So it was one of those nights where it took aaaages to decide where to eat..despite living in…read moreManchester with millions of places to choose from..a bit like Netflix I guess.. Anyway we had originally settled on Red Chili on Portland Street because their menu looked divine online...however do not expect a warm welcome if you turn up at 9.30pm...Expect to receive a cold scowl and shoulder to match instead..so we left.. Anyway back to this place....Mooching through China town we thought ''hey lets try here'' the odd name certainly intrigued us... Instantly a cute waitress beckoned us in, pleasantly handing us a menu and guiding us to a table...each table was simply set with Chinese bowls and chopsticks which gave it that humble feeling... The menu in all honesty offered you items you would find on any Chinese menu, except for the odd fancy Sea bass dish.What grabbed our attention was the set meal where you could choose 3 items EACH from the starter menu, quarter of a duck to share , a main meal and rice/noodles each and a dessert....all for £24 ....bargain.. I was quite concerned how we were going to demolish this all...I mean my handbag was big that night..but the potential doggy bag was not going to fit... The starters to my relief were manageable , there were 4 pieces of assorted dumplings, dried seaweed, one chicken kebab and two hot and sour soups...which came in cute little glass casserole dishes.... The dumplings were like any other, but the soup ...tasted quite OXO cubey....very heavily flavoured in beef stock... The duck flew in next, to which a really polite waiter lovingly shred it in front of us... I admit I broke my Pescaterian diet because it looked so good...plus ducks live on water right? The mains , again ...these did not stand out...they were like any other Chinese Takeaway but the excellent service and friendly atmosphere ...made this special.. By the time we tried to eat this...there was no room for dessert and we were the last ones there..So I thought it would be polite and let these lovely people go home... Overall this place is really good value for money, I think it would be ideal for a large group to meet here and dine. as there would be no quibble about the expense.. The staff are just so genuine , and approachable..I think foodwise this is a three star,,,waiter wise I gives it a four...

Unassuming from the outside and oddly named, BBQ Handmade Noodles King serves delicious food at…read morevery reasonable prices. They also serve beer (ordinary lager) in jugs, which is excellent. We asked if one jug would be enough for our party of 3, to which the faultless response was "that depends how thirsty you are". As my visit here was about a month ago, the finer points are now lost in my memory. The stand-out dishes (the ones that I find myself daydreaming about) are the deep fried aubergine and the cold garlic belly pork. Give me a pile of each of these and I'll be very happy. Don't take squeamish companions here (or do, if you want to scare them). The menu is replete with various types of offal and organ. We ordered some lamb's ovary which was tasty enough - I'd order it again as part of a selection of dishes but it doesn't linger on my mind quite like the aubergine and the pork. The eponymous handmade noodles are delicious - thick and slightly chewy, in a delicious broth. Ours came with beef cooked with garlic and ginger, which was great. We ordered some baby squid skewers but had to make do with 'adult' squid as they had none. This was the main disappointment of the meal - so tough and chewy we struggled to maintain our dignity while gnawing through it. The seasoning hadn't permeated the squid at all and just left a greasy yet chalky residue on my tongue. Boiled rice was, you know, whatever. It's not something I ever personally choose (feels like a waste of time, money and calories) but it was sort of added to the order in a "and how many portions of rice would you like?" way. Food and beer for three greedy, thirsty people came to around £40. I would eat everything again other than the squid and would love to go back to try some more exciting and unusual dishes from their menu.

Chop! Chop! is a handy one to know about as if you don't live round here, as a friend of mine used…read moreto, you might not think to wander to Great Ancoats after the Northern Quarter. Yet here it is, a beacon of 'Oriental Cuisine' for all to experience and relative newcomer to the Ancoats 'scene' if you can call it that. Typical menu: select your meat for £3/£4, a little more for duck, and some sauce and away you go. There's a really good selection of veggie options here- veggie Chow Mein, veggie Vermicelli etc. But the Sweet and Sour chicken is really good, if you eat meat. This Chinese take out is everything you want it to be and more: value for money, friendly service and good enough food. A word of warning though: we once ordered delivery from here (for just a £1 charge) and it took absolutely forever so order early if you're thinking of doing this. We may have just been unlucky but even so. Chop Chop didn't exactly live up to its name that time.

