Surrounded by student accomadation and university buildings, this Abduls is mainly populated by…read morestudents tucking into cheap kebabs, chips and curries. In the daytime it's relatively quiet with half a dozen stools and plastic seats for customers to perch on. At night however, it can become a bit lively with large groups of drunk and sober customers popping in for some quick chow. As for the food itself, we're talking about edible and filling (rather than tantalising) kebabs, biryanis, dansaks and madras. The close proximity to Manchester Academy, Contact Theatre and Big Hands make Abduls an ideal destination for grabbing a take-away after a gig, show or club night. Just be prepared to be surrounded by some colourful characters trying to pinch your chips or worse still, chat you up!

For me, Abdul's wins the contest with its neighbour Gemini (nicknamed 'Dirty Gemini' by much of the…read moreWhitworth Park population) hands down. I will eat here voluntarily and when sober, which is more than can be said for the majority of Oxford Road's takeaways. My favourite thing to eat at Abdul's is the veggie burger. After a busy day of lectures when I had nothing in, I would sometimes pop in for a veggie burger which I would eat on the high stools in the takeaway whilst gazing out onto Oxford Road. Due to a rather sparse timetable this wasn't particularly often, but every time I went in the staff would remember me and often gave me a free can with my burger. They stuff the burgers and kebabs full - although be warned, the salad does consist mainly of cabbage, so if you don't like it, ask for it without. Friendly staff - 1 star, cheap food - 1 star, tasty food - 1 star, freebies - 1 star. Well done Abdul.

Al Faisal is another of the Northern Quarter's curry cafés. Personally, I really appreciate the…read morerich character of all of these cafés and I feel more comfortable supporting a local, ethnic, independent business over a chain. As a vegetarian, I enjoyed Al Faisal's lunchtime rice, channa, spinach & potato and chapati for around £5. Everything was tasty. However, the rice had small amounts of food colour in it, and I prefer to avoid artificial additives. And the chapati was fairly thick and leathery though still perfectly wholesome if thoroughly chewed! I personally prefer proper dairy ghee as a healthier cooking oil but staff at Al Faisal confirmed that they use vegetable oil, so I will keep looking (and eating!) in the meantime. All Al Faisal staff are attentive and courteous, ensuring the place is kept neat, clean and peaceful, whilst ensuring a fast turnaround on orders. Al Faisal is definitely a good choice for a hot and nourishing no-frills lunch or early evening meal.

Really really good grilled meats as you can see from my 'mixed grill' lunch …read more.. I have previously written about Al Faisal but this is a fitting way to sing its praises ... I prefer the Yadgar for curry but the grill award goes to 'Al Faisal' if you have a charcoal carbon crush. :-)

Yummy food, a huge selection with a lot of vegetarian choices, free delivery over five pounds and…read morethey're open till stupidly late. Oh plus they always give you free poppadums and chutney. I love balti king. Best dishes: Prawn Pathia Chicken peshwari Vegetable achari

We ordered onion bhajis and poppadoms for starters, then chicken tikka vindaloo and chicken tikka…read morejalfrezi, pilau rice, and the biggest nan bread ever seen! The food arrived promptly, very hot and tasty. Must be the all time top balti restaurant. Tony the manager is just the best host, very friendly and entertaining! Many famous people visit there, shows the standard of the food. We cannot wait to visit again.

Previously I've called in here after a skinful for a pizza. I can only vouch that this pizza was…read moreedible (as evidenced by the fact that I ate it) but other than that, totally unremarkable. After reading a review on here stating that the curries and kebabs were of much better quality than the pizza, I decided to get some Indian food for my Sunday night takeout. First things first - you can get a feast for a pretty small amount of money. With eyes far bigger than my belly I paid £9 for 2 meat samosas, 2 onion bhajis, paneer saag, a naan bread, raita, and a can of Vimto. This for me was enough for two meals, and could stretch to three if you're less greedy. The samosas were nice. The onion bhajis weren't great - they were a bit soft and stodgy whereas I prefer them crispy. Paneer saag was delicious - rich and spicy with big chunks of salty cheese. The naan was lovely and it was nice to see them make it before my eyes. Raita was a tad watery but full of fresh flavours and refreshing chunks of tomato and cucumber. Overall this was a really good meal at a great price. In think they do a curry + rice/naan deal for £4 if you're really pinching the pennies. I'd be interested in trying some more of their veggie curry dishes for certain.

Admittedly, I'm a bit of an amateur at the kebab. I've had my share back in the states (not the…read moresame), and plenty of drunken shawarmas and doners the past couple of years in london. The late night chicken kebab I had at Zam Zams was by far my best experience. First off, rather than a wrap or a pita, they use naan bread to wrap the meat and salad. From what I heard, this is actually quite typical in the northern cities, but for me, a first. The chili seasoning from the chicken and the chili sauce (I'm a spicy food freak) was on point. Apparently, kebabs for lunch is a no-no in the UK. Despite this, I forced some friends to accompany me to an afternoon re-vist at zam zam two days later!

