What’s not to love about tapas? The flavours, the sharing and the chance to sample a bit of everything. Luckily for Mancs, you needn’t have to hop on a plane to a Spanish city and weave through the streets to hunt down good tapas. One Manchester restaurant in particular, Can Petit, brings the Spanish sunshine in the form of authentic dishes and warm hospitality that many of us yearn for after a trip to España.
Located inside Cocoa Cabana in Ancoats, Can Petit comes alive on an evening once the chocolate and coffee shop closes and serves up delicious Spanish dishes and drinks. Come to Can Petit with an appetite and leave having saved a few pennies, with generous-sized tapas dishes costing £5 each.
Choose from classics such as Ibérico ham, patatas bravas, Padrón peppers, serrano ham croquetas, tortilla, Manchego cheese or albóndigas (beef meatballs), but you’ll also find some unique and tasty dishes on the menu too. Order the likes of chorizo a la sidra (fresh chorizo cooked in Galician handcrafted cider) and gambas al ajillo (wild prawns cooked in garlic, chilli and white wine with a prawn emulsion) which saw us mopping up all that sumptuous sauce with bread. We recommend you don’t miss out on the pork cheek sandwich, which consists of pulled pork cheek stuffed into a brioche bread and topped with Manchego cheese and crispy onions, and has quickly become a favourite at the pop-up restaurant.
It’s recommended you order around three dishes each but we won’t judge if you don’t want to share, however save room for the paella because it is proper. The chefs use traditional methods learnt from their grandparents to bring an authentic taste of Spain to Manchester.
Choose from three different paellas – seafood topped with huge, juicy prawns and squid rings, chicken topped with succulent chicken thighs and sugar snap peas or vegetables topped with courgette, red pepper and asparagus. We dived into a seafood paella and everything was cooked to perfection. And if you’re wondering what makes a paella proper it has to be the soccarat (the crispy and golden layer that forms on the bottom of the paella pan where the rice and the pan touch) and the one at Can Petit had the crunch without being an absolute mission to scrape away from the pan.
As for the drinks at Can Petit, you can recreate that feeling of enjoying a beer or cocktail in the Spanish sunshine at the restaurant. The Ancoats spots serves up a range of wines from across the Spanish regions including organic Cava from a village in the province of Zaragoza.
You can also enjoy a glass of red or white sangría or tinto de verano as well as Spanish ciders and lagers including Alhambra Reserva, which is pretty hard to come by in Manchester. And if you’ve still got room after all that tapas and paella, Can Petit has a range of dreamy desserts including churros con chocolate, cheesecake, torrija (a Spanish-style French toast) and arroz con leche (traditional caramelised rice pudding).
With cosy interiors, friendly staff and a passion to create traditional and tasty Spanish food, we say “vamos” to this hidden dining spot. Book a table at Can Petit here.
📍Find Can Petit at at 7 Murray St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 6HS.