Oh salut! First time…read moreI walked past this a few weeks ago and saw the enomatic through the window I let out a an actual GASP of excitement. Was pretty excited on the night too, so excited I left my card in the wine machine which made me look like a total amateur. It's much more spacious inside than I had realised, and there are also seats and heaters outside with a great view of the nearby row of traditional pubs with the town hall in the background. I enjoyed trying the various wines (the smallest amount is often £2-3 so you can try a good four wines on a £10 card pre-payment) and could even tell that some of them tasted different, so am basically going to be earning my MW in no time. They also do a few little snacks - my fave baba ghanoush and some rather tasty crisps, although the brown olives tasted too sour for me. Tap water came chilled in a delightful glass bottle. Btw I am not sure there are actually other drinks options here, maybe check that before you go. The staff were efficient and welcoming and I am sure I will be back here. A great companion to hanging ditch and Bakerie in terms of our city's wine bar scene.

I love wine. Big fan. You know how it goes, you open a book one day and you bite the apple and…read morewoooosh, there's no way back. Although I now work for an independent wine merchant in Didsbury and am considered a bit of a fussy geek by my friends, I have longed for a good wine bar in Manchester pretty much since I arrived in town over 6 years ago, well before wine was a big thing for me. A few places have attempted it, half-heartedly for some, but none had so far succeeded. Then came Salut wines, first baby business of a lovely couple who like me love good wine and thought it deserved proper representation in the City Centre. An ambitious project that was, not without hurdles. But tenacity paid off and behold, a superb, clean, warm and welcoming wine bar where odd ins once was. Enomatic machines a-go-go, 32 wines are available by the glass at any point in (opening) time. That's 16 whites and rosés and 16 reds. Thanks to these machines you can enjoy a vast variety of wines, all of which are way above your house plonk from most pubs/bars/restaurant. And that's not all. 3 measures are available: 50ml, 125ml and 175 ml. The first one is my favourite. I can play to my heart's content and try a lot of wine before it's time to call it a day. Most wines are between £1.20 and £5 for a glass but you can also try some of the fancier stuff that would NEVER be available by the glass otherwise. Risk-free. Whilst they do not cater, a range of nibbles and tapas plates are available and it's perfectly suitable for a light lunch or diner. Cheese, cured meats and Mediterranean veggie plates, all made with very good ingredients. Music is top notch, not your average lounge "elevator" type nor your bass-boosted frenzy. Blues, jazz, pop, electro... To sum-up, great atmosphere, best wine selection in town, excellent service. The bottle prices to take away are on the steep side of I'm honest but I'll put that down as the location.

We walked over to Erst after a match at the Etihad, and found the restaurant charismatic and…read morecomfortable. The food, the Staff, the establishment was excellent.

Really liked Erst! At the standard of nearby Elnecot but with a individual range of small plates -…read moremy friend adored the courgettes and curds and the mussels, flatbreads and crispy potatoes were great too. I was sad to be too hungover to try the orange wine - but will definitely be back. Disappointed to be one of only two tables occupied on a Saturday lunchtime - Erst deserves to be packed. Service was helpful and friendly, although I think some patrons will be irritated by the fairly slow pacing of the small plates - warn them if you are ravenous!

The food here was delicious, the menu unique enough to be interesting, the decor beautiful, and the…read moreservice exceptionally friendly. I shared the chicken toastie and the steak and eggs with my husband and both were amazing.

Fress has been gorgeously redecorated with tiling on both the floors and walls - whatever they…read morespent on it was totally worth it, and the warm lighting illuminates it all perfectly. I started with a Bloody Mary which came with a teeny tiny bottle of Tabasco floating in it - I am def one of those girls who likes miniature stuff so was almost too excited to notice that in any case the spice level was perfectly balanced. We had padron peppers and octopus to start. The octopus was really excellent - tender with a beautiful flavourful sauce. The padron peppers came with some kind of sauce and no cracked sea salt, which was a shame because the traditional way to do padron peppers is wildly popular for a reason - I wouldn't get these again. For mains, bf loved the crispy pork belly with bacon (and refused to let me have any, so let's take his word for it). I had the half chicken which really is a lot of meat - I love the gravy and sugar snaps but the beetroot potato, while a great idea and having a nice flavour, was really too dominated by the beetroot. We had a penicillin cocktail to finish - it's a very tart whisky cocktail though so I wouldn't recommend it for dessert. Overall we really enjoyed our meal here and you should definitely give this attractive restaurant a try. NB while I initially put categories indicating this is more of a brunch/bar place, it is a proper evening restaurant and unless there's something downstairs, there's not much bar space.

