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Beer of the Week (w/e 27th April 2025) with Thuck Phat on the Pub Forum

The Rat & Pigeon, Manchester

33 Back Piccadilly
Manchester
M1 1HP

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Reviews (Current Rating Average: of 10) Add Review see review guidelines


Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Rat & Pigeon

Corner pub hidden away in the backstreets of the Northern Quarter. There are apparently multiple floors. However, we didn't get any further than the small ground floor room on our Saturday afternoon visit.

The bar was fairly busy, but we managed to squeeze into a table in the corner. A singer was preparing to perform at the far end when we arrived and he was in full voice by the time we left. Whilst he was quite good, it was all a bit too loud to be enjoyable, especially when all we wanted to do was engage in conversation.

On the bar, Vocation Bread & Butter is the regular ale. Guests for our visit were Farm Yard Hay Bob & Green Arches After Dark. Craft beers were Play Brew Co. Funk-a-Dunk, Liquid Light Mother North, Brew York Juice Forsyth & Shindigger Session & Mango Unchained. Ciders were Lilley's Pineapple & Pulpt Flare.

The Rat & Pigeon looks to be an improvement on its previous guise and is well worth adding to any itinerary around the Northern Quarter. Although it is possibly preferable at quieter times. Dogs are allowed.

On 5th December 2024 - rating: 6
[User has posted 3040 recommendations about 3038 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Ian Mapp left this review about Mother Macs

Quite simply, marvelously bonkers. I have no idea what their target demographic is, but it seems that all are welcome. Also not the sort of place you will stumble on by accident. Bravery required for the back streets of the NQ.

Friday at about 7pm, the only people in seemed to be friends of the young landlady. They had the music going and a bit of a party going but made me feel welcome, if not slightly out of place.

We then had a number of people coming in that I think may have been residents. The eyes of most of them seemed to be screaming "what they hell have we let ourselves in for".

Then groups of lads on a pub crawl. All quiet, one phones. With just the original girls partying.

I didnt notice any cask on - nor would I have risked it - but they did have Blue Moon on keg. Served in a Boddingtons glass.

On 30th May 2022 - rating: 6
[User has posted 1563 recommendations about 1543 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Rob Hunter left this review about Mother Macs

Decided to call in here yesterday afternoon. It was pretty quiet to begin with, just a few regulars in, but then a large group entered which filled the place up.

Two hand pulls at the bar offering TT Landlord and Doom Bar. The Landlord was fine and £3.80 a pint.

Nice to have called back in as this was the first time I'd been in since 2013 and it has had a bit of a spruce up since including the toilets.

It's one of those Manchester pubs you have to go to, even if it is only the once.

On 17th March 2019 - rating: 6
[User has posted 830 recommendations about 657 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


ROB Camra left this review about Mother Macs

Has had a bit of a refurbishment recently, but it hasn't really changed the pub. Now has 3 handpumps, 2 of which were in use, pulling TT Landlord & Robinsons Dizzy. The Landlord was in good nick.

18/01/2011
Hidden down a back street just off Piccadilly Gardens this is a pub that isn't easy to find unless you know where to look. It's a tiny one roomed pub that is a proper workingmans local. On Friday evening about half the people in here were wearing flourescent jackets. It's a boisterous and friendly little place but definitely a bit cliquey (although the regulars would probably deny it). Only one handpump which was serving Hydes Original. The pint I had was OK but not top class, almost everyone else was drinking lager. I'll probably give it another try.

On 22nd May 2017 - rating: 6
[User has posted 3286 recommendations about 3196 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Peter Rydings left this review about Mother Macs

Call in every now and then went in it was full of Germans playing city that night all good lads they must have been wondering about the out side of the place all the streets by it were covered in rubbish. Theres not a lot you could do to this place

On 7th December 2012 - rating: 4
[User has posted 948 recommendations about 917 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


aleand hearty left this review about Mother Macs

Previously known as The Wellington (the change in name honouring a long serving landlady) this small back street one roomer is about as unreconstructed a pub as you could hope to find. On entering, it’s like going back decades in time. However, despite the newly upholstered benches, it all feels a bit too run down and battered for my taste. Even if freshly painted and re-varnished, the interior would still only qualify as plain and uninspiring. However, I’m sure for some its very ordinariness is part of the appeal.

Decent beer quality and/or choice in a pub make me forgive an awful lot, but the Hydes Original, dispensed from a solitary hand pump was at best adequate. With that in mind, it’s hardly surprising that overall I pegged Mother Mac’s as a one pint, one-time visit: Glad to have tried it, but with no real desire to return.

On 23rd January 2011 - rating: 5
[User has posted 644 recommendations about 624 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Old Boots left this review about Mother Macs

Fortunately I had a native guide to help me find this pub, it would be easily missed being down a side street and not clearly visible from either end. A homely styled single L shaped room with the counter down one side and freshly upholstered benches with cast iron tables round the two outside walls. There are lots of old photos of various sizes and newspaper cuttings of a tragic fire that happened here a few years ago. By the door is a board detailing how the pub acquired its present name. Only a single handpump dispensing OK Hydes bitter otherwise the usual kegs etc.

On 20th January 2011 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 3599 recommendations about 3279 pubs]