Higher Ground

Higher Ground is run by a trio of friends — chef Joseph Otway, wine and drinks lead Daniel Craig Martin, and general manager Richard Cossins — who met working at Dan Barber's Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York. It opened permanently in February 2023 in Faulkner House on New York Street, on the fringe of Manchester's Chinatown, after an earlier pop-up. Around 90% of the produce comes from Cinderwood Market Garden, the team's own regenerative farm in Cheshire, feeding a daily-changing menu built on seasonal vegetables, whole-animal butchery, hand-rolled pasta and fish cooked over coal.

The restaurant carries serious critical weight. It holds a Bib Gourmand in the 2026 Michelin Guide — Michelin named it the first-ever 'Bib of the Month' for Great Britain & Ireland — and it has appeared in the National Restaurant Awards for several years running, placing at number 36 in the 2025 top 100. That pedigree makes its attention to non-drinkers notable rather than incidental.

Drinks are treated with the same curiosity as the food. The wine list spotlights low-intervention, small-scale winemakers from across Europe, and running alongside it is a considered no- and low-alcohol offering that reviewers have described as exceptional, with some genuinely unusual choices — a deliberate counterpart to the wine program rather than an afterthought. Because the drinks list, like the menu, moves with what is available, the specific no-and-low pours change regularly.

The room itself is compact and unfussy: an open kitchen, house music, and a low, humming buzz, seating a small number of covers across à la carte and shared-menu formats. It reads as one of the most quietly ambitious dining rooms in the city, and one where an alcohol-free guest is looked after with real intent.