Exactly the same experiences as my own. Good Chinese food, less obvious MSG than usual and a…read morehealthy taste, but slow delivery times. To be honest, with the plethora of greasy horrible Chinese food establishments taking over the country, this is a small price to pay for a nice healthy (ish) meal. You can tell the food is not bad because even the photos of it look good, and they are usually always a bad idea (see photos). The meals are remarkably cheap as well and though it might be more expensive to get prawns and the like, its still a ridiculous £4! This is at elast a quid cheaper than anywhere else I know. I also like the style of choosing a meat or fish and then a sauce seperately, as opposed to them being listen on the menu several times under each heading, i.e. Chicken in Cashew Nut, Prawn in Cashew Nut, Beef in Cashew Nut and so on, what is this larking about for? Just be straight up, you've got some cashew nut sauce in that kitchen haven't you? They also do a 'mixed meat' option, but that doest quite sound right to me, so I've always had prawn or chicken. For starters I recommend the soups, especially the noodle soups, which come with beef or chicken. I've got so say though, even though its only soup its damn filling so you might want to skip the delicious pre-main course treat if you aren't starving. Having said that, you could just force it down, along with some prawn crackers and prawn toast (very good here), and you'll still have only spend a few quid.

The New Emperor...what can I say, poor service and wouldn't rate the food…read more Came in here on Chinese New Year weekend with a travel blogger mate of mine who had been here before, he said it's usually better on normal days. It was busy- there are two floors and we were seated on the top floor. When we arrived there were two other people waiting so we were all led upstairs- the waiter seated the first couple but then just completely forgot about us so we just found a table and sat down. The service was shoddy and the guy couldn't raise a smile. We were trying to choose drinks and the waiter took the menu away, then we had to ask for it back. He took our food order, then another member of staff came to take our food order again. Asked for the sake from the menu, they didn't have it. Went for a jack and coke instead. Ordered the started platter to share- it came with ribs, prawn toast, chicken satay, fried chicken drumsticks and a steak roll with some crispy seaweed in the middle. It looked really unappetising in colour and the sauce had collected a film, so it looked like it had been sitting out. It was alright and edible but nothing special. Also ordered a quarter crispy duck which was fine, although the cucumber and spring onion was all dried up. The restaurant itself was also really cold- by the time I left I felt chilled to the bone on a winter's day! All in all not brilliant and wouldn't go back to this one.

Another Chinatown MUST. I came here for lunch with a friend and had the best dim sum experience…read more of. my. life. Right off Nicholas Street, you'll find yourself here, walking through a sliding glass door and entering a foodie haven. I had never had dim sum before, so my friend from Hong Kong bestowed his vast knowledge upon me and I got to enjoy many different courses of delectable foods! I have to say right now, you absolutely must get the fried turnip cake in XO sauce. It is divine. seriously. order this dish. We ordered 6 different dishes...between two people (no regrets). Each dish was a sizable portion and unbelievably yummy. The best part? only £11 each. I am so happy to now know of this spot! You aren't coming here for a 5-star, high end atmosphere, but the New Emperor still gets 5 stars in my book because the food was just that good and the servers were very friendly and fun. This restaurant has become one of my absolute favourites.

I love Red Chilli, but my only critique is that the service can be rather slow and inattentive…read more The food, on the other hand, is incredible! Crispy chilli shredded beef is one of my favourite dishes, and that is how it is. Crispy. Spicy. Shredded. Beefy. Perfect. On my last visit with colleagues for a leaving lunch, I ordered the salt & pepper baby squid for a starter, and it was very tasty. For my main, I ordered the Gongbao diced chicken. Again, quite a spicy dish, with the added bonus and flavour of peanuts. Superb! Red Chilli offer a great lunch deal that comes with a starter and main for less than £10, however, in December they add an extra couple of pound on this, despite offering the same food and calling it the "Christmas lunch deal". Come on guys! Step it up a gear! The decor is quite bold, but offers a comfortable setting, with large round tables for groups, dark wood dividers and booths.

