kitchen hot and fresh, each box marked with the flavour of pie and either mash in the box or in a large container for us to dish out. I've had meat & potato and pork & chorizo, which were both tasty; the pastry is sturdy - you'd easily be able to pick it up if you wanted to eat on the go - and filling well distributed. Mash isn't my favourite but it's a nice texture, and I believe they only serve up meat gravy. Due to the small and indepdent nature of Pie Cottage, we often end up taking everything they have, so I would recommend avoiding if it's our Friday lunch! £3 pie & mash or jacket potato with filling 10-4 Monday to Friday.

One of my least favourite Tesco locations due to service and stock levels, this location is within…read morePrestwich town centre and has a small Costa Coffee branch inside. I called in here on my way home, I had already got some shopping from another supermarket but due to having to get a long bus ride on the X43 Witchway, which stops at the Premier Inn nearby, I wanted to grab some milk and fresh fruit before heading home, obviously, I didn't want them to go off in the sun which is why I wanted to find them from here, sadly they didn't have the brand of milk which I liked or any prepared melons, so I had to leave empty-handed.... at first I thought "No problem, mistakes happen" and that's until I met a cashier. I used the Scan as You Shop handheld devices, as I hadn't bought anything, I still had to queue to hand my device to the employee, only for her to stare into my bag (without permission), take my scanner off me and radio through to the security, I was stopped from leaving from a man who spoke very little English and just repeated "checkout, checkout, you come", I was guided back to the checkout, at this point I was confused and I was told to "pay for my shopping" even though I explained the items I wanted were not in stock and I told them to check the CCTV footage as not only did I not steal anything, I had not touched a single item on their shelves, they didn't apologise too, the security guard still stared at me, trying to make me comfortable, and the store employee wearing a headscarf simply replied, "I'm just doing my job". I think that is ridiculous, especially considering the security guard saw me walk in with the heavy bag in the first place. Due to the poor stock of basic items and how I was treated, how I was embarrassed and made to feel like a criminal with no remorse from the shop, I have to say this Tesco store is one I will NEVER visit again. 1*

3 stars as I did enjoy feeding the peasants below the cafeteria area with the scampi. However they…read morewere out of fish that i so desired. The lesser people at tech support did not give me the gratitude I deserve they seemed off put when I spewed sky scampi.

This place really took me by surprise. It's on the main road, attached to a Morrisons store and is…read moresupposed to be an authentic Italian deli...my expectations were not too high but I have got to say that this place is great and the people of Whitefield are lucky to have such a great deli on their doorstep. They have freshly baked bread, Italian meats, cheese, homemade icecream, olive oil, cream cakes and more. We stopped by for a small bite to eat, which turned into a big bite to eat and we will definitely be back. In particular, I would recommend the fresh bread from here and also the icecream (although not together), the quality of the bread and icecream is exceptionally high.

When you think of Italy, a shop unit adjacent to Morrison's on Bury Old Road is probably not what…read moresprings to mind. Don't be misled though - Roma is authentically Italian in every way. It's a triple act here - shop, cafe and takeaway. The shop sells all manner of Italian foods - pasta and Roma's home made pasta sauces, rice, polenta, pannetone, home made ice cream, sausages, charcuterie, antipasti... you name it, it's here. Then there's the take out - home made pizzas etc. (we went for a take out salami calzone which was amazing) and desserts. The desert I went for was something with an Italian name which I could barely pronounce so I'm hardly going to try and spell it now, but suffice it to say it was an amazing blend of meringue, amaretti biscuits and Nutella. We didn't sample the cafe but it was doing brisk business on a Saturday lunchtime and lots of the people were clearly regulars. The standout feature of our visit had to be the staff. Even though we were only getting a very small order, they incredibly attentive - taking time to explain the options, asking how we wanted things packing, offering to tweak the temperature of the calzone better to our suiting.

A-MA-ZING! This is the best Take Away I've ever been to (and the only one going foward!)…read more We drove past late on Saturday evening on the off chance Nasi Lemak was open and it was (YAY!!). While making our choice the gentleman serving gave us a taster of a few different curries, but on this occasion selected a few light Street Food starters. The Thai Glass Noodle Salad is gorgeous, fresh, full of flavour and spicy. The Chicken Skewers with Satay Sauce was a taste sensation with a tangy peanut sauce (not heavy or oily) and the Salt Pepper Cod Fish Goujons were suculent and just flaked apart. Considering NL were just about to close the food was excellent and not what I was expecting at the end of a Saturday night. This is high quality restaurant food but take away... I LOVE IT....can you tell?!! Oh, and next time I'll be having Beef Rendang on Nasi Lemak...thanks for letting us try it, the beef just fell apart!!

