Lina Stores - Press Launch

The long-anticipated arrival of Lina Stores in Manchester is here, and to celebrate/give their team a thorough test run, invited guests last night descended upon Quay Street to take an early look at what customers can expect. 

Lina Stores will feature an all-day restaurant serving antipasti, fresh pasta, secondi and dolci for lunch and dinner.  There's also a delicatessen stocked with homemade panini, healthy salads, takeaway coffee and indulgent desserts for breakfast, lunch and dinner on the go.  And to complete the trio is Bar Lina, a classic Italian cocktail bar, all under one roof.

On the night we started with Sea Salt & Rosemary Focaccia, with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which is an obligatory kick off.  Three slices of perfectly formed bread, with a textbook crumb structure.

Grilled Prawns were sweet, vibrant and delicious.  A bit less cooking on the prawns would have been ideal, but when you're serving 100+ press and influencers all at the same time, with the maximum possible strain intentionally being placed upon the kitchen due to the evening being a bit of a test run, that's absolutely acceptable.  Some diced Datterini Tomato, garlic, lemon completed the flavour menagerie.

Burrata with Extra Virgin Olive Oil was a true display of quality produce needing nothing else.  All the work is done before things even make it into the hands of Chef.  Super creamy burrata with superb quality olive oil; it needs nothing else apart from being eaten.

The above Burrata was so delicious that we wanted more, this time in the form of Burrata Ravioli, two huge ones in this case, both full to the brim with that same dreamy burrata, gently sauced with sweet tomato sauce, plus some added garnish from pine nuts and basil.

On the search for more pasta, we opted for 30-Egg Yolk Tagliolini, served with black truffle, butter and Parmigiano Reggiano.    A refined plate, showcasing that top end pasta, with a library of simple yet similarly top end garnishes.  The scent coming off this was unbelievable.

Now we do try to balance our meals, so had to offset the carbs with some veggies.   Grilled Hispi Cabbage ticked that box and was grilled to bring some lovely charred noted to the table, complemented with chilli, pinenuts and capers, for a spice, texture and acidity hit.

Our main course of the evening was Chicken Milanese; a dish which was absolutely shareable for 2 in terms of sheer scale.  Two perfectly breadcrumbed chicken portions, topped with rocket, Parmesan shavings, and a wedge of Amalfi lemon, which is of course the best lemon.  Juicy inside, yet super crispy at the same time, this was the perfect protein addition to accompany all that pasta.  A true crowd pleaser.

Tiramisu is everywhere these days isn't it?  We are almost a third of the way through 2025, and I can count at least a dozen Manchester articles where I've written about the dish.  That’s one a week pretty much.  Fortunately, despite the repetition, Lina Stores' version is as solid as you would expect from such classy operator.

Sicilian Cannolo, freshly filled to order with ricotta, pistachio and chocolate, was sublime.  A crunchy, perfectly thick casing, with a filling which was as tasty as it sounds.  This was in fact the very last thing which left the kitchen at the press launch which this article is based on, so a bit of a claim to fame too!

So the food was generally fantastic quality, made with brilliant produce and cooked to the standards which people have come to expect from Lina Stores over the last circa 80 years.  But what jumped out for me personally was the warmth and personality of the staff who've clearly not only been trained to the highest standards, but have been selected for their natural personalities; something which you simply can't train.

It's easy to see why Lina Stores has been one of London's most loved venues since 1944, and the Manchester branch is the very first one to offer the entire combination of a restaurant, deli and bar!  It's absolutely an essential addition to your must do new places to try in Manchester.

** Our experience was gratefully comped **