One of our favourite restaurants when looking for some excellent chinese food. This restaurant…read morespecialises in Szechwan dishes, so do expect that most items on the menu will have a chilli rating next to it! This is one our favourite places for Peking Duck, hanf carved right in front of you. i would also recommend any variety of their lamb dishes, including the lamb ribs. If you're feeling adventurous, try the cold spicy platter too. Only gripe about this place is the lack of available parking. There is a multi storey nearby but its not the cheapest place to park!

A fine purveyor of Szechuan cuisine, which is one of my favey daves. R&H offers a pretty extensive…read moremenu of tasty dishes, with the ever helpful 'chilliometer' to alert you to super-spicy foods. The boyf swears by the chilliometer, and on one occasion refused to order food until he was given a vocal chilliometer by the waiter. So, you know, good work with the chilliometer, R&H. The menu is very good, offering such delicacies as eels and duck tongue (euwwwww!) alongside the more workaday ribs, prawns and whatnot. The prices here are more than I expected, with it being in a none-too-shiny area of Chinatown, and not being all to sexy itself. Expect to pay over £5 per starter while mains are all around the £7-£10 mark, depending on what you're having. My sizzling black pepper beef (£8.50) really hit the spot, and the boyf paticularly enjoyed his salt and pepper king prawn dish. The egg fried rice was amongst the best I've had in Manchester, so kudos. The atmosphere is OK, but I feel like maybe we came at a bad time, earlyish on a Tuesday. I can see that it does have the potential to be quite a happening place if busy. The staff are incredibly helpful, and service is super fast. Drinkswise, you can bring your own, but they charge £10 if you do so! Shocker. You're better off having the house wine, £10, which is alright. Pints of the usual (Tiger, Grolsch, Bud) are a reasonable £2.50. Cutely, they offer Bacardi Breezers and the like, under the heading "Romantic Drinks", yeah, romantic for a school disco! R&H is good, and well worth a visit for the food alone, but if you're aafter a buzzing, fun atmosphere, this ain't the place.

Wasn't expecting great Chinese food being from Los Angeles where Asian food is extremely good and…read moreaccessible. However, this place surprised me (despite my initial worry with the lack of customers ... granted I came around 9pm on a weekday). Every dish we ordered was packed full of flavor. Kung pao chicken was delicious, though it was a bit too sauced up for my taste. Sliced pork szechuan style was definitely my favorite dish we ordered. I could do without the onions piled up on the bottom though Water spinach was standard My friend who ordered the hot and sour soup said it was the best one he's ever had (but he's white and from Texas so I take it with a grain of salt heh) Pan fried dumplings were also tasty. If you're inkling for some authentic asian food, definitely give this place a shot.

I've been meaning to try Seoul Kimchi for ages but I'm rarely in this part of town. However it's…read moreactually a cheap cab ride from the city centre and well worth the effort. This is overall the best Korean food experience I've had in Manchester. For a start out unlike some other places you automatically get complimentary banchan - excellent kimchi and a delightful sweet soybean dish I hadn't tried before. The Korean seafood pancake was quite eggy but that texture actually worked well with the crispy spring onions and chewy squid. Fantastic spicy dip as well. The beef bibimbap was excellent (I notice another review says she preferred eatGoody's - to me they were around the same but I just take this moment to say the Manchester Uni is really blessed to have 2 excellent Korean joints, unlike anywhere else in the city!) and they leave the red chilli sauce with you so you can get the mix exactly to your taste. Prices are reasonable and while it wouldn't necessarily be an everyday lunch it's definitely somewhere you could afford fairly regularly. As other reviewers have noted this is very small place and although we got seats straight away, arriving before 12 on a Wednesday, I think arriving later you could well end up waiting. However I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this place which at the moment I would say is the top choice for anyone wanting to eat Korean food in Manchester.