I love Nasi Lemak! I've only ever eaten from the one at Broughton but I know they have a branch in…read moreAltrincham as well. Nasi Lemak is located just under the Vibe apartments in heart of the new Broughton Village in Salford, and there is a free car park just outside. They share a 'shop' with an english chippy so one side of the counter is for the chippy and one side for Nasi Lemak. As a walk in customer the service is great, the staff will help explain the menu and even bring out little tasters for you to try before ordering. I recommend the cold noodles, the chicken satay and the salt and pepper cod!! I've also had take away from here using Just Eat and the food weas delivered in less time than they quoted. The staff and friendly and socialable, always communicating with you via twitter if you so wish. Overall a great addition to the street food availabel in Manchester, and even better another notch for Salford! A tasty fast food option that doesn't leave you feeling over faced like other takeouts do!

Yummy yummy yummy chicken karahi! Or massala, or the HUGE range of rices and naans to accompany…read moreyour main meal! Yes, i have opted to mention the nations common choice of chicken tikka massala but by gum it's good! Or you could opt for the tasty mouth watering chilli version that leaves you quite breathless - in a good way :) Poppadoms and the sauces are vital for the initial enjoyment of the food! And possibly some bahji's too with the mint sauce.

This is a cracking Indian takeaway based at the south end of Liverpool Rd Eccles. I have been using…read morethis takeaway for 9 years, tried new ones as they have popped up, but always returned back to Spices. Food is very good with a varied menu. Delivery available, normal around 45minutes for delivery with friendly staff. Cost is average for and Indian takeaway. Highly recommended. Dish of choice, slightly warming but a rare delight, Chicken Ayana. It's a starter dish, but two of these, onion rice pompadoms and a onion and corriander nann (not on the menu but ask and they'll make it) is one cracking dish. If you like sauces there are plenty to choose from. ENJOY.

I've recently been training for the Great Manchester 10k run. As I've been increasing the…read moredistances, I've had to change my route to include areas I normally wouldn't go. Including Ancoats. I wouldn't usually go here mainly because when I first moved to the NQ, it was a bit run down and aside from the occasional visit to the Argos, there was no particular reason to visit that area. Plus, as regular readers of my reviews will know, I tend to be a creature of habit and go to the same places again and again. Well running up and down Great Ancoats Street, and some of the side streets, has opened my eyes to the new places around here. Including Ancoats General Store, which I first noticed 10 days or so ago. When I ran past it last night I made a mental note to myself that I must remember to come here this weekend. And I'm glad I did. It isn't that much bigger than the corner shop I used to frequent as a kid but it fits in so much good stuff. There's fresh bread to greet you as you enter and then the aisles of food to the left. The decor is the kind of decor I've come to expect from hipster type places , with pipes/air conditioning exposed. But, having said that, I'm not sure I'd describe it as hipster. There's the organic ranges, plenty of dairy/gluten free choices but then there's the familiar brands/products that you'd expect in a supermarket/corner shop. They sell magazines too. They sell a good range of alcohol and alcohol accompaniments. I specify the 'alcohol accompaniments' because I noticed a good range of tonics for gin, that you'd not usually expect from a relatively small shop. I noticed a lot of local produce: the bakery providing the bread, the eggs, the milk, just a few examples. Some of the products are priced the same or lower than Tesco/Aldi (the Longley Farm yoghurts are well priced at 35p, for example) and some of the organic/dairy/gluten free stuff was a little pricier but that's the same anywhere. I was chatting to the guy who was on the till and he told me they'd been open for two and a half weeks. They are going to have a cafe and also hold meet the producer type of events, including good and wine tastings. That's the reason I've gone for 4* rather than 5* : it just seems too early to properly rate the place, especially as it seems there's so much more to come. I highly recommend a visit.

It's a coffee shop (with a bar) and a general store, florists, bakery, card shop and they are…read moreplaying postmodern jukebox over the top. I never thought I'd say this about a corner shop...but it's just cool. "Very Northern Quarter" in the nicest possible way.