Last Updated on 6 June 2026 by Colette
Yard & Coop had been on my hit list for ages before we finally made it through the door this weekend!
Their instagram account regularly has me drooling over their mouth-watering, buttermilk-fried chicken dishes and I knew it was about time we paid them a visit.
DISCOUNT ALERT: Pop the code ADVENTURE25 into the note section when you book!
Taking advantage of only having one child for the weekend, we made plans to head into town for a bit of a Sunday morning wander before booking a table for lunch at Yard & Coop. It turns out that early doors on a cold Sunday lunch time, booking isn’t really necessary but if you’re heading in on a sunny Saturday, the Northern Quarter is typically heaving and I would definitely recommend taking the time to book ahead if you’re lusting after some chickeny goodness.
Because we’d booked for not long after opening time, the restaurant wasn’t especially busy which, combined with the fact it was pretty much cold enough to snow, meant that we were a bit cold – not ridiculously so but enough that I wished I’d had an extra layer on!
We absolutely loved the theming throughout the restaurant – from the massive cockerel outside the front door to the fox door handles, and puns a plenty.
In their own words, Yard & Coop offer up “Booze, birds and beats” – a menu packed with variations of buttermilk chicken from buttermilk tenders to burgers and loaded fries (or even buttermilk fried chicken fries and beef brisket lasagne rolled into a Yorkshire pudding burrito if you fancy it . . . I did not.)
Dave and I both went in on variations of loaded fries and absolutely did not regret our choices! There was so much to choose from but I’ve got a real thing for dirty fries at the moment so I knew before we’d event set foot in the building that I was going to be heading to that section of the menu.
Dave’s Buff Daddy Fries were pretty spicy – as warned on the menu. Skin on fries topped with buttermilk chicken, pulled buffalo chicken, butter buffalo sauce, blue cheese sauce and loaded with gherkins!
I went for the Dirty Bird – fries loaded with cheese sauce, buttermilk fried chicken, the crispiest crispy bacon all smothered with hot honey, Dr Pepper BBQ and blue cheese sauces. Did they beat me? Yes but not by much.
There is no children’s menu at Yard & Coop and whilst Amy fancied a chicken burger, I didn’t want to spend the best part of £15 on a burger that would undoubtedly over face her so we went for the chicken tenders with a garlic dipping sauce and on the side and an order of plain fries (which was a complete waste of money as, as I had predicted, she barely touched them). Amy really enjoyed the chicken tenders – she said the coating was really tasty and different to anything she’d had before.
Through January, Yard & Coop are offering a range of freebies which meant Dave got to enjoy a free pint with his lunch this weekend – bonus.
We treated Amy to a Nutella milkshake for afters (about £6 I think) which she made short work of – she said the Nutella flavour was just right and it wasn’t too thick. Typically she had already started to drink it by the time I got my camera out so no pictures of that one for you!
Dave and I didn’t manage any afters – he had been quite tempted by the chocolate orange brookie but it turned out they didn’t have any in so we swerved filling ourselves up even further – which was probably a sensible move!
If you like chicken, and cock puns a plenty, then Yard & Coop is for you! We’ll definitely be heading back.
Have a look at these posts next:
Cool places to eat in the Northern Quarter (of which Yard & Coop is obviously one!)
Where to get the best coffee in Manchester (basically in the Northern Quarter)
The best donuts in Manchester (unsurprisingly several of these are in the Northern Quarter too!)
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