Vegan Manchester

Salford, just across the River Irwell, had a church preaching meat-free living back in 1809, and its members helped found the Vegetarian Society in 1847. The Society still has its headquarters down the road in Altrincham. Two centuries on, Manchester eats very well without meat, from award-winning burgers in a Buddhist centre basement to truffle ravioli on Tib Street.

Seven places made this list, five of them fully vegan, spread across the Northern Quarter, Piccadilly and two suburbs a short train ride out. I would start with a burger at Hinterland and book Soots for the evening. For more cities, browse all my vegan travel destinations.

Vegan Manchester at a Glance

• Burgers and alcohol-free cocktails: Wholesome Junkies at Hinterland
• A pasta date night: Soots
• Sourdough pizza: Purezza
• Mezze and a Sunday roast: Otto Vegan Empire
• Fresh pasta and tiramisu out of town: Ortica
• Indian street food and craft beer: Bundobust
• A cheap lunch on the go: Go Falafel

Best Vegan Restaurants in Manchester

1. Wholesome Junkies at Hinterland: Award-Winning Burgers Under a Buddhist Centre Vegan

People come down the basement stairs for the burgers. Recent reviewers rave about the chilli cheese burger and the OG burger, which one diner said simply melted in the mouth, and the KFC burger, a crunchy fried-chicken-style stack that gets called phenomenal. Meat-eaters at the table tend to forget the menu is plant-based about halfway through.

Round it out with the crispy tofu salad, mac and cheese, loaded tater tots (crunchy grated-potato bites) and the Biscoff cheesecake, made with the caramelised biscuit. Hinterland is an alcohol-free bar in the basement of the Manchester Buddhist Centre, so the cocktails use house-made syrups and bitters and even the IPA has no alcohol. The burgers have been on Netflix and BBC2.

💡 Tip: The kitchen cooks Wednesday to Friday 12PM to 9PM, Saturday 10AM to 9PM and Sunday 10AM to 6PM, and everything is closed on Monday and Tuesday. The bar is down a flight of stairs with no step-free access.

📍 16–20 Turner Street, Manchester M4 1DZ | Northern Quarter | 🌐 hinterland.bar | 📸 @wholesomejunkies

2. Soots: Fresh Pasta and Small Plates on Tib Street Vegan

The truffle ravioli is the dish people keep naming, alongside butternut squash served three ways and a focaccia (olive-oil flatbread) good enough to fight over. One recent diner said the leeks blew their mind. The pasta is made fresh, and heritage tomatoes come topped with plant-based stracciatella, the soft shredded cheese usually found inside burrata.

Plates are small and pasta dishes sit around £15, so plan on three or four between two and treat it as an occasion. Finish with the tiramisu (coffee-soaked sponge layered with cream). Soots began as a pasta stall at Altrincham Market and opened this tiny Tib Street restaurant, lined with green arches and one huge window, in August 2025.

💡 Tip: Book online, because Soots only has a handful of tables. It opens Tuesday to Thursday 5PM to 10PM and Friday to Sunday 12PM to 10PM, with last seating at 9PM, and closes on Monday. Gluten-free pasta is available on request.

📍 108 Tib Street, Manchester M4 1LR | Northern Quarter | ☎️ 07827 314195 | 🌐 sootsmcr.com | 📸 @sootsmcr

3. Purezza: Sourdough Pizza From the UK’s First Vegan Pizzeria Vegan

Order the Parmigiana Party, an aubergine, tomato and cheese pizza that won National Pizza of the Year, and recent diners are still calling the aubergine pizza delightful. The bases are slow-fermented sourdough, blistered in a wood-fired oven, and the house-made cheeses are what regulars talk about on the way home. Pepperoni fans get a plant-based version too.

The five cheese pizza piles on blue, camembert, stracciatella and grated parmesan-style cheese, all plant-based, and the rosemary potatoes, dough balls and mac and cheese make good sides for sharing. Tiramisu closes things out. Purezza opened in Brighton in 2015 as the country’s first vegan pizzeria, and this Northern Quarter branch followed in 2021.

💡 Tip: Book ahead for Friday and Saturday nights, when walk-ins can wait. Hours are 12PM to 10PM Monday to Thursday, 12PM to 10:30PM Friday and Saturday, and 12PM to 9PM on Sunday. A gluten-free sourdough base is available on every pizza.

📍 75–77 High Street, Manchester M4 1FS | Northern Quarter | ☎️ 0161 839 8893 | 🌐 purezza.co.uk | 📸 @purezza

4. Otto Vegan Empire: Middle Eastern Mezze in a Bramhall Pub Loft Vegan

The mezze board (a spread of small sharing dishes) is what recent reviewers order first, along with samoon, a diamond-shaped Iraqi bread baked fresh here. The qurma, a slow-cooked stew served with roast potatoes, has its own fan club, and so do the badass potatoes. Diners keep mentioning how filling everything is, so arrive hungry.

On Sundays the order is the roast, which comes with Yorkshire pudding (a puffed roast-batter pudding) and gets called the best vegan roast some diners have had. Save room for the sweet potato and chocolate mousse or the baklava. Otto sits in the loft of the Crown and Conspirator pub, reached by the outside steps on the pub’s left side.

💡 Tip: Otto opens Wednesday to Saturday 12PM to 11PM, with food until 9PM, and Sunday 12PM to 7PM, and closes on Monday and Tuesday. Bramhall station, on the line from Manchester Piccadilly, is a few minutes’ walk away.

