The City, Manchester

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.

Reminded me a bit of the Smithfield in layout and atmosphere, if not in beer selection. I think real ale is a recent addition and there were three ales on, one of which was a 6% Imperial Stout. I had the Atlas City Pride which was far from good but not so much that you'd send it back, well not in this place anyway. Most of the punters were drinking keg Boddies, lager or Guinness. I wouldn't want to judge the pub on one visit and one pint but it does look to have some way to go yet to become one of Manchester's real ale crawl pubs.

First visit to this pub as I had heard there were a couple of Acorn beers there, and I was not disappointed by the beers at all. Both beers tried were excellent. The pub I believe is pretty new to real ales and the bar itself looks pretty new. The decor is dated in the long room with comfy seating leading back from the bar area to a pool table and what appears to be a space for entertainment. Was a locals pub rather than touristy and was friendly. The 3 handpumps will probably be devoted to Acorn ales, but I will look in again when next in Manchester.