Pie cafe ‘Ate Days A Week’ opens in Manchester with incredible new menu

Ate Days A Week, the music-themed home of five-time British Pie Awards winning pies, has recently moved from Stockport to Manchester city centre.

They still serve their excellent pies and sandwiches, with equally excellent names – think Pie of the Tiger, or I Ham the Walrus.

But the new 38-seat Cooper Street restaurant by chef Andy James also does so much more, including an evolving a la carte menu, exciting Sunday roasts – beef short rib and rotating guest roast meats as well as a veggie roast pithivier – and creative breakfast dishes.

Breakfast, served until 1pm, includes a full English (with veggie option) for £10.50, alongside breakfast barms, beans on toast with optional fried duck eggs, and a range of Eggs Bennedicts, named Benny & The Jets.

There’s even a breakfast pie – Bake Me Up Before You GoGo (£7) – which mixes sausage patty, bacon beans, cheddar cheese, hash brown and black pudding in a homemade pie with a fried egg and brown sauce gravy.

The new a la carte menu, which launches this weekend, includes a range of starters and small plates, mains and sweets alongside beers, a selection of wines by the glass and bottle, and cocktails.

We went to try it out.

Cocktails range from the classics – Old Fashioned, Margarita, Daiquiri, Espresso Martini, Bloody Mary, Zombie or Porn Star Martini – to some more unusual creations.

We loved the Orange Cardamom Martini (£8) from the ‘bartenders choice’ menu, fusing vodka and Cointreau with sweet-sharp orange marmalade, aromatic cardamom essence and zingy fresh lemon juice.

When it comes to food, the starters and small plates (all £6.50 – £7.50) currently include a hake kiev, with golden fried hake, wild garlic and herb butter, a chicken butter sauce and crispy chicken skin.

We particularly enjoyed the slow braised ox cheek croquette, served with Welsh rarebit, roast shallot mayonnaise and a pot of rich meaty gravy to pour over at will, while a tasty meat-free starter sees wild mushrooms with garlic and chilli piled onto sourdough toast and scatted with Grana Padano cheese.

Onto mains, and there’s a pie option, of course, featuring any pie on the specials board with creamy chive mash, minted mushy peas and a red wine and shallot gravy (£11).

There’s also golden beer battered fish and triple cooked hand cut chips, served with minted peas with a well-balanced hit of fresh chilli (£12.50).

A vegan main is a risotto (£12) with mushrooms, garlic, chilli, spring peas, peppers, asparagus and vegan cheese, while meat lovers will relish a generous slab of pork belly, crisp on top and tender within, served with bubble and squeak, spiced apple chutney, and a cider and mustard sauce (£12.50).

Puddings are definitely designed to please those with a sweet tooth, from a freshly baked sticky toffee pudding served with double cream (£5.50) to a sweet pie.

The cookie pie (£6) is made from soft cookie dough, filled with rich salted caramel ganache and topped with melting clotted cream.

The grin-inducingly sweet treat is designed for sharing – but nobody will judge if you want to tackle it solo.

It’s clear that a lot of passion has gone into creating, developing and refining this menu of modern British classics that will have you pie-ning for more.

Ate Days A Week is open now at 7 Cooper Street, M2 2FW. Bookings are now open for Saturday 14th May onwards, including roast dinners – click here.