📍 26A Bramhall Lane South, Bramhall, Stockport SK7 1AF | Bramhall | ☎️ 0161 359 7502 | 🌐 ottoveganempire.com | 📸 @otto_veganempire

5. Ortica: Family-Run Italian Bar and Deli in Urmston Vegan

Recent reviewers call the gnocchi and tiramisu the best they have had, vegan or otherwise, and the fresh pasta gets the same treatment. One diner went for focaccia, the Porcini e Tartufo (porcini mushroom and truffle pasta) and vanilla gelato and called it some of the best food they had eaten anywhere. The plant-based cheeses come up in review after review.

Start with bruschetta (grilled bread with toppings) and tortini (small savoury bakes), then get the lasagne if it is on, because portions are generous. After dinner, pick an amaro, a bitter Italian digestif, from the long list. Ortica is a family-run bar and deli two minutes from Urmston station, and it has the warmth of a neighbourhood favourite.

💡 Tip: Ortica opens on Friday from 5:30PM and Saturday from 3PM, both until 10:30PM, and stays closed the rest of the week. Book, and check their Instagram before you go, because their hours move. Trains to Urmston leave from Manchester Oxford Road and Deansgate.

📍 70 Flixton Road, Urmston, Manchester M41 5AB | Urmston | ☎️ 0161 300 0989 | 📸 @ortica_italianplantbased

6. Bundobust: Gujarati Street Food and Craft Beer in Piccadilly Vegetarian

Okra fries are the best-seller for good reason: okra (ladies’ fingers) in a crisp chickpea batter, dusted with black salt and mango powder. Recent diners also single out the bhajis (spiced onion fritters) and the vada pav sliders, spiced potato fritters squashed into soft buns with chutney. The weekday lunch special has its own loyal fans, and the chai gets praised too.

Add the gunpowder potatoes, Manchurian wings and tarka dhal with rice, all vegan, and drink beer from Bundobust’s own Manchester brewery. A few dishes use dairy or egg, such as the paneer tikka, the raita and the egg bhurji, and the menu marks which plates are vegan. The cooking is Gujarati, from India’s west coast, and built for sharing.

💡 Tip: Order three or four plates each and share everything. Hours are 12PM to 10:30PM Monday to Thursday, 12PM to 11PM Friday and Saturday, and 12PM to 9PM on Sunday, which makes it one of the few places here open on a Monday night.

📍 61 Piccadilly, Manchester M1 2AG | Piccadilly | ☎️ 0161 359 6757 | 🌐 bundobust.com | 📸 @bundobust

7. Go Falafel: Palestinian Falafel Wraps by Piccadilly Gardens Vegetarian

Get the large falafel wrap, which recent customers call generously packed and reasonably priced, though one warns it is so full it spills. The falafel is made fresh each day from a family recipe going back generations, and the creamy hummus and changing salads make the salad boxes a popular lighter order. Staff get named in reviews for their kindness.

Pair your wrap with a fresh juice or smoothie, blended to order from a long list with names like Purple Dragon and Pineapple Express. The halloumi falafel contains dairy, so ask for the classic or aubergine falafel. Go Falafel is a Palestinian family business, takeaway only, and a few minutes’ walk from Piccadilly station.

💡 Tip: There is no seating, so carry your wrap to Piccadilly Gardens at the end of the street. The shop opens 10AM to 10PM and is a handy stop on the way to a train.

📍 3 Newton Street, Manchester M1 1HW | Piccadilly | ☎️ 0161 228 6888 | 🌐 gofalafel.co.uk | 📸 @gofalafel

Cottonopolis and the Northern Quarter

In the 1800s Manchester was nicknamed Cottonopolis, the centre of the world’s cotton trade, and the Northern Quarter, the grid of streets between Piccadilly and Ancoats, grew up around its warehouses and Smithfield Market. Many of those red-brick buildings still stand, now holding record shops, bars and the basement where Hinterland pours its alcohol-free cocktails.

Tib Street follows the line of the River Tib, which still runs in a culvert under the road, and Afflecks, the indie market hall that opened in 1982, sits around the corner. Wander between Soots, Purezza and Hinterland and you cross the whole neighbourhood in about ten minutes, painted shutters and murals included.

Vegan Manchester: What to Know Before You Go

• Monday and Tuesday are thin: Wholesome Junkies at Hinterland and Otto close both days, Soots closes on Monday, and Ortica only opens on Friday and Saturday. Purezza, Bundobust and Go Falafel open all week.
• Book Friday and Saturday dinners, especially at Soots and Purezza.
• Metrolink trams and city buses take contactless cards. Trains to Urmston leave from Oxford Road and Deansgate, and trains to Bramhall leave from Piccadilly.
• At a chippy (fish and chip shop) in the North, chips are often fried in beef dripping, so ask what the fryer uses before you order.
• Eccles cakes, the currant-filled pastries from just outside Salford, are usually made with butter, so read the label before you buy.
• Pack a waterproof. Rain falls in every season, and most of these places are a walk from the nearest tram stop.

When to Visit Manchester

May to September brings the mildest weather and the longest evenings for walking between the Northern Quarter and Piccadilly. Late autumn has its own pull: Hinterland runs a festival of talks and events across Manchester venues in early November, and the Christmas markets fill the city centre from November until just before Christmas.

Winter is cold and wet, but the restaurants here are snug, and a Sunday roast in a pub loft in Bramhall makes a good reason to leave the city for an afternoon.

Vegan Manchester FAQ