The City Arms, Manchester

Good Beer Guide, side-street pub that I have somehow happened to miss previously... Anyway, nothing fancy has been done to the compact, slightly split-level, two-room layout so this retains plenty of straightforward character. The real ale offer is very good too, ranging from some light real ales - through things like the RedWillow Feckless (£4.30) - to Titanic Plum Porter and Thornbridge Jaipur.

First visit since the world went mad. I figured there was little point in trying to visit somewhere so small when restrictions were in place as it would just be too full unless you got there for opening! The City Arms offered the biggest feeling of normality of the evening - no one way system, no masks, no table service - just go to the bar, order your drink and go plonk yourself down somewhere. Six of the eight hand pulls were available. I shall look forward to paying a return visit.

Nicely tucked away down an unassuming back street, just a short hop from Albert Square, this is a quality two room traditional pub of the sort that Manchester seems to do very well. You enter into a small front bar with the servery along the left hand wall. The whole room has been done out in dark wood, including the bar counter, flooring and wood panelled walls, but it thankfully manages to feel quite cosy and warm rather than dark and gloomy. The servery has a nice mirrored bar back lined with numerous pump clips and the rest of the room offers some limited seating around the perimeter plus a good deal of standing room in the centre, which is probably very much needed at peak hours. Two steps at the end of the bar, take you down into the lower rear room, set up as a well appointed lounge. Fixed bench seating runs around three sides of the room, with a fine looking fireplace dominating the fourth. There is some dark wood in evidence here too, but the uppers of the walls have been painted in a brighter shade, making the room feel lighter and more spacious than the front bar. There are some nice stained glass windows along the back wall with a lot of books stacked along their sills, whilst a TV screen at one end of the room was showing Home Alone on mute with some music piped through in the background. Some nice old photos of the city line the walls and the corridor leading to the toilets boasts some great glazed tiling that wouldn’t have looked amiss through the rest of the pub. The pub has a reputation for offering a good selection of well kept ales and this was very much in evidence when I was confronted by handpulls dispensing Green Mill Cat’s Whiskers, Titanic Plum Porter, Empire Moonrakers Mild, Framework Jackpin, Navigation Rebel, Nightjar Lost in IKEA and Bank Top Flat Cap. The bar staff were friendly and efficient and served me a really good pint of the Moonrakers Mild. This is a cracking pub that does keeps things pretty basic, but does all those basic things extremely well. I really enjoyed sitting down in the lounge with a great pint of beer in hand and could easily have spend much longer working my way through their full range. Well worth including on any city centre crawl and an absolute must for fans of unpretentious, traditional boozers.

This relatively small two room pub was packed on our visit as Aqualung mentions, and yet again Bucking Farstard makes it easy for me by being studious in noting the beer line up, despite the crowds I enjoyed the short stay here, opting for Bristol Beer Co Unplanned nights, a nice drop. A top little pub.

As noted below this is a small example of a classic Northern pub with a corridor and two rooms. Sadly, visiting it on a Friday afternoon is not the best idea as it was packed. By the time I left there were also hordes of people drinking outside on both sides of the street. I couldn't get to see what was on the eight hand pumps but spotted and went for the Titanic Plum Porter (£4.00) which was in good nick but expensive. It seems this place is a victim of its own success and my score is based on what it's like on a late Friday afternoon. I'd quite like to see it at a quieter time when I've no doubt the score would increase. It's GBG 2019 listed and I was surprised to see on What Pub that it's owned by Greene King.