Maray Manchester

January deal: Visit between Monday and Thursday any time in January and you’ll get 50% off all vegan and vegetarian plates, for tables of up to seven people.

Restaurant review: For Dry January, Maray has teamed up with alcohol-free beer experts Lucky Saint to put on something special for Manchester’s non-drinking denizens. As well as serving the 0.5% lager in the restaurant, the boffins of both brands put their heads together and crafted some booze-free cocktails using Lucky Saint as the core ingredient. 

This means sublime concoctions such as the Saffron Shandy, which mixes Lucky Saint with a dash of mint and some orange blossom, as well as homemade saffron lemonade, to make a sophisticated, elegant mocktail. 

It’s a perfect accompaniment to Maray’s whipped goat’s cheese starter, making magic on the tastebuds thanks to the dish’s unexpected – but very welcome – use of dill oil and pickled apple. 

Then there’s the Disco Cauliflower. Is it really a visit to Maray if you don’t try the Disco Cauliflower? Ans: No. It doesn’t count. You know it, you’ve tried it, it’s spectacular. Wisely, the Lucky Saint crew don’t try to compete on the razzle-dazzle front and keep the drinks side pared back – unfiltered lager it is, and it works a treat. 

The main course is fried chicken, brined in… you guessed it, Lucky Saint lager. Full disclosure, it’s our first time trying lager-steeped fried chicken and hopefully not the last. It gives the thigh a remarkably crispy coating, with a dark, delicious crunch. On the side, just-as-dark baharat potatoes, fattoush salad, rich, meaty gravy, and a bottle of full-bodied Lucky Saint Hazy IPA.

Dessert is a pleasingly all-vegan salted chocolate ganache, made with Biscoff, tahini, cherry and a thick, plant-based take on Chantilly cream. The accompanying cocktail plays on this is-it-or-isn’t-it trickery, with an excellent smoke-and-mirrors version of Dr Pepper, neatly named Professor Pepper and made with the Hazy IPA. 

We’re blessed to have Maray in Manchester. This next-level restaurant has been serving up some of the city’s best Middle Eastern-themed small plates for the past couple of years, and we’ve loved the lot. No surprise that their alcohol-free cocktails live up to the main menu, and then some.