Solita Didsbury

When they first appeared in the city centre a few years ago, before we reached peak gourmet junk food, I had a lot of love for SoLIta /​SoLita /​Solita — however they want to spell it.
I’ve been to their second branch in Dids more often than their NQ one and whereas the service has always been friendly and efficient, for me the food hasn’t maintained the high quality fare of their early days.
I have to agree with the reviewers who’ve commented that the food is on the expensive side for what you get — some of the burgers are almost £20; and this increases if you opt for one of the fancier varieties of fries.
They will always have a warm place in my heart for introducing cheeseburger spring rolls into my life, but I have to say for the balance of value for money, quality and taste, Filthy Cow and Rudy’s Pizza have Solita beat now.
Tip: They regularly announce special dishes for limited durations — they’re usually worth a try.

Ok, so I loved what I got. A massive burger, and sweet potato fries. It was more expensive than I really wanted to pay, but the ordering service was great, friendly and efficient. The venue good, with lively but not too loud music.
But, as a group of friends I value everyone getting an enjoyable meal. And a veggie mate really was unsure of her veggie burger being actually veggie! It took quite sometime to get the attention of our waiter. Eventually it was swapped for another meal — Hallumi burger, but even this lead to an air of untrust, especially around the cheese sauce. They behaved appropriately with the bill and stated that the veggie food was cooked separately, but I was left with the feeling that for the premium they charge this wasn’t the total experience I was expecting.
My burger was great. Cooked perfectly, and slightly pink still. I really loved their own IPA.
Not quite the icing on the cake to a seasonal get together of a group of mates I was hoping for.

Great Cheeseburger Spring roll! The Walk of Shame Burger is a must! Great service.

I’ll keep this one simple. The burgers are great, the sides are great, the starters are great, there’s a decent range of drinks on offer, the staff and the service have been good whenever I’ve been and if you happen to rock up without a booking there’s a lot of decent places for a drink near by if you have to wait. I normally leave very full, very happy and a little bit drunk. Would highly recommend.

Great atmosphere upstairs, it felt like there was a lot more space than the NQ original so it didn’t feel like we were on top of our neighbours! We had the pulled pork sundae and baby back ribs to start. Both delicious although ribs a little over smoked for my taste. Huge for a starter option! Mains I went for my standard KFB order, why mess around when you’ve found something so good?! It was delicious as always, although perhaps over generous with the jalapeños! Tom had the chicken burger which could have a fed a family for a week! Sadly it defeated him Haha. Also upgraded to the chilli fries — absolutely delicious and everyone should do this, their smoked chilli brisket is divine.
They lose a star as we were excited for the Advertised keylime cheesecake of the day only to find the board was wrong and that it was white chocolate. Change your board! We probably didn’t need dessert anyway to be fair!

Great service! Fairly big car park outside. Menu had a great choice. I went for the schnitzel burger (see pic) battered chicken, pulled BBQ chicken on top and apple slaw, upgraded to sweet potato fries and onion rings on the side. It was delicious!!! I also had the peanut butter brownie which was very disappointing (it was powdery and dry) good job there was ice cream).

Solita Didsbury is much like its city centre counterpart, except it takes bookings. Which I didn’t know until I rocked up on a Friday night without a booking and was told it would be over an hour wait.
Thankfully there is a Wetherspoons just next door and they do some nice Brewdog beers and it was actually less than half an hour before they phoned.
The menu is the same so there’s a lot for meat/​burger lovers and less for others, although I did notice that the bean burger is not only (obviously) vegetarian but also vegan.
We were there for a pig out to celebrate a number of things between the pair of us including a new flat, new job, and a pay rise. We ordered:
— Bacon fat popcorn. I don’t need to describe how good this is. The waitress actually commented on how quickly we scarfed it down.
— Cheeseburger spring rolls. I just think these are genius and delicious and glorious. These ones were a bit sloppier than when I got them at the city centre restaurant so not great in terms of consistency, but they were just as tasty.
— Sticky lime chicken wings. These were super fresh tasting which was a nice flavour to have as part of such a heavy meal.
— Bleu Burger. This has Roquefort and red onion marmalade and is delicious and a nice slightly more ‘sophisticated’ flavour combination than other burgers on the menu.
— The Manc-​Hattan. This was my boyfriend’s choice and wow it was quite something. I tried a bit and it was absolutely delicious but so rich and heavy that I definitely couldn’t have eaten it all. I really like what they’re doing with it though.
We swerved desserts due to being fit to burst but did order cocktails. I had an Aperol Spritz which was just as great as an Aperol Spritz should be, and he had an espresso martini which was very good indeed.

