A Taste of Chinatown, Scranchester Tour

Rob’s the brains behind the Scranchester food tours and few people understand Manchester’s food scene as well as he does. 

Now, with the help of informed local Britta (who you may remember from the much-missed Hong Kong Choi), he’s turned his attention to Chinatown, with a special walking food tour designed to tie in with the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations, running from January to March 2026. 

A Taste Of Chinatown will do two things: inform you about fantastical Chinatown lore, and fill your belly with excellent grub. The tours last around three to four hours, and take in half a dozen or so different venues, weaved in with anecdotes and stop-offs at various Chinatown-adjacent spaces. 

For example, did you know there’s a nuclear bunker underneath the city streets? Well now you do, and you’ll have to sign up to find out more. 

The local walking tour scene is full of, ahem, characters, but Rob is reassuringly not nuts. His events are like hanging out with a well-informed mate. No conspiracies, no skirmishes, just a decent bloke who enjoys introducing people to the hidden-away best bits of the city. Want memorable titbits about Manchester’s urban landscape and a series of delicious snacks and dishes? Rob’s your man. 

Food is at the core of it all, so you should expect a selection of Chinatown’s best dishes. This ranges from bubble tea to lighter-than-air baked goods, leading up to perky dim sum and slow-cooked beef, shredded and swirled into noodles at lightning speed in front of your very eyes. (We’ll keep spoilers to a minimum, but we can reveal that we tried a hall-of-fame-worthy take on salt and pepper tofu along the way.)

As Manchester develops and redevelops at lightning speed, it’s important to keep tabs on the past. Ian Brown and Rakim were wrong – it’s both where you’re from and where you’re at, and tours like Scranchester traverse the two effortlessly. If you’ve even the slightest interest in Chinese food in Manchester, start here.