宽窄巷 Noodle Alley — Restaurant in Manchester

Update: Visited on May 2025 Back at our fave Sichuan style restaurant located right at the heart of Chinatown to sample some of their new dishes ~

We tried the following: 》Whole Beef short rib Qiaojiao noodles 》Zha Zha Beef with sour radishes 》Sichuan double cooked Pork belly in chilli paste with rice 》Steamed Beef strips wrapped with five spiced rice powder 》Deep fried sticky rice cake strip with brown sugar syrup 》Szechuan style pudding with brown sugar syrup

The beef noodle soup was spot on with its tender slow braised short rib, silky noodles and robust broth - every mouthful was heavenly. The other noodle dish blew us away with its various textures, spices and contrast of flavours. Very pleased with these 2 new dishes, I highly recommend them.

The rice meal with pork belly in chilli paste was quite addictive, I could eat this one everyday! We've tried the steamed beef strips on our previous visits here, always so delightful and one of our go-to starters. Ended the meal with a light soya dessert and a moreish fried rice cake which we thoroughly enjoyed.

So impressed with their well-seasoned meats, lovely heat coming from the spices and perfectly cooked dishes which were all made with utmost care. Please visit them if you're in the area, you won't be dissapointed. (Visited on Sept 2024) We visited this Sichuan style noodle bar/street food restaurant in Manchester and their mouthwatering dishes totally impressed us ~

We tried the following: 》House Special Rice Noodle with steamed beef served with pickled vegetable (Soup noodles) 》Sliced Pork Belly in garlic and chilli sauce 》Pork dumplings with sweet and spicy chilli oil, minced garlic 》Su Jiao Mian - minced pork, sesame sauce, house chilli oil (Dry noodles) 》Stir fried rice with Beef cubes and pickled chillies 》Sweet and Sour Ribs 》Steamed beef strips wrapped with five spiced rice powder

Sichuan is a province in the heart of China known for the Szechuan peppercorns which is a unique ingredient widely used in their cuisine. The owner of the place was gracious enough to walk us thru the entire menu and gave us a good insight of what the cuisine is all about.

Everything was packed with robust flavours and the amount of heat coming from the spices (peppercorns, chillies etc) were simply perfect for us. The various meats were nicely cooked/seasoned well plus the comforting stir-fried rice and hearty bowls with springy noodles got us wanting more. The contrasting textures complimented the authentic taste of the dishes, we absolutely loved them.

🌟 Our top 3 items would be the Su Jiao Mian, Sweet and Sour Ribs and the Stir fried rice with beef cubes and pickled chillies.

They have an extensive menu and offers small plates, dry/soup noodles to rice dishes and desserts. Our cravings for an authentic Sichuan feast was definitely satisfied by this buzzing spot, I highly recommend it. Update - 2nd visit on 19-Aug 2024

We had the following: 》Soft tofu with minced pork, chilli oil, pickled cabbage, rice noodle 》Sweet and sour ribs 》Homemade pork dumplings with sweet soy sauce and house special chilli oil 》Braised pork belly in soy sauce with rice 》Fizzy lychee with crushed raspberry

The heat coming from the spices were so addictive, perfectly seasoned/tender meats, handmade dumplings, comforting rice meals and springy noodles complimented by the lovely contrast in textures plus robust flavours - we can't get enough of them!

Apart from the authentic sichuan food, excellent service and cosy ambiance, the owner is always so gracious...

I went to have dinner at noodle alley with a large group of people recently and unfortunately didn't have the best experience. While the food was delicious they clearly weren't equipped for a large group (15ish) and ordering was really difficult. The waitress, who was lovely but really struggling, asked each person individually for their order but we were confused because we were using menu numbers but she was using dish names and they'd already taken the menus away so no one could remember the name of their dish. This took about 10 minutes and then she went around and confirmed the order, once again, we tried but without the menu to refer back to, struggled.

The food was really, really good and I was super happy with how quickly it came out, how clean it was and how good the flavors worked together. While there definitely wasn't enough staff for a large group they were attentive and made sure we had drinks and water. The issue came at the end of the meal. 4 of us were heading off the see a play and the rest of the group wanted to stay for a few more drinks so we went up to the counter to pay for our own meals. I understand that this isn't ideal but we all knew exactly what we had ordered and all of us tipped for the inconvenience but it required all three of the women working there to figure it out. We would say what we ordered, they would then ask the waitress in Mandarin who would tell them what we ordered in Mandarin, then they found the item in English on our receipt and then added it up, which is complicated and took ages but really wasn't our fault. Then, the woman who had served us started lecturing me about how she had worked so hard to take all the orders and now I was making life difficult for her colleagues and I felt really uncomfortable and embarrassed.

While I love the food I wouldn't return because I wouldn't feel comfortable going back after being berated for trying to pay my bill.

Edit: after a wonderful response from the restaurant I have amended my rating as I think is fair. It is always nice to see reviews taken seriously and I'm impressed with the professionalism displayed. I will be returning to try those fat noodles I've...

Food is average, but service is terrible. Specifically the girl with a bun and black rectangle glasses - I’ve seen other reviews complaining about her and she needs to be fired.

Firstly, we arrived at 5pm and the place was empty except for 3 tables. They pointed us to sit at a middle table, but we wanted to sit at the sides with the sofas so we asked this waitress if we could. She replied no as other people might have made a reservation or larger groups might come in. We understand if it’s peak time but there were literally 5 empty tables with sofas, it was so early and we were just gonna be there for like an hour?? Mind you in the hour we were there no reserved/large groups came in and they even let 2 girls sit there after us. Talk about discrimination. We then asked another waitress and she agreed to let us sit on the side.

Secondly, they didn’t serve us tap water at all throughout the meal. Given that their whole concept revolves around spicy food I would expect some decency to ask if we want tap water. It’s as if they want to force you to order drinks from their menu.

Lastly, since no tap water was given but we wanted to quench our thirst after the spicy food, I poured some water from my water bottle into an empty glass for my partner. That same waitress immediately snapped at me that outside drinks aren’t allowed. I stared at her and said but this is my own water?? from my own water bottle??? I cannot believe how rude she was being. You have eyes, look properly before criticising your customers. A good waitress would’ve also noticed that perhaps we needed water and would’ve offered to serve us tap water. But that’s probably too much to ask of her when she can’t even get the basics right.

I was looking forward to trying this restaurant but I cannot be more disappointed by my experience today, it was ruined because of that...