I had always wanted to try out Solita in the Northern Quater but whenever I went it was always to busy so when I was in Didsbury decided to give it a try.
I love the building that it’s in and what they’ve done with the décor. It’s very modern but subtle at the same time. The food choice is amazing — especially if you’re a meat eater! The bugers here are amazing. After following them on Twitter for a while they have come up with some mad concoctions but I think the one which tops them all is the Manchester Wheel (1 kg steak patty, 12 cheese slices, 8 bacon rashes and a litre of creamy sauce all placed onto a specially-​baked giant seeded bun.) — I will be trying this out as they have just brought it back on the menu :)
I would definately reccomend here if you’re looking for a cool place outside the City Centre with excellent food.

Solita is an ok place. The wings were tangy with a bit of spice. But the burgers had so much stuff you couldn’t take a bite. There was no grease, it was pre cooked, the chips were cold the buns weren’t toasted, and the burgers were cold. Yuck. Welcome to the restaurant SoFAILa!!!

This is one of the best burger places I have been to. I had a cheese burger with chilli chips it was lovely the chilli chips were amazing. The staff were really friendly and efficient and explained everything. I loved the décor it’s really modern. I have only been the once but can’t wait to go back I’m going to try the cheesy chips next time with my burger

If you read my reviews (which I hope you do!) you’ll know that it’s very rare for me to venture out of Manchester City Centre without heading to a nearby city; however, the pull of the Beavertown & Andy Annat takeover of SoLiTa in Didsbury was too much for me to resist.
A small queue had formed when we arrived for the doors to open, and when we did get to the ‘front of house’ they confirmed that they had received our e-​mails regarding sitting together, which was a nice touch (it would have been nice to have it confirmed pre-​event, but the end result is sometimes all that matters…)
The menu looked simply divine — going slightly off-​piste compared to the burgers, grills and cheeseburger spring rolls that SoLiTa offer on their main menu, this was a specially prepared four course adventure, cooked by 3 x UK champion BBQ-​er Andy Annat.
I won’t go into too much detail due to the menu not actually being the SoLiTa menu, but if you ever get the chance to eat anything by Andy, please do it. Especially if it’s pork-​based, like the warm sweet & salty bacon popcorn we had to nibble on, or the bacon wrapped onion rings with our main.
Beavertown provided refreshments — which I actually drank and enjoyed, so well done for getting that far! — as they are now being stocked at SoLiTa restaurants.
Service was okay throughout the meal, though obviously struggling somewhat with keeping up with the large amount of people requiring their food at basically the exact same time; well done to them for coping!
The décor at this branch felt a bit more grown up than the NQ original, with perhaps more of a family-​vibe to please their local demographic. I’m looking forward to coming back and experiencing the actual SoLiTa offering.

Was really pleased to see that Solita have opened a branch in Didsbury Village and have brought an independent to an area that has quite a few chains. I am a fan of their Northern Quarter restaurant so was excited to see what the new place was like and I wasn’t disappointed. Firstly the place has been done out really tastefully and feels really modern. As the place is quite big there wasn’t the usual long wait for a table and the service was friendly and helpful. I ordered the vegetable and halloumi kebab which was massive and delicious, the fact it had been cooked on charcoal gave it some extra flavour. The sweet potato fries were tasty as was the side salad. My friend’s Solita burger also went down well and was well presented. The portions were really big and offered good value for money. Solita Didsbury is definitely a winner.

