Manchester's adopted-via-Curry-Mile chickpea curry: warm tomato base, ginger, garlic, garam masala, finished with fresh coriander. Found at almost every rice-and-three counter in the city.
Chana masala arrived in Manchester with the Pakistani migrants who shaped Wilmslow Road's Curry Mile from the 1970s. This and That on Soap Street has served it as one of the three rotating curries in the rice-and-three lineup since 1984; today it's the most-ordered plate at the counter. Manchester's vegan crowd adopted it; Bundobust and Lily's keep the Gujarati and Punjabi variants alive across the city's vegetarian rooms.
3 editor picks for Chana masala in Manchester, ranked by editorial score. All Manchester signature dishes · Chana masala across every city.
This and That ★ 4.6
northern-quarter · 3 Soap Street, Manchester M4 1EW
Family-run Indian cafe since 1984, on Soap Street behind the Arndale. Rice-and-three counter, canteen-style, still under ten pounds a plate.
Lily's Vegetarian Indian Cuisine ★ 4.6
rusholme · 85 Oldham Road, Ashton-under-Lyne OL6 7DF
P G and Lilawati Sachdev opened Lily's in 1972; pure vegetarian, family-run, packed with regulars. Best Vegetarian at the 2018 Food Festival.
Bundobust ★ 4.5
northern-quarter · 61 Piccadilly, Manchester M1 2AQ
Indian street-food and craft-beer hall in a basement off Piccadilly. Twelve keg lines pour Bundobust's own brewery beers alongside the snack plates.