I tried the hidden Manchester café with a hearty lunch and there’s a standout dish that’s worth the wait

I get it, going out for lunch can feel a bit decadent. Most days, it’s a trip across the road for a meal deal, and straight back to work.

Inhaled quickly at the desk as chicken mayo filling lands onto the keyboard - leaving that unmistakable sheen - a fridge-cold sandwich does the trick. But it’s not exactly inspired.

It might feel indulgent to break with tradition, but if you fancy a payday treat, I’d skip the supermarkets. Get yourself out of the office for a bit and do lunch properly.

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Now the question is where. If you find yourself in Manchester city centre the choice can seem overwhelming.

The Northern Quarter is one of Manchester’s most reliable districts for a bite to eat or post-work pint, but it’s also home to some hidden gems. You might think you’ve covered all bases, but tucked out of view there’s a secret cafe of sorts serving up some of the best lunch in the city.

A straight shot over from the Smithfield Estate sits the Manchester Craft & Design Centre. For over 40 years it has provided a home to some of the region’s very best independent designers and makers, selling everything from textiles and jewellery to ceramics and homeware.

Formerly home to the original Smithfield Markets, a bustling hub of commerce, where stalls spilled out onto the street as traders sold their fresh produce and shoppers grabbed their weekly provisions, the building is woven into the fabric of Manchester past and present.

After 100 years of trading, the doors closed with trade drying up due to the increased competition from the Arndale Shopping Centre. The majority of the markets were demolished, leaving only the disused retail fish market, which was converted into Manchester Craft Village - now the Manchester Craft and Design Centre.

It’s within this storied spot that you’ll find a chef serving up comfort food by the bucket load. Located inside the Oak Street building, Fred’s describes itself as an ‘English-style cafe with a northern accent and appetite’.

Run by Freddie, who used to be the head chef at Adam Reid at The French over at The Midland Hotel, there’s a lot to like. Reid’s restaurant is very much a homage to his northern roots, and some of that sensibility has been translated into Fred’s.

Inspired by British culinary staples and high-quality ingredients, this cafe isn’t mucking about, it does the simple things well but with all the flair you would expect from a chef who has spent a good stint behind the stoves at one of Manchester’s top restaurants.

Like the markets that made the site famous, the cafe spills out from a tiny kitchen pass. Diners dotted across the ground floor huddle around benches, sit on high stools overlooking the shops or tuck themselves off into the corners and settle in for a brew.

The menu is suitably quirky. You can order from the ‘sarnies and butties’ section, grab something from ‘things to nibble’, or pick your beverage from ‘things in glasses’ and ‘things in cups, mugs & pots’.

I roll my eyes a little - the Northern charm offensive is laid on a little thick, but the dishes pull me back in. There’s proper honey roasted ham served on thick wedges of white tin loaf and lashings of English mustard mayo (£7.50), as well as takes on a Ploughman’s with crumbly Lancashire cheese (£6.50), classics like egg mayo (£6.50), BLT (£8) and wild mushrooms on toast (£8)

It’s the Breakfast Bun (£9) and Northern Rarebit (£8) that call out to us though. The former entails an oven-bottom bun stacked to the brim with a sausage patty, crispy bacon, hash brown, fried egg and cheese - there’s a swirl of brown or red sauce on the side too.

The Rarebit meanwhile, sees slices of thick cut bread topped with Lancashire cheese and English mustard. Finished with local beer, Henderson’s Relish, a sprinkling of fresh chives and chive oil, it’s a sight for sore eyes.

Beautifully rich, this cheese has been piped onto the bread in a style not dissimilar to meringue on a posh pastry, the sharpness of the mustard cutting through the cheesy treat that’s been lovingly presented to us.

The breakfast bun, like a carb-heavy Tower of Pisa, looks like it might topple, but is polished off before it has a chance. Admittedly, it took a little longer than you might expect to arrive, pushing on 35 minutes, which is understandable given it's a tiny cafe and there’s only the chef and server.

So, with only minutes to spare before lunch hour comes to an abrupt end, the breakfast bun and rarebit are inhaled almost like you would a meal deal, but it is obviously much better. And, as far as the cheese on toast is concerned, it's certainly worth the wait.

Likewise, the golden hash browns (£4.50) with a dollop of brown sauce are heavenly. Little fried cubes of joy, their plentiful potato layers look like they could be pulled outwards like an accordion, but are popped into the mouth and swiftly seen off. A tad more seasoning wouldn’t go amiss though.

Totally unnecessary given there’s plenty on the table, we fancy trying Fred’s Scotch Egg (£4), but hopes are dashed when we see the table next to us has secured the last one. It prompts some discussion as to the etiquette around asking another customer to forfeit their lunch, before we decide better of it and take a sausage roll (£3.50) for the road instead.

The latter, a last hurrah of sorts, sits in a takeaway box on my desk for the rest of the day patiently waiting for me to get my appetite back. Much later, on the way home as I sink into the driver's seat and exhale loudly, I surprise myself at how quickly it's consumed. It may have been the post-work delirium setting in, but it was a revelation, a shining star of the hidden café which revels in Northern comfort food.