Came here in December and had one of the yummiest burgers EVER! We started with the cheeseburger spring rolls, so good they should be illiegal. Served with a pot of ketchup and mustard, it was just like eating a burger… but in a spring roll. Delish.
Next we had some Louisiana hot wings — and hot was the operative word. Kinda too hot for me but I kept going as they were just so damn tasty.
Following this was the Christmas dinner burger. It was fit. Well fit. So good in fact that I wished I hadn’t said I would share this and we fought to the death for the scraps on the plate. Now I know its January and they may not be doing this anymore (sob) but its a testiment to how bloody good this place is. Everything I have ever had here (well actually the one in NQ) has been incredibly tasty and imaginative. I’m off there again on Thursday and I am daring them to serve me something crap… I don’t think this will ever happen.
And to round off the night was a peanut butter chocolate brownie. I am not meant to eat desserts due to being lactose intolerant blah blah but it was beckoning my name, whispering from the kitchen for me to eat. How could I refuse? Ever morsel was savoured and rightly so, it was yummy.
Now the staff and service — I just couldn’t fault them. Friendly without being your mate, efficient without appearing every 2 seconds and they kept us aware that our dinner would be delayed due to 2 large parties that got in before us. But that was ok as we had time to savour the décor and people watch. That is before my tummy started shouting ‘FEED ME NOW WENCH’ and magically my food arrived. Its like my stomach and the kitchen are cosmically linked…

It’s about time they opened another SoLita and yes they actually have down in Didsbury Village, an area more likely to have a chain restaurant snapping up this unit before an independent like SoLIta — so nice job guys in bringing something a little bit different to the village.
If you don’t know SoLita already (a fantastic limited covers burgers and upmarket diner in the Northern Quarter) then you’re in for a treat as the range of burgers is phenomenal with a taste to match. I went for the ‘Jack Daddy’ a large homemade patty with juicy bun — topped with onion rings and jack Daniels sauce, served with proper fries (£12) This really filled me up on this lunch time visit but it was everything I wanted and more.
The staff were friendly and efficient (one of them recognised me from the NQ branch — I don’t think I went there that often did I…) The only thing I think that let it down at lunch time was a distinct feeling that the music had to be similar to what they were playing at night time. Put it this way — at 12.30pm on a Friday lunch some relaxing music would have gone down much better than the big heavy dance music pumping out — especially considering the clientele was mainly families, olds and people in meetings, it really didn’t fit well! It also wasn’t that relaxing but that’s the only bit of downer feedback I have.
I love the building and what they’ve done with it — I’ll be back again very soon!

I’ve been a fan of Solita in the NQ for a while now so was pretty happy to hear that a new branch was opening in Didsbury Village in the old La Tasca/​shortlived Cibo site. This is a pretty big building so the one advantage it has over the original Solita is the ability to book a table for less than 6 people and not have to worry about a long wait.
I went with a couple of friends on a Monday night just a few days after it had officially opened and obviously the news had travelled fast that it was open as it was absolutely packed.
We had a ten minute wait at the bar before our table was ready which wasn’t a problem for us as we were happy to have a drink and a chat, although it did take ten minutes for my glass of wine to appear as they couldn’t find a corkscrew! The guy behind the bar was super apologetic and quite embarrassed by it so I’ll put it down to teething problems…
The menu here is the same as Solita NQ so expect lots of mammoth burgers and dishes that will generally induce a heart attack just from reading the description. If you’re veggie or watching your weight this probably isn’t the place for you. Luckily neither me or my friends had those issues so we went for the bacon fat popcorn and rooster scratching to start and then all had burgers for our main. I had the KFB which was cooked perfectly pink and generously topped with ‘Kentucky Fried Bacon’ — YUM! One of my friends was brave enough to go for the ‘Once In A Lifetime’ burger which was almost as big as her head and obviously delicious and she polished it off without leaving a crumb!
Service was really relaxed and friendly and the girl looking after us was a natural. She even managed to retain a sense of humour a huge smile on her face when we were messing round with the bill for what seemed like forever!
I couldn’t eat here all the time as it really is guilty pleasure food but but it’s a great place to meet with friends for a relaxed bite to eat and a few drinks. I actually think I’d choose this Solita over the old favourite now too, especially with the ease of booking and parking if you need to. Love the décor too!