The clue is in the full name: Lily’s Vegetarian Indian Cuisine. Offering a completely different retail experience to nearby Ikea, Lily’s specialises in snacks and sweets to take home as well as serving freshly prepared, mainly Gujarati dishes. There’s nothing fancy about the wipe-clean, café-cum-diner surroundings, but prices reflect this and the kitchen comfortably out-cooks many of Manchester’s beloved ‘rice and three’ cafés. Choose chats to start, including lentil or pea kachoris with crisp pastry and melting middles, stuffed chillies, paneer pakora in coriander batter, and a plethora of puris. Bigger dishes often star excellent paneer, but we can also vouch for the rich okra masala, the chana masala with onion kulcha, and the crisp masala dosa with a take-no-prisoners gravy. When you’re finished, take home a box of sweets – or do a full shop at ASM, the Indian grocer’s next door (under the same ownership). Worth the tram ride.