The Oxnoble, Manchester

Used to be one of the North's finest Gastropubs. I went there at the turn of the century - so a touch surprised to see how its "regressed". Its still a food led pub, rather than a drinkers pub - but now it has a chain, family dining feel. All meal deals and burgers. Admittedly, I did pick a day when UTD where at home, but the place was filthy inside and the staff quite overworked and harrassed. TT Landlord in very average condition. Quieter front patio to escape the crowds. Much better in the area. Not least, the chipper down the road.

The Oxnoble is a large L shaped pub with TV’s throughout that were showing muted darts whilst some background music played during a Weekday evening in November last year. The bar support a standard and premium keg range and I counted five hand pumps. These were drawing Sharps Doom Bar, Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, Wychwood’s Hobgoblin, JW Lees MPA and Nightjar’s Good Hop Bad Hop. Cheap pub Grub is available, I had a burger that was probably worth the money.

The Oxnoble went very foody a few years ago, but since seems to have turned back into being a pub that serves food with no specific areas set aside for dining only that I noticed on Saturday afternoon. Beer wise there are five or six hand pulls for cask ale, offering a fairly unimaginative selection - Doom Bar, Robinsons Trooper, Robinsons Dizzy Blonde, and Exmoor Wild Cat. One or two pumps were unclipped, with one of the others (I think Dizzy Blonde) going off later. I went for the Wild Cat and it was pretty unpleasant; I am assuming it was not meant to taste as it did so I'm guessing it had either gone off or not been pulled through properly. But even if this had been in tip top condition it's hard to ignore the fact that all the beers were unadventurous traditional bitters that are not going to get anyone very excited. I was meeting people for food and as a party of four two meals arrived first of all, one of which was incorrect and destined for another table. There was then a significant wait before the other three meals turned up (abut 45 minutes from the time of ordering). In fact it was just as one of us got up to head to the bar to check we hadn't been forgotten that the service bell rang in the kitchen and our food came out. No complaints with the food when it did arrive and the pricing wasn't excessive. BT Sports was showing a football match on several screens around the pub. This could be a really good hidden gem, the décor is fine and there is at least one nice old fireplace, but the beer really let it down for me (in terms of quality and choice) and it's not one I would feel any need to rush back to.