Manchester's Ancoats-led pizza style: long-fermented sourdough base, Italian flour, local milled stone-ground when available, fior di latte mozzarella, San Marzano sauce.
Where to eat it: 4 restaurants across 1 city.
Manchester's sourdough pizza identity grew from a 2014 Ancoats pop-up: Rudy's Pizza Napoletana, opened by Kate Wilson and Jim Morgan as a gazebo behind Bar Fringe and within a year a permanent room on Cotton Street, brought Neapolitan dough with a 48-hour double prove to the city. By the late 2020s, Honest Crust at Mackie Mayor, Noi Quattro on Thomas Street, Tariff and Dale and Ramona had built Manchester into one of the UK's strongest pizza cities outside London with a distinct sourdough lean.
Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy
Tip from the editors. Cold-ferment the dough at least 18 hours; 24-48 hours gives more flavour. A pizza steel preheated 45 minutes is the best home substitute for a wood oven.
Started as a 2014 Cotton Street pop-up in Manchester; now an AVPN-listed pizzeria. Dough ferments 24 hours, sixty seconds in the wood-fired oven.
Signature: Margherita, Diavola
Order: Margherita first, then a Diavola with Italian salami if you want heat.
Tip: Walk-in only at Ancoats; arrive by 17:30 on weekends or expect a queue running across Cutting Room Square.
Manchester sourdough-pizza counter inside Mackie Mayor. Margherita at twelve pounds, specials with seasonal toppings around fourteen, communal hall seating.
Try: Margherita pizza
Thomas Street pizzeria in Manchester's Northern Quarter, dough fermented seventy-two hours, AVPN-approved Neapolitan crust from the Liverpool team.
Signature: Margherita, Nduja and stracciatella
Order: The margherita first; the Nduja with stracciatella second.
Tip: Two-for-twenty Mondays are the value play; lunchtime slots take walk-in customers without a queue.
Northern Quarter pizza-and-plates room in a converted Victorian warehouse, Manchester. Brick walls, open kitchen, sourdough pizza served all day.
Signature: Sourdough pizza, Sunday roast
Order: Wood-fired sourdough pizza; the burrata with peach in summer.
Tip: The kitchen runs to 22:00 most nights and 23:00 weekends Walk-ins usually OK.
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