For some it may sound like sacrilege, but for a growing number of others, enjoying a lovingly crafted Christmas Dinner at an acclaimed restaurant is a welcome reprieve from the needling smoke alarms, clanking piles of baking trays, charcoal turkey and almost everything else that can turn blissfully pastoral family time into an afternoon of Boiling Point chaos.
From Michelin Guide-featured British classics to teetering Turkish platters, here are the best restaurants shouldering the stress on Christmas Day.
Famed for their immaculately prepared cuts of lamb, chicken and beef, Turkish steakhouse Etci Mehmet offer a decadently carnivorous festive menu from Wed 20 Nov until New Year’s Eve, including Christmas Day. With both lunch and dinner options available, the dishes on offer include a mezze platter, lamb shoulder, roast turkey and seasonal sides, with vegetarian options available on request.
Situated next to Whitefield Metrolink station, discerning Chinese restaurant 8 Manchester offers a staggeringly affordable Christmas Day banquet featuring turkey and sweetcorn soup, steak rolls, shui mai, steamed seabass, crispy chilli chicken and more.
North Manchester’s Michelin Guide jewel, broodingly chic Scandi-style restaurant OSMA offers a Christmas Day menu full of elevated classics. Beginning with canapes and a glass of Cremant, guests can choose between burrata, duck liver parfait or scallops to start, followed by a choice of Goosnargh turkey, salt-aged duck breast, grass-fed beef or wild mushroom and spinach wellington for the main course, with chocolate mousse, gingerbread custard tart and more British cheeses for dessert.
Promising traditional favourites with a unique twist, the inimitably refined King Street Townhouse Christmas Day experience offers seasonal sophistication like nowhere else in town. Guests are welcomed with a glass of Laurent-Perrier – along with tea, coffee and petit fours for bookings after 3pm – before settling in for the main event, which features foie gras, ham hock and guinea fowl terrine, stout cured trout, roast bronze turkey, walnut and smoked leek gnocci and more.
Set against the sparkling Manchester skyline, 20 Stories’ yuletide feast comprises a 5-course triumph featuring a selection of sumptuous dishes, including beef carpaccio, roast Cheshire turkey breast and Christmas pudding.
Located inside a majestic converted methodist church, Gaucho blends the heady culinary atmosphere of Buenos Aires with contemporary urban elegance to provide an achingly luxurious dining experience, often featuring ‘the finest steaks in Manchester’.
On Christmas Day, the world-renowned den of opulence serves an elevated five-course menu which includes fried festive empanadas, beef carpaccio, roast ballotine of turkey, beef wellington and even a dulce de leche yule log.
Manchester’s favourite special-occasion dinner choice for over twenty years, celebrity-studded San Carlo runs a Christmas Day Festive Lunch stuffed with authentic Italian dishes including Tuscan pate, Tournedo Rossini, Halibut Pernod and tiramisu, punctuated by more champagne sorbet palate cleansers and a selection of seasonal vegetables.
Fresh from a three-month renovation, Manchester’s oldest independent Italian restaurant, Giovanni’s, welcomes diners once again this winter.
The four-course Christmas Day menu promises to celebrate the best of Italian culinary artistry, from Truffled Celeriac & Hazelnut Soup to Barbary Duck Breast with cherry jus, finishing with a selection of indulgent desserts, including Homemade Christmas Pudding and Tonka Bean Panna Cotta. Plus, there is a complimentary glass of Ca’del Console Prosecco served upon arrival.
- Words:
- Wolf McFarlane
- Published on:
- Fri 13 Dec 2024
One of Manchester’s best-known fine-dining institutions, Peter Street Kitchen serves a Christmas Day Luncheon with customary masterful extravagance. Guests can pick between stracciatella, plum-glazed duck breast and seared scallops with caviar-infused butter for starters, followed by a palate cleanser consisting of Rosé Rioja jelly with mandarin sorbet, before a range of irresistible main courses including dover sole fillet, aged beef wellington and corn-fed chicken breast. Desserts range from crème brûlée to baked vanilla cheesecake, with salted caramel chocolates as the petit fours.