Best Brunch in Manchester

Somewhere between the full English and the flat white, Manchester lost its head. Brunch has become biblical in this city.

Every weekend in every corner of the region, queues snake around cafés in Greater Manchester for a meal that still cannot decide whether it wants to be breakfast or lunch. Nobody seems particularly bothered by this. If anything, it’s become undeniably the best way to spend a Saturday morning. 

It can be a fry-up after a heavy night, a coffee and eggs before wandering around town, the perfect excuse to chew the ear off that friend you only seem to see once every three months, or the sort of late-morning feast that quietly wipes out the rest of your day. 

For a meal that sits awkwardly between breakfast and lunch, it has done remarkably well for itself. 

Here are some of our favourites. 

Federal 

Some brunch spots have become popular. Others became cult favourites. Or you’re Federal, and you became the benchmark for every brunch opening in Manchester. 

At this point, it feels less like a café and more like a Manchester rite of passage. There are now three sites across the city centre, yet every weekend you’ll still find queues forming outside all of them. 

Mancs love a food debate. Federal seems to have escaped most of them. Lucky sods. 

The menu has barely needed to reinvent itself to stay relevant either. Turkish eggs, sweetcorn fritters, French toast and Hummus & Falafel sanga remain among the city’s most reliable brunch orders. Vegetarians are particularly well looked after too. Not that we’re against avocado on toast, but if that’s all you’re ordering here, you’re probably doing Federal a disservice. 

If somebody tells you they’re visiting Manchester and asks where to go for brunch, Federal is usually one of the first names that comes up. There’s a reason for that. 

Ezra & Gil 

Some places become part of your routine without you ever really noticing. 

One minute you’re popping into Ezra & Gil because everywhere else looks busy. The next, you’re arranging catch-ups there, grabbing breakfast before meetings, squeezing in half an hour of work and recommending it to visitors like you’ve got shares in the place.

That’s probably because it fits into almost any part of the day. Coffee and pastry before work. A long brunch on a Saturday. Lunch after a wander around town. It manages to be all of those things without feeling like it’s trying to be all things to all people. 

Manchester has no shortage of cafés these days, but few have embedded themselves into everyday city life quite like Ezra & Gil. 

Koffee Pot 

Some people swear by water, vitamins and an early night. For me, it’s an alka seltzer, but for everyone else in Manchester, it’s got to be Koffee Pot. 

Serving breakfasts since 1978, this Northern Quarter institution was curing hangovers long before brunch became fashionable. While others perfected their coffee blend and stacked pancakes, Koffee Pot carried on doing what it has always done best: serving enormous breakfasts to people who desperately need them. 

Getting a seat at Koffee Pot can either make or break your morning. It really is that serious. 

Judging by the size of their fry-ups, that’s not the only thing they take seriously. The Full Englishes here arrive with that swaggering confidence that only comes from decades of practice. Plates are loaded, portions are generous and nobody leaves wondering if they should have ordered more food. 

Not every brunch needs to be healthy, photogenic or served with edible flowers. Sometimes you just need a proper breakfast. Koffee Pot understands that assignment. 

Pot Kettle Black 

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With its grand arches and glass roof, Barton Arcade is one of Manchester’s most beautiful places to eat, and yet still so many people don’t seem to know of its existence. 

Which feels like a mistake Manchester should have corrected years ago. 

Plenty of venues would happily build their entire reputation around a setting like Barton Arcade. 

Pot Kettle Black never has. 

The setting might get people through the door, but it’s the food that keeps the place busy. Menus stretch well beyond the standard brunch playbook, coffee is taken seriously and there’s enough quality throughout the offering to ensure Barton Arcade never feels like a gimmick. 

That’s what makes Pot Kettle Black so impressive. Barton Arcade might get your attention first, and the surroundings are memorable, but they’d mean very little if the brunch wasn’t worth returning for. Thankfully, it is. 

Ancoats Coffee Co

If brunch and coffee were ever involved in a battle for top billing, coffee won years ago. 

At most brunch spots, coffee arrives alongside breakfast. At Ancoats Coffee Co, it feels more like breakfast arrived alongside the coffee. 

Housed inside the former Royal Mills cotton mill, this Ancoats favourite has spent years making life difficult for indecisive people. Do you come here for the coffee or the brunch? The honest answer is both. Breakfast sandwiches, pastries and grilled toasties ensure there’s far more to the place than whatever ends up in your cup. 

The coffee may have built the reputation, but the brunch has spent years refusing to live in its shadow.