BLOG: People of NOMA – Tom Barnes

25 September 2025

Manchester’s food scene never stands still, and NOMA is right at the heart of the action.

From the sizzling global street food at New Century Kitchen, to buttery pastries and artisan coffee at Allpress, and crowd-pleasing brunches at Pot Kettle Black, NOMA serves up flavour from morning to night.

Now, there’s a new name on the block drawing national attention – Skof. This Michelin-starred, multi-award-winning restaurant is helmed by acclaimed chef Tom Barnes.

Since opening on Federation Street a year ago, Skof has already earned Manchester its second Michelin star at the 2025 Michelin Guide ceremony.

With a focus on seasonal ingredients, elegant simplicity, and pure enjoyment, each dish at Skof reflects Barnes’ modern British approach to dining. The restaurant offers three expertly curated tasting menus, and with reservations fully booked until Summer 2026, it’s safe to say Skof is only getting started.

Today, Skof features on just about every major Manchester food guide, and we’re thrilled to spotlight Tom Barnes as our next guest in the People of NOMA series.

Continue reading below…

Tell us about your restaurant Skof?

So, we’re a Michelin Star restaurant here in NOMA, and we’re all about great food and great service. The space we’ve created is this really sort of fun, friendly, relaxed environment.

The flavour of everything is what’s most important, nothing here is gimmicky. We get the best ingredients we can find and treat them simply. Ultimately, everything we do is to get the best flavour out the ingredients And we’re doing a great job of it!

With Skof, I set out to create an unpretentious yet ambitious dining experience in the North, and I couldn’t be happier with what we’ve built.

What made you choose Manchester and NOMA to open Skof?

I mean, I love the city, I love the people here. My girlfriend’s from Manchester which definitely helps. I thought we could do something really cool in the city that people would hopefully get behind and want to come to. And here we are!

NOMA just felt like the right fit. It’s a really cool place to be, it’s so easily accessible and there are so many unique, smart businesses around here. You see gardeners out there keeping it all clean and tidy, there’s a really nice feel to it, like a nice little community.

We’d been looking around Manchester for about 18 months for a venue, but nothing really grabbed us. But as soon as I visited our building on Federation Street, I just loved it. I loved the big windows, the brick, all of it really. The building is a former textiles warehouse, so those original features are just, wow. We’ve tried to work with those features to create a really nice space.

Manchester is such a great city, there’s such an amazing variety of restaurants, and they’re all brilliant in their own way. So I’m just pleased I can add my own little thing into the scene.

Why do you think Skof has been such a success?

I was actually worried at the beginning, I thought, would people really want to come? It was a big risk to leave my old job to do this, but my team have done such a brilliant job. They’re such nice people and that’s what people always comment on, it’s fun, it’s friendly here.

No one should feel out of place coming in here and no one does. A lot of Skof’s success comes down to the service, the staff, and the people. Our team takes a real interest in the guests, everyone really cares about what they do. We want to give people a great time and people have been so welcoming in return.

What have been your biggest achievements at Skof in the last year?

We’ve literally not had an table empty since we opened so that’s something we’re really proud of.

Of course, winning a Michelin Star was incredible. We also won Best New Restaurant at The Good Food Guide and got One to Watch at the National Restaurant Awards – they’re the big highlights for me.