Kimchi is a nice casual korean cafe style restaurant and the food here is limited but good quality…read moreand all priced under £10. I had the kimchi tofu jigae and the kimchi pancake which was pretty big but tasted amazing. In the jigae they also added a poached egg into it which gave it a nice taste, and the spicy factor was perfect; not too spicy. The service is average bit efficient, the food came quite quickly and another good thing is that banchan is served complimentary here, which doesn't seem to be the case with many UK korean restaurants. They also have some Japanese dishes on the menu like sushi, gyoza, temaki and teriyaki. There is parking right outside and it's pay and display but very cheap: 50p for 30 mins and £1 for an hour. The atmosphere is very casual like a cafe, so it's great for lunch as well as dinner. Overall, authentic and tasty Korean food that's well priced and made to a great standard.

I remember trying this place when it first opened but decided not to stay when it didn't do sushi…read more Anyway fast forward to a year or so later we needed to grab something quick enroute to a gig. I suggested here as wasabi sushi no longer resides around here :( I really fancied the belly pork but they didn't have this or tuna..etc..i felt like walking out again but it was something or nothing. I ended up getting the grilled eel which was served with an soft egg yolk and rice..it was tasty but not the cheapest for a tenner. My other half had the teriyaki salmon but again expensive for the amount he paid.. for two green teas and a main each the bill came to £25..it tasted okay enough but there are plenty of other places to try..

i came here with a friend a few weeks ago for an early dinner so it wasn't quite busy but the…read moreatmosphere was very relaxing/homesy feel! i ordered the japanese curry tofu rice dish and my friend got the karaage chicken rice dish! it was extremely warm and comforting in contrast to the cool weather! our food came fairly fast as well and it was relatively fair price for the portion size!!

A brief history of Chinatown favourites…read more..... I was introduced to real Chinees food - I mean proper Chinese food, not gwailo-style, westernised stuff - in the late eighties, by my old friend Ronnie Chan. Ronnie and I would go weekly to Win Wah on Portland Street, an astoundingly cheap place where dishes cost £3-4, and I learned very quickly to use chopsticks (out of necessity - otherwise Ronnie would have eaten all the grub before I had any chance). Then Ronnie moved back to Hong Kong, Win Wah disappeared, and I was in the wilderness. After some years of searching, I found a new home at Wong Chu. Cheap, no-nonsense, with high-quality offerings - the noodle dishes, and the duck / pork / squid were always spot-on, I wandered the streets, checked the menus, and tried the other places - but always found myself returning to Wong Chu, because it was cheaper and better than the competition. I dined there hundreds of times. One Saturday morning in 2001, I opened my newspaper and saw the headline "Hacked to Death by Triad Maniacs". It was Mr Wong and his family. I'd seen Mrs Wong go through her two pregnancies, watched her kids scurry excitedly around the place, and I was devastated. But the restaurant re-opened, now managed by Mr Wong's adult daughter from a previous marriage, and continued to deliver great dining..... for another 5 or 6 years. Then it went into a sad decline - I have no idea why - and by the end, it was a pale shadow of its former self. Back to the wilderness. Now I have a new home in Chinatown. As good as Win Wah & Wong Chu at their respective peaks, with the same format - no-frills, low-end prices, but great quality, a relaxed and friendly informal atmosphere, and a menu of Hong Kong-style Chinese dishes that are a world away from the MSG-laden gwailo junk that's so ubiquitous in UK Chinese restaurants, Fu's is the real deal. Welcome home.

A blink and you'll miss it gem. Not named after whoever that damn person Mr T was referring to when…read morehe got annoyed, Fu's is instead a traditional Hong Kong style café with a huge amount of hot, yummy options including your usual szechuans and sweet and sours, chow meins and hoi sins, and they're all lovely enough, but what you want to try here are the more unusual, authentic dishes. My favourite is the fish stew, done hot pot style and just so delicious you'd happily force yourself to eat too. Combos and sauces you might not have encountered before are the order of the day here and the creativity pays dividends. The secret trick here is not to be given the blue menu. They'll automatically pass it on if they think you're English, but it's the red one you want; that's what harbours all the wonderful stuff. The drinks are interesting too, especially the traditional Hong Kong iced tea, it's uber refreshing. And with wicked prices and smart service to boot, this is one gem you should ensure won't stay hidden long. Get stuck in.