The Lemon Fool

Any recommendations for real ale pubs in Manchester city centre or Chinatown area?

Scott.

I hear good things about this lot;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Br ... r,_England)

swill453 wrote:Any recommendations for real ale pubs in Manchester city centre or Chinatown area?

Scott.

Some chums of mine who work in Manchester rate this place - http://www.portstreetbeerhouse.co.uk/

Sadly, I've no personal experience of it, but I would trust their judgment.

Clitheroekid wrote:Some chums of mine who work in Manchester rate this place - http://www.portstreetbeerhouse.co.uk/

Sadly, I've no personal experience of it, but I would trust their judgment.

Well it's the nearest Good Beer Guide pub to our hotel, so it definitely gets on the list.

Scott.

The Port Street Beer House is excellent and gets very, very busy.

The Knott on Deansgate is worth a look, as is Cask, top end of Liverpool Road, just off Deansgate.

Best of all and a 15 minute walk from Port Street is The Marble Arch, 73 Rochdale Road. Stunning Victorian interior, a floor that slopes down about 3 feet down to the bar and most of the Marble beers on tap. ( The food is good as well ) Don't miss it!

Take a look here;

http://pubsandbeer.co.uk/index.php?ID=H&H=B


Wassail !

FWIW (I assume this threat is no longer relevant) it depends a bit how casky you want to be.

The Marble Arch is an obvious pilgrimage spot, it's a classic Victorian pub although there's been a bit of debate of late whether Marble as a brewery has gone off the boil a bit of late.

Port St is another obvious one, but is perhaps more the place where the world comes to Manchester rather than Manchester shows itself to the world.

More local would be the Brink (a block away from House of Fraser off Deansgate) which I guess is the closest thing to a micropub in the city centre, and the Blackjack tap, the Smithfield about a dozen blocks north of Piccadilly station. Blackjack make pretty decent beer and have a big wholesale arm so they generally have some interesting stuff in if their own beers don't work for you.

And try to drink some Cloudwater, especially if you can catch the last of their cask production....

Thanks for the tips. I didn't spend the whole trip in the pub as the other half might have complained, but did sample a few.

What was very refreshing was the number of reasonably priced pubs in the city centre. In my native Edinburgh it's really only at Wetherspoons establishments you can get two pints for less than six quid, but in Manchester there were plenty to choose from.

Highlights were an afternoon at Marble Arch, drinking their Lagonda IPA and having a burger, and also a couple of visits to the City Arms, where I managed to sample the famous Titanic Plum Porter - very good, not being a normal porter drinker.

Also visited the Port Street Beer House, Wetherspoons Picadilly, the Millstone, Cane and Grain, the Waterhouse, the Castle Hotel and the Old Monkey.

Scott.

swill453 wrote:Thanks for the tips. I didn't spend the whole trip in the pub as the other half might have complained, but did sample a few.

Highlights were an afternoon at Marble Arch,

Also visited the Port Street Beer House, Wetherspoons Picadilly, the Millstone, Cane and Grain, the Waterhouse, the Castle Hotel and the Old Monkey.

Scott.

Impressed and slightly intrigued as to how many you would have visited if you had spent the whole trip in pubs!

John

redsturgeon wrote:Impressed and slightly intrigued as to how many you would have visited if you had spent the whole trip in pubs!

I see what you mean, but the list does include three lunches and an evening meal.

Scott.