The Didsbury, Manchester

The Didsbury is an 18th century coaching house and is one of two pubs on Didsbury’s old village green. Out the front is a patio and a large grass covered beer garden full of picnic tables. The interior is L-shaped with seating along the front windows and up the right hand side. This is very much a dry led pub so all the other customers were eating during a recent early Tuesday evening visit. There was some background music playing, but there are no televisions. I found the decor to be a nondescript, a corporate attempt at a village pub. The bar supports four handpumps that were drawing two Lilley’s ciders alongside Greene King IPA and TT Landlord, £2.45 for a half served in a thin coke glass with an inch of head. Standard and premium keg is also available. The menu consists mainly of elevated pub classics, the bacon cheeseburger is priced at £14. I’m sure the food is good, but I’ll not be returning here just for a beer again.

Chef and brewer with impressive beer garden at the front. TT Landlord in good condition.

June 2013. Party of 3 arrived at noon. We were able to select a table inside and were a little confused at first as we arrived at the same time as the local college started dinnertime. As it was a nice day the students filled the outside tables and formed an orderly queue at the food ordering station. I joined this for about five minutes before discovering that there was waitress service available. Also the car park is no longer owned by the pub and so it is a pay and display with two tariffs £2 for three hours and £5 all day. You get the first tariff back off your order so if three hours is enough for you there is no cost for this. The food was very well cooked and as it is a Chef & Brewer the portions were good and the meal choice varied. All major food groups were catered for and the lunchtime prices were very reasonable. Drinks were average priced but we only had soft drinks. Currently have an offer on where you can have desert from a list of 4 for £2 additional to your meal. We were so stuffed from the dinner that we did not partake. Lot's of seating here and I would imagine it to be quite atmospheric of an evening although I have no first hand experience.

The Didsbury is a fairly large stand alone pub that is painted white,the pub is situated in a nice leafy area at the southern end of didsbury. Once inside there were a few different rooms and i had a drink in a smartish room that was probably the lounge,this room was carpeted and had decent comfortable seating. When i went in this pub it was a Wilsons tied house and there were two real ales on the bar i had a drink of Wilsons bitter and this was a nice drink the other beer was Wilsons mild. The pub had more upmarket customer but i was happy enough having a drink in here. Pub visited 4/4/1993