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.

Nottingham’s Coco Tang opens its second site in Spinningfields on Tuesday 24 November, a two-storey Vietnamese venue with a café and bakery on the ground floor serving bánh mì and Phin coffee from 8am. Upstairs, a 175-seat restaurant styled on 1950s Saigon serves phở, shaking beef and sharing platters. A 200-capacity cocktail club behind it hosts DJs from Thursday to Saturday, open until 3am at weekends.

Bowlers Exhibition Centre hosts Manchester Coffee Festival, featuring Sydney fire-roasted coffee brand Wood Fired Coffee. The event runs from 20 to 22 November, where visitors can try WFC’s slow-roasted coffee at stand B1. The family-run brand, founded by Mark Pupo on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, roasts over wood fire, unsurprisingly enough. For more info and purchases of beans, ground coffee and capsules, you’ll be wanting a trip to the site.

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.

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.

Cloud 23, on the 23rd floor of Beetham Tower, serves a festive afternoon tea from £40 a head, rising to £50 with a cocktail, mocktail or glass of champagne, or £85 with free-flowing champagne. Downstairs, The Manchester Deansgate Hotel offers a seasonal banqueting menu of turkey ballotine or shawarma-spiced cauliflower, and its Deansgate Suite takes Christmas parties of up to 500. From 16 to 23 December, its Festive Finale package pairs three canapés and a drink for £25, or three bowl-food dishes and a drink for £30.

Society, the street food hall on Barbirolli Square, offers a £30 Christmas party package from 16 November to 31 December, covering a dish from any of its five kitchens, a glass of Prosecco on arrival and two drinks from the bar. Festive specials launch across the traders on the same date, including Slap & Pickle’s All I Want for Christmas burger with beef fat-fried Christmas pudding and Noi Quattro’s turkey, guanciale and brie pizza. Groups can also pre-order four bottles of house wine for £100.

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.

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.

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.

Fairmont Cheshire, The Mere, near Knutsford, has unveiled its Christmas by the Lake programme, with festive afternoon tea in The Orangery (£65pp, 27 November to 31 December, excluding Christmas Day) and Santa Sunday lunches in The Grand Ballroom on 6 and 13 December. Other dates include a Burgundy wine and cheese evening on 19 November (£70), a wreath-making workshop on 26 November (£80) and a festive menu at Gordon Ramsay at The Mere. Christmas Day lunch costs £195 per adult, and the season closes with a £195pp New Year’s Eve gala ball with a champagne reception, dinner and fireworks.

Salford’s Black Friar, the Grade II-listed Victorian pub that reopened in 2021 after more than 15 years derelict, has opened Christmas bookings and is promising its biggest festive makeover yet. Dishes confirmed so far include venison carpaccio with oyster caviar, turkey ballotine and a Christmas pudding knickerbocker glory, with two courses starting at £39. The full menu is on the pub’s website, and early booking is recommended.