A rescued station café and the best shawarma in the city; an eating and drinking guide to South Manchester’s fastest moving suburb

Thanks to things like its exceptional weekly market and a glut of new places to eat and drink having sprung up in the past couple of years, Levenshulme has transformed.

If you’re visiting - or even thinking about moving - here are some of the top spots to eat and drink.

There’s a lot of shawarma in Manchester, but there’s one place which stands head and shoulders above the rest. Alonso, AJ and Zheko are there every day serving up the best lamb and chicken kebabs in the city, stuffed inside their signature Kurdish Iraqi bread - the samoon - baked daily and soft as a feather pillow. They’re staggeringly good value too, probably thanks to being able to sell them in scale to the queues that often snake out of the door.

842 Stockport Rd, Levenshulme, Manchester M19 3AW

A group of passionate Levy locals saved the landmark Levenshulme South railway station from dereliction, and have turned it into a community hub, cafe, restaurant, bar, co-working space and bike repair shop. Built around a brilliantly airy room, and with a viewing gallery overlooking the Fallowfield Loop, it is already a bit of a hit, thanks in no small way to great food and dazzling pastries, provided by Ancoats’ Flat Baker.

975-977 Stockport Rd, Levenshulme, Manchester M19 3NP

Any neighbourhood would be chuffed to absolute bits with an Italian like Cibus. The Neapolitan pizza is entirely on the money of course, but the rest of the menu that shines too, with dishes like its featherblade ragu and a fine line in cicchetti - like its panelle, the irresistible chickpea flour fritters, fantastic arancini and zucchini fritti which are light as a feather. They even do a scorching roast on Sunday.

847 - 849 Stockport Rd, Levenshulme, Manchester M19 3PW

With a menu