The Sparrows Continental Pasta & Spätzle

Oh, Sparrows. Most venues would pay through the nose for the kind of hype that this unassuming venue in the Green Quarter (read: edge of Cheetham Hill) has had over the past few years. Is it deserved or all part of some deep-state psyops courtesy of Big Dumpling?

It’s the kind of place you wouldn’t look twice at if you didn’t know about it. Tucked away under a train arch, it’s basically a metal box. Until you step inside. The Sparrows chiefs have somehow transformed it into one of the most relaxing and eye-catching dining spaces around – flawless lighting, towering shelves of wine and expertly placed tables and chairs. 

The clientele is decidedly genteel and there’s a healthy number of solo diners, intriguingly. But then, it’s that kind of place – comfortable and relaxed. No one’s flustered or rushing you along, it’s a dining oasis in a sea of hard sells.  

We’re told that people come back again and again for the sage and butter gnocchi. As a dedicated fan of food-related bells and whistles, I’m dubious about this simple-sounding three-part dish. I’m wrong. It’s a revelation – a showcase for quality ingredients with a pitch-perfect balance of flavours. 

Also from the starters section, there’s the cured pork cheek sauce, which we team with spätzle. Again, it’s an eye-rollingly simple but decadent dish, consisting of roughly-hewn teardrop-shaped pasta smothered in a pancetta-flecked creamy sauce. Award for the world’s most comforting comfort food? Sparrows’s spätzle. 

Sparrows is famed for its dumplings – just ask the Michelin Guide – so the pelmeni is a must. These are little East-European-style fried beauties (packed with nicely seasoned beef and pork in this case), covered in garlic breadcrumbs and with a hearty dollop of sour cream on the side. Wonderful. 

Before the mains, a special mention for the sides. The tomato salad is a towering pile of thick tomato and pickled red onion, steeped in apple vinegar. Similarly, the green salad is a few robust leaves, sprinkled with ‘Alpine herbs salt’. Yet somehow, both are more delicious than pretty much any other salad options in Manchester.

The smoked sausage is presented artfully on a wooden plinth. Almost too artfully, in fact. Under this light, it looks like something from a Caravaggio painting, albeit Caravaggio in his epicurean years. 

Then there’s the bigos, otherwise known as Polish hunters stew. Not as pretty but just as delicious, it’s a bowl of fiercely smokey meats (pork ribs and beef), plus tangy white cabbage, buttery soft new potatoes and a a dash of dill. Both dishes have a timeless feel – you can imagine some lucky 16th-century peasant tucking in. 

And that’s Sparrows in a nutshell. These are dishes centuries in the making, cherry-picking the best of Europe and discovering that Italian and East European concepts are a match made in heaven. Sparrows is one of Manchester’s true greats and it won’t remain under a railway arch for much longer. Make haste.