please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Good Beer Guide 2019 entry.
Easy to miss, as its a subterranean cellar bar housed in a building that used to be a children's mission.
Once down the steep steps, it opens into nicely tilde wide spaces with woodend tables.
Bit disappointed with my visit. Two out of the three hand pulls in operation but mainly, its catering for very expensive bottled beers. One of the hand pulls was a port from Ilkley brewery - which was in good condition.
The tables were filthy - a combination of no beer mats and staff not clearing up the debris from the last occupants (who admittedly should be returning their glassware).
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Cellar bar with loud cha cha cha music for ann unappreciative audience. Three draught ales on the of which the Entire brew was drinkable as opposed to good. Plenty of over priced (up to £9 a pint) keg "craft" brews if you want them - over priced pretentious bar … come on now this is Manchester a provincial backwater ffs.
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With time for just one pub on our Sunday visit to Manchester, I headed here on Sunday evening. This is a cellar bar that is easy to miss. A handful of people were in. But I didn't get a great impression of this place. The 3 real ales were not really to my taste - Fallen Just The Ticket, Backbone Bone Machine & Pomona Island Amarillo. Keg beers included ones from White Hag, Pomona Island & North Brew. There was also a wide bottled selection. The atmosphere felt cold. Not overly impressed.
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Have visited a few times since my previous review. 4 hand pumps at the bar though unfortunately only 2 in action on my Saturday visit. I had a pint of Red 5 which was very pleasant and ruby/red in colour as one may guess from the name. Once again served in a traditional dimpled tankard. Well worth a visit.
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A basement bar with a couple of cask ales available.
alexw - 13 Mar 2014 22:48 |
Enjoyed a well-kept pint of microbrewery cask ale here. Friendly welcome and service. Unusual and distinctive. Well worth a visit.
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Only been once, but it was clean and pleasant and certainly unusual. A few real ales to choose from and served in a proper old fashioned glass tankard. I'd definitely visit again if drinking in this part of town.
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Stumbled across this basement bar on our way in to Manchester on a Saturday evening after having a few around Salford. I can appreciate its not everyone's cup of tea but we agreed it was great if you like that kind of thing which fortunately we do! Its kind of like a larger,cleaner version of the Temple Bar on Great Bridgewater street. I had a pint of Brooklyn Lager on draft which I've got a bit of a taste for recently & whilst it wasn't cheap at £3.40 it was a pretty nice drink. Some trappiste beers in the fridge which were tempting but a bit strong for me on a pub crawl! maybe next time as I'm due to be in Manchester soon with the Mrs for a gig.
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pleased to have found this gem. what someone calls dark is atmospheric to another. Can see how this might not be some people's cup of tea but a lot of people wil like this.
2 real ales on when I went last weekend.
It's somewhere to have a pint in, not spend the night in!!
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dank
   [dangk]
adjective, -er, -est.
unpleasantly moist or humid; damp and, often, chilly: a dank cellar.
dis�mal
   [diz-muhl]
adjective
1.
causing gloom or dejection; gloomy; dreary; cheerless; melancholy: dismal weather.
2.
characterized by ineptness or lack of skill, competence, effectiveness, imagination, or interest; pitiful: Our team played a dismal game.
Two words that don't apply (in any definition) to this pub that has a good vibe and warm atmosphere.
A relatively new bar downstairs in a former soup kitchen / mission (not a urinal), with individual styling incorporating lots of original features from it's previous life. The tiles are still the same as they were when people volunteered to feed the less fortunate, there's old photos from the building's past with snippets of information (such as the one where Rod Stewart and The Faces dished up warm food to street kids), alongside more up to date touches like the toilets which are so smart I thought they deserved a nod. Good lighting, comfortable seating and a cosy layout over two rooms.
The bar itself has a good selection of drinks with a non-mainstream variation of beers etc., and I'm pretty sure there's something to suit every palate. Good spirit selection that avoids the cheap brands that are all too common in most pubs. You can't accuse these folks of being boring with their menu.
I also have to bring up the service which is great, every single time I go in. Yesterday I'd been craving an Old Fashioned all day, and after being told they're still working on the cocktail menu, I was a little disheartened, and the girl serving me said "..and besides, we don't have a shaker yet". I replied that my choice wouldn't involve any shaking, and she immediately suggested an Old Fashioned. Either she read my mind or she could tell I wasn't the Vodka Martini type. With that she got her colleague over and asked if he could mix one, and five minutes later I was sat in an armchair with the best one of these I've had in Manchester.
Prices are reasonable for a City Center bar, all the pints I've tried are less than �4, the Old Fashioned I was charged �6 for, and I'd happily pay that again.
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Going underground, however unlike Paul Weller all those years ago, not in a good way. A cellar/urinal who knows, but awfully dank and dismal. Furniture basic and the arty prints on the walls de rigeur for such a venue.
A half pint of the house bitter cost me �1.70. I say no more!
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Interesting little place this. Where do I start? Having only frequented this place twice I can't really distinguish if it is a goodun or more of a work in progress? Apparently there are plans to have live accoustic music on at weekends (that would be awesome!)
Cellar bar that has two separate rooms. Two or three real ale handpumps along with trappiste belgian in bottle form. A lot more cleaner than the other cellar bar in Manchester that used to be the toilets and definately more habitable.
I will have to try this place again to make a more decisive analysis.
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