Where to eat the best vegan food in Manchester

Located in the Cathedral Quarter, which feels a million miles away from the proximate chaos of the city centre, The Allotment Vegan Eatery is a plant-filled, award-winning restaurant which is about as vegan as they come. It ranks in lists of the world’s top vegan eateries and is regularly picked out as the best in Northern England. Praise from press and public alike always mentions their seasonal approach, menu changing to suit the time of year and availability of ingredients. Expect globally inspired dishes like tofu laksa curry and miso mushroom noodles. Oh, and everything is gluten free too.

No prizes for guessing what this place does — extraordinarily well  — Desert Island Dumplings is all about dumplings – enjoyed by veggie, vegans and meat-eaters alike. If that sounds common, it’s important to note the whole idea behind this place is to offer a menu that doesn’t rely on mushroom, tofu, or miscellaneous ‘veg’ to cater for those that don’t want to, or can’t, eat meat. Instead you’ll find tantalising morsels of salt and pepper ‘chikn’ dumplings made with soy, cheezburger dumplings which cleverly utilise pea protein, and hoisin mock duck dumplings, which add wheat to the equation. Head up to the third floor of Affleck’s (where else?) to sample their plant-based delights.

Unapologetically inspired by the US-style vegan ‘junk food’ phenomenon of the past decade or so, Herbivious serve up outrageous vegan burgers, mac and cheese and Philly cheese steaks. While their dishes look the part – golden and crispy fried seitan, rich and sticky BBQ ‘ribs’, squares of American style vegan cheese – it’s clear that these guys are about quality as well as Instagram impressions. Their little spot in Withington is cosy, colourful and plant-filled, and you can find them serving up the good stuff at Piccadilly Gardens Street Food Market too.

Sticking with student-centric Withington, after you’ve enjoyed your Herbivorous burger you can head up to Ice Shack for afters. This all-vegan dessert parlour serves cakes, shakes and ice creams in a variety of old school flavours. With the likes of banoffee, peanut butter and rocky road ice creams and cakes (both gluten and gluten-free) loaded with childhood favourites like Jaffa Cake and Kinder Bueno, you’re likely to find a something to satisfy your plant-based sweet tooth.

The Northern Quarter’s rice ‘n’ three spots are much-celebrated for their no-frills offerings of hot, flavoursome lunches which have seemed to defy inflation over the decades. Lesser spoken of is Little Aladdin, an entirely vegan Pakistani-owned cafe doing vegan rice ‘n’ three, as well as falafel, biriyani, samosa chaat and other plant-based street food. Little Aladdin haven’t changed much since they opened in the late 90s, especially when it comes to their look or their prices, so if you like formica tables, canteen-style chairs and budget-friendly vegan food, this is the spot for you.

When you think of Italian food you tend to think of rich, creamy pastas, mozzarella-laden pizza and succulent ragu, not the easiest of cuisines to translate into plan-based recipes. Not at Ortica, an Italian restaurant and deli in Urmston where everything on the menu is made without meat and dairy. Enjoy indulgent Roman-style pizzas, fresh pasta, and even a lasagne. After your meal you can peruse their deli full of Italian wines and groceries, which all pass the vegan test and have serious shelf-appeal too.

Middle Eastern vegan food, nestled away above a Stockport pub? Now you’re listening. Otto Vegan Empire is an evolution of The Otto-Men, a popular Turkish spot that gained a following serving up veggie and vegan Turkish mezze from Stretford Foodhall. Having levelled up from foodhall to their very own empire atop Bramhall’s Crown & Conspirator, the restaurant is all about mezze but is strictly vegan, serving up homemade dips and hummus, as well as dishes which go heavy on the roasted veg and rustic grains. Make sure to mop up the leftovers with a good wedge of khoubz, a traditional Lebanese flatbread.

Purezza call themselves ‘planet saving’ – a big claim backed up by a menu that’s 95% gluten-free, plant-based, mostly organic and local. They were the first vegan pizzeria in the UK, and since then have gone on to create some rather impressive revolutions in the world of plant-based food – most noticeably spending years in their food laboratory creating a mozzarella that tastes and melts just like dairy. Experience that mozzarella (or not-zzarella if you’d rather) sat atop a black truffle pizza or even a ‘pepperoni’ and agave one, so you don’t have to miss out on the hot honey hype.

The team at the award-winning Speak In Code say that if they can make something in house, they do and if they can use it again, they will. That’s an ethos we can get behind. Inspired by the speakeasies of NYC – but with unmistakably Manc service – sustainability is important, but flavour is key, as they serve up drinks featuring resourceful ingredients like discarded grape skin vodka. Their resourceful attitude is extended to dairy alternatives, using aquafaba (chickpea water) instead of eggs to make perfectly creamy sours. The bar snacks too – delicate Asian-inspired bites – are also entirely vegan.

A vegan fast food chain as slick as the high street big boys, Vegan Shack offer plant-based takes on all your guilty pleasures. There’s a classic fried chick’n burger, nuggets, and even a fake fish fillet burger. But the menu isn’t just confined to all things big golden ‘M’-adjacent, they also have a plant-based doner wrap and fries loaded with shredded BBQ too. There are also doughnuts and shakes, and loaded pancakes at breakfast. Your plant-based prayers have been answered.

Taking the best bits of various different styles of kebab like the doner, the gyros and the falafel wrap, What The Pitta offer all sorts of bold, flavoursome and plant-based combos on fluffy flatbread. Their Northern Quarter spot is a minimal, industrial cafe – this isn’t the spot for late-night regret – where you can dine in and enjoy a levantine lunch without needing a nap afterwards.