Jaan

Jaan is the new project from the Another Hand team, far and away one of our favourite restaurants in Manchester. Where Another Hand celebrates the British Isles, Jaan delivers a next-level Persian bread experience. 

It’s a new stall at the impressive Exhibition food hall on Peter Street (which we’ll at more closely in a future article), probably the best-looking of the new(ish) number of multi-faceted drinking and dining spaces taking over Manchester and beyond. Jaan is set to be a key part of Exhibition’s top-tier food line-up, alongside Osma and Baratxuri. 

The menu is all about bright, breezy small plates and seasonal, sustainable meat, seafood and vegetables. About half of the ever-changing dishes are served with Jaan’s freshly cooked flatbreads. The moment you enter the building, you’ll be hit by the glorious aroma of this bread baking away – you’d have to be some old-timey hair-shirt saint not to be tempted. 

Today, with the Manchester sun making a rare appearance, it’s time for smashed cucumber. It’s a refreshing small plate, elevated by the barely-there use of elderflower, plus some pickled seaweed to set the scene. It’s a pleasing starting point, but when paired with the smoked aubergine the dopamine sparks really start to fly. 

More than just a simple baba ghanoush, this is one of the best non-meat dishes we’ve tried in many a month, speckled with chunky, crunchy macadamia nuts and sesame seeds, a dash of delicate wood sorrel, and pulling it all together, one of those soon-to-be-legendary Persian flatbreads (wholemeal in this instance, which adds to the pleasingly rustic feel).

Individually, each element is sublime, cooked and prepared perfectly, but stick it in the bread, along with a spoonful of the cucumber for some peppy contrast, and that’s one of Manchester’s best meat-free mouthfuls in 2024. Promise. 

The fire-roasted trout is another excellent spring-summer dish, consisting of a dozen or so plump chunks of pink sea trout, some thin slices of fried bread, and some refreshing slices of radish, all swirled into a pitch-perfect Lebanese fatoush salad, nicely heavy on the tangy sumac. It’s a joy to eat and ideal for anyone looking for something light but very much not boring. 

The lamb is anything but light, and a must for fans of Moroccan spiced red meat. It’s as close to a high-end kebab as the menu gets and comes as a piping hot flatbread, topped with shredded ras el hangout spiced lamb, tiny shavings of egg yolk, chives, plus a light cucumber labneh underpinning it all. The flavours are dark and smoky and there’s a sense that this is one of the core dishes. If your ears pricked up at the mention of Persian flatbread above, head straight here. 

The chermoula chicken is another gem. It’s a sizzling hot skillet of tender chicken thigh, marinaded in chermoula (think chimichurri, but from a Middle Eastern angle), topped with crispy herbs and lying on a bed of sticky broken rice, which covers all the best bits of the rice spectrum, from its comforting soft centre to its dark crispy edges. Not forgetting the pickled tomatoes, both rich red and pale green, which explode in the mouth like a tiny and deliciously sour water bomb. 

The Another Hand team have been quietly reshaping Manchester’s food landscape for the better over the past few years. Jaan is simply another beautifully crafted Persian string to their bow.