Food: 4.5 Service: 5…read moreAmbience: 5 Food was very good and staff were excellent. We tried the calamari, meatballs, scallops, chilli fillet and pork cheeks. Everything was well flavoured and perfectly cooked. The pork cheeks were stand out delicious. There is an extensive wine selection as well. Tried the chocolate cake and basque cheesecake for dessert. My friend enjoyed the chocolate cake. I found the cheesecake delicious but not like the typical Basque style, its was served cold and lacked the soft center that the Basque cheesecake normally has.

A few weeks ago I went to the Tapas/Spanish restaurant Evuna. Evuna have a few restaurants in…read moreManchester - we went to the one in the Northern Quarter. (They also have another one in city centre on Deansgate and also one in Altrincham and one in Knutsford. I like tapas generally. I like going in a group so you get to try a wide range of different things, and some things you may not have ordered yourself. We picked 3 things each from the menu and then all shared. One of my fav things was the Catalan (style) tomatoes with garlic bread. Not that dis-similar to tomato bruschetta you almost always get when you have tapas. Its basically fined chopped up tomatoes and is more of a sauce compared to bruschetta, and various herbs and garlic probably and some nice bread. Very simple but tasted really good. Other things we had was the pork belly, ham croquettes, a cured meat/cheese platter, patatas bravas, calamari and padron peppers. All overall tasted good. Lovely selection of the meats/cheese, croquettes were tasty, nice salty/juice peppers. Calamari actually was just OK if honest, had better. So overall good food and good service so will be going back again.

Well I think we can finally say we have a wine bar scene in Manchester…read more BistroVin is a peaceful space over the renowned Spirited Wines shop on Deansgate, with huge glass windows overlooking the street and classical music on the stereo. You can buy wine by the glass or buy a bottle from the shop downstairs (£4 corkage fee). There's also a fantastic looking selection of cheese, from which a French staff member selected the English Barkham Blue as her favourite. THE SHAME. (it looked great). She also recommended their new range of beers which features rose and jasmine flavours! Even I might like them! An equally delightful server suggested I try the Merlot which he promised was a strong wine and it was really delicious and at £4.50 a glass (others cheaper) I wouldn't hesitate to come back.

We should all hang our heads in shame, Yelp Manchester - BistroVin has been open since MARCH and…read morenot one of us realised. An unexplored wine bar. Totally unacceptable. Accessed via stairs within Spirited Wines, their large first floor bar is light, spacious and tasteful. A couple of Chesterfield sofas are sat in the corner by the large windows, with the rest of the wooden chairs and tables nicely spaced apart. Though it was raining, dreary and thoroughly miserable outside, the service was warm and welcoming. The bar man, Nicolas, explained that wine was available by the glass from the concise drinks menu, or you could pop downstairs and choose any one of the bottles to enjoy (with a £4 corkage fee - you pay for it at the bar). Two friends and I opted for a lovely Rioja and if we hadn't been going out for a meal afterwards, would have been very tempted to get a platter of cheeses. They have a counter of them with the French cheeses being delivered directly and the English cheeses from local producers. A charming and unpretentious spot to escape the busyness of Deansgate. Long may they prosper.

This is such a lovely wine bar. When it comes to wine I don't pretend to know my stuff, I just…read moreopenly admit 'I know nothing about wine!' I do like wine, and it always has to be red, preferably a fruity one, but that's as far as it goes for me.. Names of wines? Nope. Flavours of wines? Nada. So I asked the bartender for a middle of the road, fruity, red. He recommended the Le Selezioni Cutaja, Nero d'Avola (confused face) and he looked like he knew his stuff, so with total faith in him that's what I went for. It was lovely. The bar itself is small but looks cosy. It wasn't particularly busy for a Tuesday evening but there was still a very pleasant atmosphere as I met some other Yelpers for pre-dinner drinks. As time goes on I can imagine this is the type of place I would like to sit for a few hours, order a meat and cheese board and try some different wines. This may have to involve building up my tolerance a little though, as usually 2 large glasses of red and I'm sloshed.

