Sawyers Arms, Manchester

I came here post PuG crawl on a Saturday morning,a large Nicholsons corner pub with a distinctively ornate exterior, inside I found it to be relatively bland, a single opened out split level room with plenty of sensible style seating. Eight Handpumps with five beers on, two from Ilkley, including my choice of Smoked Witch, Moorhouse White Witch, Doom Bar and Nicholsons Pale. A functional but not very exciting pub.

Another chain pub on a busy street, but a few nice touches like etched glass and some plaster work give something of a pub feel to it. Upstairs bar also. A fair selection of ales on offer and seemed in drinkable condition.

Official site of Sawyers Arms - www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk

Official site of Sawyers Arms - www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk

Visited on a Friday lunch time and at the bar were 8 hand pumps, two of which were clipped as Mary Jane by Ilkley but after attempting to order this it seemed both pumps were off. I went for White Witch by Moorehouse's as my second choice. Also on the pumps - Doom Bar, Dizzy Blonde, Purity Ubu (labelled as coming soon), Nicholson's Pale Ale and one pump was blank. If the White Witch had been off too, I think I would have just left it. Service was not that friendly. Appeared to be only one lady on front of house so she was probably quite busy between taking meals to tables and working the bar, but it doesn't take more than a couple of seconds to say thank you or something to a customer as you hand over their change. The pub was not rammed but most of the tables were taken. There were a couple of gents stood (separately) at the bar. There is a further area upstairs which is signed as "additional dining seating" which was empty at the time of my visit. You would think that more of the pumps would have been in use when revving up to the weekend, so was a little disappointing, although the White Witch was fine.