Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester

Lass O’Gowrie is an inviting Greene King pub with a terrace out the back that overhangs the passing River Medlock. Through the entrance there’s a small traditional carpeted room opposite with banquettes, tables and an old Fireplace that is bookended by framed pictures of Noel and Liam. To be honest I would have stayed in here, but alas I had to have a mooch around to write this review. A tile floored bar area is found to the left of the entrance where an angled serving counter supports premium and craft keg alongside six hand pumps that were drawing Laine Brewing’s King Mango, Brightside’s Hoppy Blonde, Black Edge Brewery’s Pike, GK IPA, Hardy & Hanson’s Kimberley Bitter and Black Edge’s Black Port English Porter. I gestured towards the hand pumps and politely asked for a pint of the porter, and the bar man started to tug on the wrong handle. I quickly stopped him and asked “is that the porter?”, to which he replied, “well that’s the one you pointed at”, before becoming very shirty. There was also a steak knife sat on the counter, just left there in plain sight, and it was still there when I left 20 minutes later, no no no!!! To the right of the entrance bench seating runs under the front windows while facing some beer shelves attached to a couple of exposed brick supporting columns. Further to the right is a raised seating area and the door to the aforementioned terrace. There’s an advertised VIP room upstairs with pool, beer pong and karaoke… sounds horrendous. Muted Sky Sports News was airing on a couple of televisions and the background music was upbeat, which I appreciated as the only customer on a recent Monday late afternoon. I thought the actual pub was comfortable and I loved the traditional seating area, but bejesus, someone from GK needs to get in there to teach these young kids how to run a pub properly, and safely FFS!

It’s still a nice old pub but you can definitely feel the Greene King corporate stamp on it now. The menu is HQ mass produced and the service feels a bit impersonal. On the plus side, a good range of real ales besides the GK stuff and I did enjoy my half of Ossett Voodoo - but I should hope so at £2.80 a half!

Called into this 2022 Good Beer Guide pub on 12.8.22 and as it was quiet we had a chat with the barman while enjoying our beers. They don't put a lot of cask on at the moment and it seems the same in a lot of pubs that keeping cask cool in the current hot weather causes a lot of problems. We had both of the Wily Fox beers available. The Fox Hat and Karma Citra.

Beautiful brown Majolica tiled exterior. Perhaps surprisingly a Greene King pub (how far their tentacles stretch these days…). A fair bit of (modernised) character inside, a long thin main area with a nice room off to the side, this is carpeted with a marble fireplace and purple velveteen banquette; the oppressive dark green walls let it down though, very claustrophobic. A quiz was in full flow with an impressive amount of ignorance on display – I’d have fancied myself for a podium finish. Four cask on the go from a forest of pumps (testament I suppose, to either the Death Of Cask or a long-overdue reduction in order to keep it shifting) consisting of 2x GK and two guests; my Mobberley Bunji was fine if not exactly stellar for a GBG ‘22 listed pub (NBSS 3) but that’s Manchester CAMRA for you. There may also have been a cider but my notes don’t match my memory. Worth a widdle for the vintage ceramic urinals. Crawl fodder, this one. 6.5

Visited on Friday afternoon. 8 hand pulls at the bar, of which 4 were on. One of these was a cider (Rosie's Pig) with the ales consisting of Sundowner (Wily Fox), Moral Panic (Twisted Wheel) and Gangly Ghoul (Greene King). Initially I thought there were no Greene King beers on at all, which puzzled me, but I later discovered the Gangly Ghoul is a GK seasonal bitter - although I think GK sometimes do their best to hide the brewery name on some of their seasonal beers in order to catch people out! The Moral panic set me back £2 for a half and was very pleasant. I'd have been very tempted to stay for the Sundowner too, but I had a train to catch! Noisy and lively on Friday afternoon, but with enough space that I found a seat without issue. Oh and if Mr Mapp happens to read this - I believe the Lass O'Gowrie is back in the 2022 GBG.