Best Burgers in Manchester: Northern Quarter

The best burgers in Manchester start in the Northern Quarter, the grid of independent bars and restaurants between Piccadilly and Shudehill, and continue next door in Ancoats. The Mackie Mayor food hall, on the edge of the Northern Quarter, puts several independent kitchens under one roof, and Rusholme’s Curry Mile, south of the centre, is the area to search for halal food.

Manchester’s burger culture is tied to its bar scene. The Northern Quarter’s converted warehouses are full of late-opening bars, and the burgers served around them lean big, loaded and messy, with craft beer on the side. Ancoats, often described as the world’s first industrial suburb, now holds some of the city’s most talked-about restaurants in its old mill buildings. The region has its own famous ingredient too: black pudding from Bury, just north of the city.

Burgers in Manchester: key facts

• Neighbourhoods to explore: the Northern Quarter, Ancoats, Deansgate and Spinningfields, Chorlton and Rusholme.
• Food hall: Mackie Mayor, set in a Grade II listed market building from 1858, with independent kitchens and bars.
• Halal food: Rusholme, where the Curry Mile runs along Wilmslow Road.
• Regional ingredient: Bury black pudding, from Greater Manchester.
• Currency: pound sterling (GBP), the same across England.
• What our guides check: whether a venue is a standalone restaurant or a trader inside a food hall, since hall line-ups rotate.

Every guide we publish on Manchester is dated and lists only venues, addresses, prices and ratings we could verify. To compare cities, see all our burger restaurant guides.