At Proloco, the execution is unfussy and almost rustic, but all backed with a deep knowledge of flavours. It turns city-centre casual dining into something noteworthy.

This Carlisle restaurant is destination dining at its most distinctive – well worth the distance.

The Northern Roots café menu comes via Mary-Ellen McTague, and nigh-on everything on the menu was grown on site. Self-sufficiency in excelsis.

Like the star of the same-named 1958 film, Gigi is not the shy, retiring type. This new Italian restaurant is the new hot spot on the Manchester restaurant scene, taking over from Gusto in a grand Grade II-listed block on Deansgate.

Already thinking about Crimbo? Butter Bird in Ancoats serves its first Christmas feasting menu, Gather Your Flock, from 1 to 24 December, with three courses for tables of six or more at £45 a head, plus a glass of Crémant on arrival.

The main event is half a tea-brined rotisserie chicken per guest, passed down the table on platters with sides such as chicken-salt potatoes and Parmesan sprouts, while vegetarians get spiced roast cauliflower. Pre-order only, Monday to Saturday.

Gaucho Manchester launches The Gift of Gaucho on 2 November, with a bauble display at the Deansgate entrance and more than 7,000 handmade glass baubles hung from the ceiling above the bar. The three-course Christmas set menu is £55 a head, rising to £110 for three courses on Christmas Day. Two private dining rooms are available for festive groups.

Based near the Liver Birds? Fear not, Liverpool Gaucho offers the self-same Christmas meals.

El Gatito, a more casual spin-off of Simon Shaw’s El Gato Negro, opens at MediaCity on Friday 6 November, serving Spanish small plates and charcuterie alongside sangria. Weekday lunch centres on loaded focaccias such as the Iberico Club, with a 3 for £15 deal on selected dishes from noon to 4pm on weekdays and all day Sunday, plus £5 pints and sangria from 4pm to 6pm daily. Ahead of opening, a pop-up outside the site gives away coffees and bocatas on Thursday 29 October from 11am to 2pm.

Diecast stages DOOMSDAY on Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October from 8pm to 1am, with a zombie apocalypse of dancers and aerialists in LENO and an eight-piece live band playing Rocky Horror anthems in the Beerhall. One ticket covers both rooms on the night, and bottomless and à la carte dining runs beforehand from 4pm on Friday and noon on Saturday.

Albert’s Schloss becomes Viva Slash Vegas from Monday 26 October to Sunday 1 November, giving each of its seven nights of live music, DJs and cabaret a Halloween twist. The Friday and Saturday parties bring showgirls, shotgun weddings and casino games, while Tuesday’s Kunst Kreepshow is a horror take on its cabaret and Thursday’s Studio Fifty-Gore turns the disco DJs dark.

Ramona’s free-entry Til Death Do Us Rave weekender runs from 7pm to 1am in the converted MOT garage, with a six-hour set from Chanel Carmichael on Friday and Elsewhere x Loose Fit on Saturday. Detroit-style pizza is served until 10pm, and bottomless brunch runs from 4pm to 9pm on Friday and noon to 5pm on Saturday.

Cloud 23, the bar on the 23rd floor of the Manchester Deansgate Hotel, serves a Halloween menu from 26 to 31 October, including a pumpkin-shaped spiced pumpkin latte and gingerbread desserts. A seasonal cocktail list runs alongside it, featuring Resurrection (Disaronno, cherry, orange and lemon) and Blood Oath (Bacardi Carta Negra, watermelon and apple). On Saturday 31 October, the bar hosts a Halloween DJ night from 7pm, with fancy dress encouraged.

Eat Well MCR’s Eat Well, Do Good raffle now has a headline prize of up to £1,000 to spend eating and drinking out in Manchester, via the local rewards app Shuffle. Other prizes include dinner for two with champagne at Where The Light Gets In, tasting menus at Sampa and tickets to Neighbourhood Weekender 2027. Tickets cost £10 until the raffle closes at the end of October, with all proceeds going to the charity, which has delivered more than 170,000 chef-made meals to people facing food insecurity across Greater Manchester since 2020.

Guess who’s coming to serve dinner? That’ll be Medlock Canteen, last seen over in Deansgate Square, now taking over from Tartuffe’s very excellent residency at Side Street. Big shoes to fill, but this crack team (behind the mighty Madre and Liverpool’s Belzan) should be up to the job.

Gilpin Hotel & Lake House near Windermere has announced its festive programme, starting with wreath-making (3 December) and candle-making (9 December) workshops at the Lake House, each with afternoon tea and mulled wine from £90pp. A three-night Twixmas break with breakfast starts at £1,419 for two sharing. The three-night New Year Escape (30 December to 2 January) costs from £2,680 for two and includes all meals, with dinners at Michelin-starred SOURCE or Gilpin Spice and a black tie dinner on New Year’s Eve.

Stuzzi on Leeds’ Merrion Street has brought back its Sunday roasts, giving British classics an Italian do-over in the restaurant’s family-style sharing format. Four to choose from: roast beef sirloin with a beef shin and ‘nduja croquette, ‘nduja and fennel seed porchetta, roast celeriac with caper, olive and pine nut stuffing, or the doppia carne (both meats under ossobuco gravy). Every roast comes with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and seasonal veg, served on Sundays from 12pm to 6pm.