The City, Manchester

This is another very basic city centre pub. There are entrances at either ends of this pub, in both Oldham St and Tib St. Entering from Oldham St you are in a small carpeted area with normal tables and chairs, which was occupied by local regulars during my midweek afternoon visit. There is more seating on the left, with the bar counter on the right, and with a pool table just inside the Tib St entrance. The real ales on during my midweek early afternoon visit were Milestown Black Pearl, Holt’s Bitter, and Acorn City Pride. I had the City Pride, which I have to say wasn’t top notch, but drinkable nonetheless. Apparently in the past this pub didn’t offer real ale as an alternative to the keg stuff, and the management are to be applauded for improving the beer choice in here.

A long, thin place with white walls and bright lighting giving it a working men's club sort of atmosphere. There is a wider front space with chairs, benches and round tables, the counter takes up one side in the middle with more chairs and tables ranged down the other side. At the back there are some sofas and a pool table, with a machine and juke box providing some entertainment. Three handpumps unexpectedly serving beers from obscure breweries like Hardknott and one so obscure I can't remember its name, (it may have been Outstanding of Bury) as well as one from Acorn, and in reasonable condition at a competitive price too. It was fairly busy on an early Friday evening with mainly older customers drinking lager and smooth, there were also a few youngsters looking like bit part players from Shameless.

A narrow frontage, but quite a large pub as it goes back a fair way. There's a pool table at the bottom end, but it's a fairly basic pub really. I called in on Friday for one to check out the rumours that they now had cask ale. There are 3 handpumps but only one had a beer on, Acorn Old Moor Porter. I was on a long crawl so I decided just to have a half, sadly it was vinegar. The landlady tried pulling some more through but to no avail. Never mind she said "I'm just putting Abbeydale Deception on one of the other pumps would that be OK instead". It certainly would and a very nice drink it was too. As I was finishing off my half the landlady wandered over to the handpumps, pulled another half of the Abbeydale, put it on the bar in front of me and said "There you are, have that for your trouble". Now that's what I call customer service. To be honest they're going to struggle to make the cask ale take off in here as most of the people in the pub were drinking Boddies smooth, which is available at £1.65 during happy hour until 6 p.m. It's only £1.95 after that, so I think that whilst the cask ale is still good value for Manchester at £2.20 they're not going to convert the diehards. Normally I would give this place 4 or 5 stars but I'm giving it a 6, mainly for the efforts of the landlady. Best of luck to you. I may well call in again soon to see how it's going.