Without doubt the best Indian take away around ! I simply…read morelove this place. The food quality and service is exceptional and the fact that they don't do deliveries in no way detracts from just how busy this place is. My fave is the Tandoori Mixed Grill with a Dopiaza Sauce (you can have any sauce you like). The price of fame of course is that at busy times you may need to be a little patient. The trick is, phone your order in, if they say 20 mins, turn up in 20 mins and you may wait another 5 mins, Trust me, the food is worth any wait. The other alternative is order when you get there and go to the boozer across the road for a swift one ! The sister restaurant next door "Gatley Cuisine" is also well worth a visit. Check out the website/menus and enjoy.

The Gatley takeaway exists in partnership with it's sister restaurant - Gatley Tandoori - next…read moredoor. Both places do have a great reputation and, while they supply reasonable, good quality food, my personal experience is that they are just a little bit average. I think that the reputation stands from a number of years of being a *bit* better than those around - while, especially recently(ish), the target has moved with the opening of new places in Cheadle and others who are providing a more authentic menu rather than the anglicised selections that became popular in the 80's and 90's I'm being a little bit scathing, perhaps, but it's just that I find many of the dishes lack any genuine variety. I have been quite a few times, though, so it's not bad - just not amazing. Portion sizes for the takeaway are huge - those standard takeaway carriers being packed to the brim - and plenty of actual content, it's not all just sauce. I find ordering from the 'exclusive dishes' section tends to yield the most interesting and tasty results - obviously that's just personal. They have also messed up my order on a couple of occasions - so listen carefully when they (rather maniacally) shout what's in your bag. So, worth a go - and still one of the better takeaways in Gatley - but given the various delivery options out there I would say try a few others and looks for the more specialist (e.g. south indian) takeaways and restaurants.

CASH ONLY. Yes, this place is THAT GOOD; Indian home cooking at its best . Nothing fancy. Except…read morethe tongue-dazzling flavors. Fareed is a super-nice guy who does it all...cooks and serves. He's been at it for 30 years and his culinary skills are exceptionally high for an astonishinglu low price. The curries rotate but don't worry, it's all excellent. I had a chicken curry, daal, and spinach with potatoes over rice. In the UK this is known as "rice and three." All for £7.50.

Best curry. I have been eating here for 15 plus years and the food is always great. Rice and three…read morecurries is perfect, with a rotating selection every day. Recommend to get there early as they close by 5pm most days (whenever the food runs out).

I've been in here way too much. I've had the occasional snack, the typical drunk feast... and when…read morehungover, curry for breakfast. The people that work here are extremely nice, and have given me free food on numerous occasions. This is my personal favorite takeaway on the Curry Mile. I highly recommend coming here! I still occasionally crave this place now that I'm back in America.

Yelp isn't the only site I use to find places to eat, I'll admit. It's a good one, but when I'm…read morethinking of going somewhere I'll tend to cross-reference the Yelp score with reviews from a couple of other places, most notably Tripadvisor (for my sins). Normally these sites tend to agree with each other, so when I saw that Tripadvisor said Sangams was the best Indian restaurant in Manchester, I was intrigued to say the least. I had to check this out! I popped in to try their lunch menu (£7 for poppadoms, a rice or naan, and a curry). To my substantial surprise Sangams was outstanding. I had assumed that their lunch food would not be their best stuff, but wow! And if I was right, double wow! It was impressive from the start, the poppadoms were freshly cooked and actually tasted cooked not reheated, they even had areas where they had browned a little. The portion of rice was huge (enough for safely two people) and tasted pretty good and the curry was great. Another huge portion (frankly, almost enough for two again!) and had seriously good quality meat in it. The meat actually had some substance to it and for once I felt like I was eating some proper cooking. There was plenty of meat too, which is an area the mile often lets you down in. All this for £7, and at a lunchtime when the restaurants rarely aim to impress. What does this tell us? 1. The mile does have some surprises left 2. Sangams may not be the best in the city, but it's a lot closer than you think 3. Yelp has the very very very rare blind spot Seriously people, check it out, and be shocked and awed. (By the way, the decor is much lighter and nicer than the outside looks)

I read a review about how this is one of the best restaurants on the "curry mile". We went in at…read more2ish on a Saturday afternoon. There were plenty of tables. The waiter was extremely nice and helpful! What I ordered: I decided to do the dansak curry with vegetables. The curry was delicious; although, I kind of wished I would have tried something a bit spicier. It was a very sweet curry! If I lived here, I would be back to try some of their other Indian dishes!

There's definitely something for everyone on the menu - plenty of meat and vegetarian options and…read moredetailed descriptions of ingredients and spice ratings. As soon as I sat down I decided that I was going to try something different to my usual choice of meat samosas and lamb rogan josh. To start I had the chicken tikka pieces. The chicken was juicy and the spice balance was perfect, it even came with a little side salad to help cleanse the palate. For main I opted for Haleem, which is a dish made from a mixture of lentils cooked with ground lamb cooked in a rich sauce. It came topped with crisp onions, stem ginger and coriander. This was a bit of a let down to be honest, the texture was peculiar and reminded me of melted cheese in that it was quite clumped together and stringy. Bit off putting really. The peshwari naan was exceptionally sweet - a little too close to being a breaded dessert to be honest. It wasn't the best food I've had on curry mile and the service was pretty average.