Best Food Halls in Manchester

If you’d told somebody twenty years ago that one of Manchester’s most exciting places to eat would be inside the disused Mayfield train station, they’d have probably laughed in your face, followed by a “why would I be in that dive.”

Yet here we are. Former market halls, old trading floors and forgotten buildings have become dinner destinations, disused train stations are serving some of the city’s best food and nobody seems to find any of this remotely unusual anymore.

Somehow, we’ve all become perfectly comfortable eating dinner in places that were never designed for it in the first place.

These are some of our favourites.

Mackie Mayor

Everybody seems to have their own Mackie Mayor memory.

A first date. A catch-up with friends. A family lunch. A post-work pint that accidentally turned into dinner. Spend enough time in Manchester and, sooner or later, you usually end up there.

The former Smithfield market hall dates back to the 1850s, and has been given a new lease of life, full of communal tables, independent food traders, drinks, noise and people circling for a seat.

The trader line-up is stacked with headliners, with Honest Crust, Tender Cow, Pico’s Tacos and New Wave Ramen all making it virtually impossible to leave this venue feeling disappointed by the options.

It’s one of the easiest recommendations in the Northern Quarter, and that could apply to any one of their sensational vendors. But put them all under one stunning glass roof, and you’ve got a proper good evening meal to look forward to.

Exhibition

Some restaurants are chosen because everybody agrees on them. Exhibition is what happens when nobody does, and absolutely thrives on that uncertainty.

One person wants wood-fired cooking from Baratxuri. Somebody else is eyeing up the menu from Jaan by Another Hand. Another has already decided they’re ordering from Osma before they’ve even sat down. Normally that sort of indecision would be a nightmare. Here, it’s the entire point.

The Peter Street venue brings together some of Manchester’s most exciting kitchens, with table service doing the heavy lifting in the background. Everyone gets exactly what they want without having to split up, queue twice, wait for the buzzer to go off or spend twenty minutes negotiating dinner plans.

But their evening festivities is when Exhibition really starts to level up. The region’s most talented DJs spinning underground electronic music, eclectic vinyl sounds, and soulful global grooves under their iconic disco ball.

A very useful place to know when nobody can make a decision.

Society

Society sits in that dangerous category of Manchester venues where an after-work drink rarely remains an after-work drink.

The beer selection is partly to blame. The food is definitely to blame.

You really can hardly be blamed when you wander around and you spot a pizza from Noi Quattro, a burger from Slap & Pickle, Mexican street food coming out of La Piloto or whatever excellent independent kitchen happens to be causing problems for your self-control that week. Suddenly, heading home feels like a wildly ambitious plan.

The beauty of Society is that it never forces anybody to settle. You don’t have to accept mediocre pub grub because you’re already halfway through your second pint. Instead, dinner gets a serious upgrade.

One of Manchester’s greatest hospitality achievements is convincing people they can do considerably better than pub grub after two pints.

Suddenly, the packet of pork scratchings behind the bar doesn’t feel quite as exciting.

Freight Island

There aren’t many places in Manchester that feel quite as alive as Freight Island.

From the moment you walk into Depot Mayfield, there’s a real sense that something is happening. It might be live sport on the big screens, a packed-out event, DJs filling the space with music, or simply thousands of people making the most of one of the city’s most ambitious hospitality venues.

The food is a huge part of the appeal too. Traders like Mia’s Arepas, Ornella’s Kitchen and Mega Gyros mean everyone can head off in completely different directions before regrouping around the table with something excellent.

But Freight Island has always been about more than what arrives on the plate.

It’s one of those rare Manchester venues that feels equally suited to lunch, drinks, dinner, celebrations and those days when you don’t really want to go home just yet.

Few places capture the city’s energy quite like it.

Altrincham Market

Altrincham Market is worth the tram. That is the whole point.

The Market House helped turn Alty into one of Greater Manchester’s best food destinations, and it hasn’t looked back since. Traders like Honest Crust, Tender Cow, Reserve Wines and Great North Pie have become institutions in their own right, giving people plenty of reasons to keep returning.

The best approach is not to rush it. Do a lap first. See what catches your eye. Change your mind a couple of times. Repeat at least twice. Everybody else does.

Then settle in and enjoy one of the places that helped shape Manchester’s modern food scene.

The Produce Hall

You’d struggle to find a building in Greater Manchester that’s had a busier life. But this chapter might be its best yet.

Over the last 160 years, The Produce Hall has been home to butchers, fishmongers, fruit traders and generations of Stockport shoppers. Looking around the place today, we’d like to think that they’d approve.

These days, the old building is packed with independent food traders who seem determined to make the most of the place.

And even with all of that history behind it, people are still gathering here around food. They just happen to be doing it with street food, craft beer and live music spilling into Market Place during Foodie Friday.

For a building that’s been around this long, it still knows how to put on a decent night out.