The Lost Dene, Manchester

A decent pub for an afternoon visit, though noisy of a weekend evening, as expected. It had 4 handpumps on of which two were dark ales, thankfully.

Now renamed The Lost Dene, it should really have been called The Lost Souls judging by our Thursday evening visit. It looks like a JDW and all the point of sale advertising does as well, but it isn't one as you'll realise when you head to the bar. 4 handpumps with 3 on, the one not on was reserved for real cider. They were having a beer festival (sort of), but the beer selection was still pretty mundane. My pint was OK though. Most of the tables hadn't been cleaned and many still had glasses or plates on them. This was despite the fact that there were only about 12 people in the place. We sat down at one of the "clean" tables. Five minutes later we discover that the other halfs trousers had stuck to the table as some scrote had recently stuck a piece of chewing gum under it. What a tosser. It's a crap pub, doing a crap job, but it's still probably a little better than it was. Scary.

On entering you could be forgiven for thinking you are in a JDW pub with plenty of fixtures and fittings that are of a similar nature,however those thoughts are rapidly erased from your mind when you approach the bar and are greeted by a team of friendly and efficient barstaff.There were 4 cask beers on a quite a few TV screens showing various sports,plus a large number of framed sports photos adorning the walls.It was quite busy on my Friday lunchtime visit with made up mainly of diners who were taking advantage of the cheap meal deals.

Used to be one of the best Hogsheads in the chain before the change of direction. It's now a pretty rough pub that often doesn't even have any of the real stuff on, even though there are handpumps. If you're walking along Deansgate, keep walking.