Find five different styles of vodka and innumerable pierogi at Platzki this week

Independent Polish restaurant Platzki is bringing back its famous vodka and pierogi festival to Manchester this week, and we couldn’t be more excited for some hearty dumpling fare.

Notorious for its top-tier filled pierogi, which are made by wrapping unleavened dough around a savoury or sweet filling and cooking in boiling water, Platzki is already something of a go-to for fine Polish food in Manchester.

But now, traditional European dumpling fans have another reason to get themselves down as the restaurant will be focusing almost entirely on pierogi for two days this week.

Taking place across Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 October from 3pm until sell-out (or at 9pm, whichever comes first), diners will have the chance to try Platzki’s perfect homemade pierogi in a range of mouth-watering flavours.

There will be plenty of different fillings to try, including some brand new vegetarian pierogi for non-meat eaters.

That’s not all, either. There’ll also be a midweek vodka tipple on standby as Platzki shows off its huge range of favourite Polish vodkas.

Think salted caramel vodka, strawberry vodka, golden black cherry vodka, hazelnut vodka and delicious cherry-chocolate vodka, all of which are (as we know too well from experience) dangerously drinkable.

Each day, the team will be making hundreds of pierogi for local dumpling lovers to sample.

Elsewhere, they will also be serving up some of their favourite dishes from the menu including a hearty sausage stew with freshly-baked bread, and melt-in-the-mouth karkówka roasted pork neck with spinach egg noodles.

Read more: Inside Platzki, the city-centre Polish restaurant with an ever-evolving menu

A fixture in the city since 2018, Platzki has built up a reputation for serving an interesting list of Polish vodka and wine alongside traditional dishes like dumplings, pork neck and meatballs.

It has a gorgeous plant-filled restaurant and a bright terrace that backs onto the Great Northern Warehouse, giving diners views over the Great Northern Square as they dig into some of the best Polish food in the city.

To find out more about this week’s dumpling festival, follow Platzki on Instagram here.

Feature image – The Manc Eats

Picture the scene: the weekend has arrived, it’s already raining in Manchester and you’re skint; but your mates want to go out and you’ve never been good with FOMO.

We’ve all been there, but one of the best parts about this amazing city and its working-class roots is that there’s always somewhere for the average Joe to grab a bite to eat on the cheap.

And for our money, it doesn’t get much more budget-friendly than Bunny Jackson’s.

Located on Jack Rosenthal Street just off First Street, Bunny Jackson’s, Bunny J’s, Bunny’s—whatever you wanna call it, quite possibly offers the cheapest item on any menu anywhere in town: the 20p wing.

This is what the late-night favourite has built its reputation on over the years: as many cheap and delicious chicken wings as you think you could possibly devour at pennies a pop.

Believe it or not, back in the old days it used to be just 10p for a plain chicken wing, but then came Covid and all the rest of it. After all, these lot still have to make money.

Nevertheless, this neon-lit, polaroid and graffiti-filled dive bar is still undoubtedly the best wing spot in Manchester, not to mention the perfect place to enjoy all your favourite rock and pop-punk bangers.

The current menu is still littered with affordable flavours from classic BBQ and buffalo, to Jack Daniel’s smoked honey and mustard or the Sailor Jerry spiced sesame wings — all of which you get for 45p or under. Yes, you read that right. Unreal, isn’t it?

Then comes the seasonal specials like the chip-shop curry sauce one we tried a couple of months back or, our personal favourite, the lip-smacking honey and garlic that has effectively become a mainstay it’s now so popular amongst punters. They always adding new ones so keep an eye out.

And, of course, we can’t forget about their legendary ‘Hotter Than the Sun’ wing, which is seriously no joke. We pride ourselves on being able to handle our heat but this thing is ridiculous. That’s why a glass of milk stands pride of place on the menu at £2.

What’s more insane is that this is the most expensive chicken wing on the menu at the hefty price tag of—wait for it—55p. Again, not a typo.

When you can order 10 flaming hot wings and still only pay just over a fiver. It’s easy to see why people order bucket loads of all different flavours like it’s their last meal on earth.

In all seriousness, even if you fancy a healthy portion of cauliflower wings (£4), animal fries that are so dirty we always struggle to finish the whole thing (also £4), or a big juice burger with more fries on the side than you really need for less than a tenner, it’s pretty hard to break the bank at Bunny Jackson’s.

The food doesn’t stop there either. There’s grilled cheese and soup, onion rings, fried pickles and chicken dippers for those who don’t do bones; we might as well just give you the menu at this point.

Even the booze selection is reasonably priced, with pints and plenty more from £5 – pretty much the going rate these days – and a happy hour from 10-11pm when you can get a pint, a glass of wine, a can or seltzer or a cheeky shot for just £3.

