The 10 best cafés and coffee shops in Manchester
Manchester's restaurant scene is booming and so too is its collection of more casual coffee shops. In the city's laid-back cafés, you can start your day with the perfect flat white, enjoy a top-notch brunch with your cuppa, sample some of the city's best doughnuts with a cold brew, or drink coffee from the café's own roastery. If you're looking for a caffeine fix while exploring the city centre, here's our pick of the best coffee shops in Manchester – from bijou joints, where the focus is on delivering the perfect cup every time, and places where the décor is as good as the drinks, to a classy Mediterranean-inspired café that becomes a bar in the evening.
All our recommendations below have been hand selected and tested by our resident destination expert. Find out more below or for further inspiration see our guides to the city's best hotels, bars and things to do.
Fig & Sparrow
A couple of minutes' walk away from the alternative shopping emporium Affleck's Palace, at the heart of the Northern Quarter, this small independent coffee shop has been a staple in the area since 2013. Along with excellent coffee by local roastery Heart & Graft, you can order good value brunch dishes, sandwiches, soups and cakes by Stockport's Silver Apples bakery. It's a laid-back space with wooden floorboards, sage green chairs, pillars and exposed beams. Nab one of the three seats in the window to watch life on Oldham Street while you sip.
Fort
In the Great Northern Warehouse, next to its rainbow staircase up to Deansgate Mews, this slick coffee shop has its own roastery and takes making the perfect flat white or pourover seriously. Its minimalist interiors with pale grey walls, black tables and a wooden counter are flooded with light from huge windows onto Deansgate and upbeat music plays while you sip. There are accompanying pastries available to buy from Sticky Fingers bakery in Stockport – but look out for food and location changes due to an imminent move.
Siop Shop
This small café, in a former weavers' cottage on Tib Street, has all of the ingredients to make you smile: some of the best doughnuts in Manchester in creative flavours and designs, cheerful décor with tangerine orange, tomato red and sunflower yellow seating; and excellent coffee that is roasted in-house. Order one of its classic doughnut favourites, such as lemon meringue, or go for a sandwich baked in house. Looking for more reasons to love it? Siop Shop runs a gardening club every other Wednesday evening, too.
Area: Northern Quarter
Nearest Metrolink: Shudehill
Website: siopshop.co
Price: £
ManCoCo
You can smell the coffee roasting in ManCoCo in the morning, as you pass by this roastery and coffee house tucked away under some railway arches near Deansgate station. All of the coffee roasted here is ethically sourced from identifiable single origin farms, estates or small farm cooperatives and you can pop in to buy a bag or sit in its purple and turquoise walled space, sipping its own ManCoCo Manchester blend. If you're inspired to create the perfect cuppa at home, enrol with its coffee academy, where courses range from 'barista training for everyone' and an 'introduction to coffee brewing' to 'latte art'.
Just Between Friends
A top contender for the best coffee in Manchester, Just Between Friends, has three sites – one in the Northern Quarter, one in Ancoats and one in the Cheshire suburb of Wilmslow. In the Northern Quarter, head to Tib Street and look for a bijou, black café front with the word coffee painted above the windows and its menu on the glass. The focus here is on your perfect cup with a blackboard of specials on the wall and petite hexagonal wooden tables to sit at with your drink. There's a small menu of bagels and pastries if you're after more than a caffeine fix.
Federal
In its three central Manchester cafés, Federal aims to 'offer the city's sunniest welcome'. It does this through the combination of consistently warm and friendly service, a buzzy atmosphere, a tempting brunch menu and fantastic coffee by roasters Ozone. Peruse its coffee menu in its Oxford Road site, checking what the weekly batch brew is, and choose a seat next to its plant-lined windows or outside next to Circle Square. You can't book and there's often a queue – but these tend to go down quickly as the service is speedy. There are cakes and pastries by Stockport bakery Sticky Fingers for a sweet treat with your drink, too.
Area: Oxford Road Corridor
Nearest Metrolink: St Peter's Square
Website: federalcafe.co.uk
Price: £
Idle Hands
Idle Hands first launched on Piccadilly Approach in 2015 before it moved to its current Northern Quarter base in 2018. There are rotating coffee choices from roasters around the world in its quirky high-ceilinged space with plant-lined windowsills, colourful prints on walls and turquoise pillars – think Swerl roasters in Sweden or Round Hill Roastery in Somerset – and a selection of tempting pies in its counter, including pecan and lemon meringue. Its brunch options, such as fry ups on a stack of homemade hash browns, are popular too.
Pollen
Pollen Bakery started out under railway arches near Piccadilly railway station in 2016, where it attracted queues of people after one of its legendary sourdough loaves and cruffin pastries. It now has two permanent sites in the city centre – its main bakery in Ancoats and a café serving cakes, pastries and brunch in the new micro neighbourhood Kampus, over the water from Canal Street. Head to its industrial chic, light-filled Kampus space, for a coffee by Old Trafford based roasters Blossom and watch its pastry team making all of the treats on the counter behind a glass screen. You'll find it hard to resist taking some home.
Foundation
Designed by Manchester studio NoChintz, Foundation has sleek monochrome interiors, exposed brick and pays attention to detail in everything from lighting to hanging plants. When it launched in 2015, the aim was to create a flexible space for those who appreciate quality, with the motto 'coffee is everything'. Foundation's formula has proved to be a winner with five sites now open in Manchester. Its Whitworth site is attached to the hip of Whitworth Locke Hotel and has an extensive drinks menu featuring coffee classics, as well as some more unusual options such as the Kevlar – an Americano with butter and coconut oil.
Haunt
On the corner of central Peter Street and Mount Street, with large windows to gaze out of, Haunt is a popular spot to work during the day while it slips into a place to sip an aperitivo in the evening. There are speciality coffees by Leeds-based North Star Coffee Roasters, its own homemade chai lattes, bagels and sandwiches, and a brunch menu that includes a tiramisu French toast. The classy space is inspired by all-day Mediterranean cafés and bars with a chequerboard floor, marble tables and metro tiled bar.
Area: Petersfield
Nearest Metrolink: St Peter's Square
Contact: haunt-mcr.co.uk
Price: £
How we choose
Every restaurant in this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, who has visited to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of budgets, from neighbourhood favourites to Michelin-starred restaurants – to best suit every type of traveller's taste – and consider the food, service, best tables, atmosphere and price in our recommendations. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest opening and provide up to date recommendations.
About our expert
Cathy has lived in Manchester all of her life and still feels spoilt by the culture and varied dining options on her doorstep. You'll find her chasing her children around the Whitworth or sipping G&Ts in The Refuge.
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