Tiny Manchester restaurant finds new home following fire that led to shopping centre evacuation

A popular Manchester restaurant which closed following a fire that caused the evacuation of a shopping centre is set to open a new site. Hong Thai had a popular food stall at Arndale Market, but in January announced its permanent closure at the market in an emotional post on social media.

The team behind Hong Thai, which serves up a fusion of Hong Kong and Thai food have revealed they they’ll soon be opening up a restaurant near the Northern Quarter. It will be located on Oldham Road, situated opposite the Royal Mail building.

Firefighters were called out to Manchester Arndale on November 10 last year after a blaze broke out in the south side of the market hall. A few days later the team at Hong Thai confirmed a fire had taken place at their stall and they would be closed ‘for a while’, but earlier this year they confirmed the stall’s permanent closure at the shopping centre.

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In a video post shared to social media at the time, Lilia Tsang (Lilly), owner of Hong Thai said her ‘heart was broken’, as she confirmed that the stall at Arndale Market was permanently closed following the incident. However, they also stated that this would not be in the end of the road and asked followers to keep and eye out for future updates.

Hong Thai first opened at the market hall back in 2016 as part of a raft of new eateries added to the shopping centre in a bid to capture lunchtime trade. It was created by Lilly and her husband, who has previously worked as an executive chef for prestigious hotels.

They’re also joined on the team by a chef who has had experience of cooking Thai cuisine for over 40 years and has helped them create some of their most popular dishes including The Chang Mai curry special, a hugely generous creamy red style Thai curry, with noodles, crisp vegetables and little chicken meatballs, alongside lamb massaman curry and tasty pad Thai.

Since the closure, the team have been working from home, offering takeaway, all while planning their next move to open their own brick-and-mortar restaurant. Bilal, who looks after the restaurant’s marketing and social media says the new space represents a ‘fresh start’.

“When we recently posted the new logo we had about 400 people liking it and asking when we were coming back,” he says. “We knew we needed to make a footprint and open back up somewhere.”

“She is the brains behind it, along with her husband and they work really closely together. They create the recipes alongside a small team that she loves.

“When we were at the Arndale Market we were one of the top sellers, alongside the likes of Salt & Pepper who have gone on to open their own restaurant. So many Mancunians love what we do and support us and it’s good that people are still interested in us.”

Bilal says the new spot on Oldham Road will be bigger than the unit at the Arndale but ‘quite small’ in terms of seating. However, for the first time Hong Thai will be available on delivery platforms and opening hours will be longer, allowing them to reach more customers after work hours.

“The menu will be back with all the customer favourites too. Our best-selling dishes are the chicken katsu curry, grilled salmon with sweet potato, massaman curry, Tom yum soup and it all fuses the best of Hong Kong and Thai cuisine.

Information about the new site, including its exact location, opening hours, and when the public can go and get their Hong Thai fix, will be revealed next week on the restaurant’s social media pages.