Beyond just the food and drink, there’s pool and beer pong tables as well as live music on the regular. They were one of the many venues included in this year’s Neighbourhood line-up.

The self-styled dive bar’s reputation is so strong that just a few months ago, Mancs busy eating Bunny’s barely batted an eye when Olivia Rodrigo decided to pop and do a surprise gig.

Literally sold out the 02 Apollo the same night. As you do.

From Glastonbury to this. 🤯 https://t.co/P235TQsVnR

In fact, the Bunny’s brand has gotten so big now that back in May 2021 they opened up their underground sister site Junior Jackson’s on Oldham Street in Northern Quarter, serving up plenty of beer, shots, sliders, hot dogs and lots of loud music – also until 3am.

As if that wasn’t enough, the success of both venues left them with little choice other than to open up a third location this summer, the Wing Wagon, taking their trademark chicken on the road to feed the Manc masses.

You can find it parked just off the back of First Street a stone’s through from the OG site itself.

At a time when we’re all trying to scrimp and save wherever we can, it’s still important that people still have a place to go eat some solid scran and have a belter of a night out.

We refuse to let the misery surrounding the impending winter rule us – we still on plan having a good time wherever we can and we hope you can too.

One of the parts we love about Bunny’s the most is the people that run it: they’re some of the friendliest staff you’ll find behind any bar in Britain, let alone in Manchester.

If it often looks like they’re having a better time than you, they probably are. With the tunes blaring, beer flowing and shots always on the cards, why wouldn’t they?

Whether you want some wings, a pint, a group photo to remember the night you don’t remember or buy a shirt that reads ‘I LOVE BJs’, they do it all with an effortless charm that only their close-knit and ever so slightly tipsy brigade can pull of.

So don’t let endless doom-scrolling through stuff about the economy spoil it for you: get yourself a pint, have a dance and much on a stupid amount of wings for practically pennies.

We love you, Bunny’s and we thank you for your service, tough times or not. Never change.

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Featured Image — Bunny Jacksons

We visit Bar San Juan on a very wet, very dark Friday afternoon. The rain is pelting down as hurricane Ian makes his presence felt on both sides of the Atlantic, but inside it’s a different story entirely.

This cosy little slice of Spain on Beech Road is as unassuming as it is full of European charm. It’s also something of a local treasure, gradually achieving cult-like status amongst the foodies of South Manchester (and beyond) over the past twelve years.

Since opening in 2010, Bar San Juan had famously never taken reservations. Queues were not uncommon, and the conventional wisdom amongst regulars has always been that you should come for an early lunch or dinner if you don’t like to wait.

It tried to operate a walk-in system where diners join a waiting list and are called 15 minutes ahead of time, but has since succumbed to an online booking system with the added promise that, if you can’t find the time you want, you can always Whatsapp to see if they can squeeze you in.

A testament to its popularity, after the easing of the first lockdown in 2020 owners bought neighbouring pub The Parlour to ‘accommodate social distancing’ – but inside it still feels incredibly snug.

On our visit, every table is full. The tapas bar has just won the Manchester Food and Drink Festival’s Neighbourhood Venue of the Year award, and well deserved it is too. Clearly, it’s well-loved, but until now we’ve never visited – to our shame.

Until the small plates hit our table, we don’t truly appreciate just how much we’ve been missing out.

Out come plump pastry parcels stuffed with pulled lamb on a Tempranillo red wine reduction, truffled quails egg toast liberally spread with sobrassada (chorizo paste), juicy tiger prawns swimming in garlic butter and melt-in-the-mouth beef cheeks topped with crispy leek in a homemade gravy.

Read more: Man City star Ilkay Gundogan’s wife blasted after calling Manchester’s restaurants ‘horrible’

We dig in with gusto, oohing and ahhing as even more treats arrive in quick succession: a plate of deep-fried piquillo peppers filled with cod and bechamel and topped with red pepper sauce, followed by discs of chorizo from the northern region of Asturias cooked in white wine until they’re sumptuously soft.

Washed down with a hearty half-pint of sangria and a tall, refreshing Mahou beer, we’ve almost forgotten that the sky is black with rain outside.

For the past hour and a half, perched on a high table next to a heater inside the enclosed terrace, we really felt transported – a feat not easily achieved when you’re soaked through with biting cold Manchester rain.

Read more: A new Mediterranean grill restaurant has opened in the Northern Quarter

From the warmth of San Juan’s staff, for whom nothing is too much trouble, to its impeccable dishes, it’s easy to see how this cosy neighbourhood spot is so beloved.

To see the full menu and find out more about Bar San Juan, visit the restaurant’s website here.

Feature image – The Manc Eats

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