Cheap places to eat in Manchester

Manchester doesn’t do anything by halves. Football? Well, we’ve only got two of the biggest and richest clubs in the world. Music? Glad you asked; we gave the world Britpop, post punk, boy bands and The Smiths. Are you enjoying those cotton pants you’re wearing? Good, we pretty much invented the cotton industry. What else? Emmeline Pankhurst, Danny Boyle, Alan Turing, Coronation Street, Marks and Spencer, Alan Carr…

So, when you put together a city that does pretty much everything brilliantly with a humongous population of hungry, broke students, the only possible outcome is some of the best cheap restaurants in the UK.

Ah, the burrito. What better way to fill a belly on a budget? It’s essentially a chunky deliciousness delivery system and Pancho’s Mexican born and bred chef/owner Emilio supplies burritos that are big on both the chunky and the delicious parts. Visitors to Manchester have two to choose from, one just off Oxford Road and one in the Arndale Food Market. Burrito chains are popping up at an alarming rate, but Pancho’s outdoes them all for quality and price. There’s no way to eat it with dignity so grab a seat and attack one with abandon.

This popular music bar in the trendy Northern Quarter supplies not just bangin’ choons and an eclectic array of beers, it also boasts a food menu that seems to just keep getting better and better. There’s a definite American influence to be found among the chilli, chicken and chorizo stew (don’t dare say Tex Mex), sandwiches and burgers, giving punters the choice between a flavour of both north and south at resoundingly appetising prices.

We’ll find a way to list Gorilla in every single article we write about Manchester, we love it so much. Not only is it one of the city’s best music venues, the restaurant up front does superb food at exceptional prices. It’s right up at the top of Manchester’s brunch spots, sourcing its sausages and bacon from local butchers and farms, and the quality continues right through the day. It also helps that the playlist is consistently brilliant.

Give up your attachment to circular pizzas and eat one the Roman way at Slice: rectangular and sold by the slice. This is top notch pizza, the result of the owners studying the methods of the best pizza chefs in the Italian capital. Alongside those stunning slabs of bready, cheesy, goodness, they also do a fabulous focaccia. It’s open late for takeaway at the weekends, so grab a few slices on your way home.

We’ve pimped up everything from pizza to burgers to fried chicken, so it was only a matter of time before we got around to the humble grilled cheese sandwich. Northern Soul take the simplest of snacks and elevate it to the kind of cheesy wonder that is well worth the nightmares. Arndale Food Market isn’t short of great places to grab lunch, but this is right up there with the very best.