North Westwood Ho, Manchester

Formerly part of the Chaophraya restaurant although the entrance has been moved from Chapel Walks on to Pall Mall. I've been in here on several occasions since it opened but have only just got around to reviewing it. Five handpumps, all in operation on my latest visit, with 4 from Pomona Island, who run the bar and a guest that I failed to note. I've always like Pomona Island beers and this one was just as good as I remember. It's a nice space and well decorated. One downside is that they serve the wines by the glass from taps on the bar which means that they are inevitably crap (see Wetherspoons) and Ms CANRA hated hers. That apart it's a good bar.

Inconspicuous place and very easy to miss… in fact I did miss it first time around. Once inside it is nicely done out in a traditional style, lots of comfortable banquette seating and dark wood. Very relaxing if a little boring on a midweek afternoon with a scattering of elderly customers and 70s soft rock at a sensible volume. Decent array of Blackjack cask beers on, I wouldn’t bother with their Irish red ale again though.

With the appalling state of Northern Rail thwarting our attempts to try a few new Manchester pubs, we settled on just the one, which didn't disappoint. Run by the local Pomona Island Brewery, it's a large pub located in a former restaurant. The interior feels quite spacious, with a long bar in front of you as you arrive and a slightly more secluded area for drinking at the far right end. 5 handpulls dispensed 4 Pomona Island beers - Cruffatin, Tarquell, Horngus & Eclipse, along with a guest beer (North Shadow Play). There is a much larger selection of craft beers alongside two banks of fonts either side of the handpulls. Clipboards on tables and on the bar have beer lists, but I'm not sure how up-to-date these were. From just looking at the pumps, there appeared to be Burning Sky Provision 2023, Pomona Island Bubblegum Rock on Plastic Transitions, I Can't Get Behind That, Put On An Iron Shirt, Does It All Stop At The Tree, Solitaire Til Dawn, Phaedra, Factotum, Bernadette Nere, The Best In Me, Kissing Sexing Casio Poke You Me, Liege, Lief Barrel Aged Barley Wine & My Pink Half of the Drainpipe, Baron Blank Canvas, Laurent Cazotte's Narcotte Bland & Soon Jester King. The cider was Pomona Island Table Cider. I echo the previous reviewer. As a new pub, it felt a bit like the first of the Craft Beer Co. chain when that opened in the Hatton Garden area of London, in that it attempts to be a traditional pub but perhaps still feels a little sterile to succeed in that regard. Nevertheless, as I did with the Craft when it first opened, I took a liking to this pub. The beers we tried, both cask and keg were good and there was plenty of space in which to drink in on our Saturday evening visit, despite a bouncer at the door suggesting that it could often get much busier. It sounds like our visit one week later than Ian Mapp was a much more sedate experience.