Two Manchester restaurants named among UK’s top 100 according to diner reviews as North West spot tops list

Two high-end Manchester restaurants have made the prestigious Harden’s top 100 list for 2023. The annual guide is compiled each year using online diner reviews and features some of the country’s best restaurants.

This year, the top spot went to a restaurant just 90 minutes outside of Manchester, the renowned L’Enclume in the Lake District, which is the only three Michelin-starred restaurant in the north. The restaurant is part of the UMBEL group owned by chef Simon Rogan, which is set to open a new spot in Manchester next year with head chef Tom Barnes at the helm.

Manchester’s only Michelin-starred restaurant, mana, is one of the two local spots to feature in the Harden’s guide for 2023. The Ancoats restaurant opened in 2018 and has been praised by some of the country’s best food critics. The menus are said to be inspired by Noma, one of the best restaurants in the world, where mana’s head chef Simon Martin once interned.

The other Manchester restaurant on the list is Stockport’s Where the Light Gets In, which constantly receives glowing reviews from critics. It features in the Michelin guide and is the only Manchester restaurant to hold a Michelin Green Star. The concept for the restaurant focuses on local produce and sustainable cooking.

Writing in 2017, the Guardian’s Marina O’Loughlin said: “Let’s get it out of the way from the get-go: Where The Light Gets In serves the most exciting food I’ve had in years. And it’s not in London, Copenhagen or Portland, Oregon; it’s in Stockport. Never have I trudged so dutifully to a destination only to exit at the other end quite so starry-eyed and evangelical.”

Where the Light Gets In ranked in 48th on the Harden’s list, while mana just scraped in at 97th.