OH APERITIVI YOU SAY…read more Following my year in Bologna when I belatedly discovered Italian aperitivi culture (i.e. eating tiny free pieces of food along with your prosecco, negroni etc) I always get verrrry excited when I see it in the UK. Veeno apparently has a whole buffet on Wednesday, which I am excited to try. Meanwhile what we got was great - cheese and ham with excellent red wine (I got the "classic" which I really enjoyed). Will definitely be back here for drinks, it's a great stop off before, for example, Red's or Splendid Kitchen.

I LOVE Ancoats, and I love cutting room square. Whenever I come up to Manchester, 9 times out of 10…read moreI will find myself in ancoats and just walking around and trying the bars and restaurants there. It's amazing. So when it came to a December trip, I knew I wanted to treat myself and go somewhere new and somewhere in Ancoats, and Elnecot popped up on my feed. Ive walked passed this place so many times and never been in and decided to change it. I booked a time and it was in-between lunch and dinner services so they still served lunch and was before the workers finished so it was quiet. Walking in, it was a lovely place. Looks upscale, looks trendy, looks cozy and it really was. The length of the restaurant has floor to ceiling windows sou can still see the beautiful buildings and people walking passed, and they had a curtain light in the window next to me so it added to the ambiance. As it was the festive period, and I wanted to be a bit fancy with a wine, I chose the Mulled wine from the festive specials menu. Then went for the welsh cheeseburger and fries and the chocolate lava cake thingy for desert. The service was nice and super quick, and the food was delicious. The mulled wine, was better than at the Christmas markets and nice and warning and warm. The burger was delicious and chips were epic. Then the desert came and OMG .. I shall let the pictures do all the talking.

Fantastic small plates, extremely attentive service and just generally a great vibe. I loved coming…read morehere, really felt like the perfect slightly decadent treat. I particularly rate the kohlrabi.

I would like to take this moment to record that I got seriously into vermouth and sherry 3 years…read moreago in Madrid, and I totally called this craze. OK fine, my 84 year old dad has been drinking martini rosso (with gin! and no mixer!) nightly since I was born. He is the original and best. So Flok has vermut on tap, which is the most exciting thing you could deliver to me in a bar really, although tbh I was surprised to see it as £4.50 for 50ml, when you can buy an entire bottle of sweet vermouth in ASDA (which yes, I have done). The bar looks nice, although they did that thing where they leave all the walls all unpainted and peeling (or maybe even deliberately create that look) which is somewhat wearing. The stools I due to my large butt and leather skirt found difficult to stay afloat on but generally this place has a good amount of seating, although it's a shame all the really comfortable seats are in giant booths a couple would feel awkward commandeering. They have various cask beers which was pleasantly surprising and means you could bring any combo of friends here and they would find something to drink, although it also means it doesn't have the chilled wine bar vibe as groups of loud men have a viable drinking session here. The sherry menu is pretty good and we found the oloroso very interesting, almost sake-like. The darkest sherry we tried basically tasted exactly like Sunmaid Raisins, but that one note happens to be pretty delicious! The main criticism I would have of this place is the dearth of drinks menus, which was totally bizarre. Mine was borrowed pretty quickly and that was basically a direct loss of revenue for the bar as we gave up trying to figure out what else was available. They also probably need to rethink the size of their serving area/staff as happily this place was busy and the queue shouldn't be 3 deep at somewhere not even making cocktails.

A mini review (if you will) of this new hidden gem of a restaurant that quietly opened its doors…read morenot so long ago. Ti Amo might make you think it's an Italian restaurant but it's not really? Firstly there's a Tapas menu and a Turkish influence on the food (Turkish owner I was told) but the head Chef is Portugese? So I imagine some Portugese flavours seep into the mix at some stage. As we enter into the 16th year of the 21st century I presume innovation in foodie collaborations will lead to more places like this. Onto the food.. The tapas menu is nothing short of fantastic. The breads are baked fresh onsite and are delicious. The Filetitos (strips of lamb fillet I think?), Pan seared Scallops with clams and the Gamberoni Pilpil (prawns) are sensational choices from the tapas menu. I for one cannot wait to rattle out a full blown review upon my return when I'll no doubt goorge on the Beef Stroganoff which I hear is divine. So watch this space...