Burgers and Burritos at Dive NQ in Northern Quarter, Manchester

It’s Friday night, and sometimes you just fancy a proper pig-out, right? Sack the diet. As long as you keep it balanced and eat well 80% of the time, it’s pretty much fine to have a free-for-all for the other 20%. Which is exactly what me and three of my gal pals did when we visited Dive NQ in, well, the Northern Quarter, Manchester for – you guessed it – burgers and burritos! Whoever said titles give the whole blog post away, right?

Dive NQ is quite appropriately named, as it is located right in the middle of the Northern Quarter, in central Manchester. It’s a bar usually perfect for a night out – or even the last drinks early in the morning after a night out, I believe its open ‘til 5am! – so you might not think of it for food. But it does a select menu of proper ‘dirty’ American style ‘dive bar’ food. Burgers, burritos, fries, onion rings and all the toppings you could want.

Of course, we chose a variety of cocktails to start. Dive NQ are best known for their drinks, after all! In fact, they didn’t do this at the time, but they now have an extended ‘Happy Hour’ every Sunday to Friday from 5pm til’ 10pm with many drinks just £3.50. We had two margaritas, a gin bramble and some other lovely citrus fruity cocktail. All of them were delicious and suitable alcoholic!

For food, of course, we went for burgers and burritos. Have I said that enough yet? Unfortunately I am a rubbish food blogger and can’t quite remember (or source online) the names of the burgers, but my friends each chose a different one with different toppings, some with curly fries and some with sweet potato fries, and we all dived in. I went for a vegetarian burrito and it was hearty and delicious, filled with rice, chilli and beans.

Dive NQ lends itself best for a casual meal whilst drinking, and the thing is, it knows it. Its website advertises its menu offering as ‘bites and booze’ and I love that – it knows exactly what it’s there for and it owns it, good and proper. In fact, they have now just joined forces with ZUMU and are serving Asian influenced cuisine with a street food vibe – that is something I must try!