BAR SAN JUAN After a few local recommendations, we have been meaning to come to this restaurant in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, on the outskirts of Manchester, for some time. On this cold Monday evening in November, we finally made it. This restaurant is a traditional bar, serving authentic tapas. The atmosphere indoors is cosy and full of character, with bullfighting posters. This is a nice place to go to eat in Manchester. We picked quite a few of the tapas: Jamo croquetas (ham croq

TAST CATALANA PERMANENTLY CLOSED 2026 With Chef Paco Perez at the helm, Tast Catalana opened in King Street, Manchester, in 2018.  Although we are in Manchester quite often to watch football, this evening, Manchester United vs Olympique Lyonnais, this was our first visit here, on this chilly Mancunian spring day. They offer two different dining areas, both stylishly modern: a bar and terrace on the ground floor, and a casual restaurant on the first floor. After settling in a

THE TERRACE TAPAS & WINE BAR During our brief visit to Ilfracombe, we tried what I believe is the only Spanish restaurant in town. We were served surprisingly good tapas, which was somewhat unexpected in North Devon.  Clive Chilcott runs the Terrace Tapas & Wine Bar alongside his partner, Dawn Mullen, who is the excellent chef. Together, they have owned this restaurant since 2016, striving to bring a little piece of sunny Spain to Ilfracombe and North Devon. It seems they hav

EL GATO NEGRO TAPAS Michelin Bib Gourmand Simon Shaw opened El Gato Negro Tapas in an empty former pub in Ripponden in 2005. With a view to good luck and a nod to a favourite old shop in Madrid, he named it El Gato Negro (Spanish for the black cat). Strangely, it later transpired that the pub had been called the Black Cat many years before. El Gato Negro’s move from the Pennine village of Ripponden to Manchester has proved a great success story. Simon, whose love of Spanis

CANTO We came to Canto, a recent creation of Simon Shaw, of El Gato Negro Tapas fame, on an unusually sunny Sunday Lunchtime In Manchester, for a meal before going to the football at Old Trafford later that day. You will find this younger sibling of Simon’s in the heart of Manchester’s latest to be redeveloped neighbourhood, Ancoats, on Cutting Room Square. It is quite a stunning, ample space with blue Portuguese tiles that reminded me of a recent visit to Braga. They use th

TAPEO & WINE PERMANENTLY CLOSED 2021 This was our first visit to Tapeo & Wine in Deansgate, Manchester, as a precursor to the football at Old Trafford. The restaurant was opened in 2016 in the buzzing heart of Manchester by the Mata family (The owner’s Son, Juan Mata, is currently a Manchester United football player). There is a bright, modern bar and restaurant on the ground floor, looking out onto busy Deansgate. It also has another large restaurant bar downstairs, which