The Chorlton Tap, Manchester

A couple of shops knocked together on a main road, directly opposite the tram stop. Brewery tap for the Wander Beyond Brewery. I had their cask bitter (saunter) which was far too cold for cask. Lots of exotic keg lines on. No other punters inside on a Saturday afternoon. A couple outside. Food ordering is via an app but after 30mins of no response, I went to check. The internet was down in the Kitchen. Somehow, a place where the staff outnumber customers manage to cock up their only order. And the app adds a service charge at point of ordering. Possibly by design. Received an apology and a refund but it left me with a poor experience.

The Chorlton Tap is a café style bar with a serving counter on the right wall that faces a coal fireplace. In the front right window is a long wooden table and in the raised area down the left there is a mix of seating from stool to booths. Out the front, adjacent to the busy passing road, is a decked area with covered seating and out the back down a flight of stairs is an enclosed beer garden full of picnic tables. The bar support five handpumps which were drawing Pictish Brewing’s Wakatu and three options from Wander Beyond Brewing, Shadow Puppets, Peak and Black Arches. The fifth pump was unused. There are also craft and premium keg options as well as a few ciders. A fridge to the right of the bar houses craft keg cans. I found the service to be polite, but I struggled to get comfortable so don’t plan on returning.

Visited Saturday evening. This was towards the end of a crawl so memories are a bit vague but there were six hand pulls for cask ale, as well as some keg options. I had the Winter Red by Hawkshead which was pretty good. Wi-Fi is available.

This place is slightly better inside than it looks from the street. The inside is a bit mix'n'match decor wise though the redeeming feature is the 8 handpumps with 8 different beers. This however is slightly ruined by the rather high prices. Like a lot of places in Chorlton its more bar than pub.

Nice larger cafe bar with large array of real ales, though the quality maybe not quite top notch on my visit. Plenty of pillars break up the space slightly. A drinking den of a cafe.