Rain Bar, Manchester

after an afternoon session in the Britons Protection I strolled down to tick this one off. Needless to say it paled in comparison, a pretty standard corporate pub/restaurant with little to recommend it beyond the rather nice canalside location - plenty of tables and chairs at the back. Lees Bitter, Session and MPA on cask at city centre prices. Clientele a few after work drinkers, students and a dining family.

JW Lees modern pub - which I always thought looked like a "fun pub" from the outside and was never tempted to try, over the Pev on the opposite side of the road. Its actually a decent boozer - with lots of wood, booths and an upstairs bar - where there was a function running on our Saturday afternoon visit. The real selling point, in the summer, would be the excellent beer garden overlooking the Rochdale Canal. JW Lees Bitter in fine condition, as you would expect. Cask Marque accredited.

I visited Rain Bar on Tuesday evening last week when the pub was reasonably quiet. There are three steps up to the entrance and to the left is a small seating room with fireplace, that was not on. To the right of the entrance is the main seating area with a U-shaped bar projecting from the right hand wall. Along the front windows are high tables and along the rear are standard tables. In the front left corner is a sunken snug and some stairs leading up were roped off. The toilets are located downstairs. The bar supports four handpumps, one was unused and the other three were drawing JW Lees ales. There are also standard and premium keg selections. I decided to eat so ordered a large fish and chips with my pint, which came to just over £17. The food was very disappointing and definitely not worth the money. Out the back is a canal side beer garden that I imagine is very popular during the summer months. I found the service to be friendly and the atmosphere was OK for a city centre pub on a week night, so I would return for another beer, but I’ll certainly not be eating here again.

Currently closed until further notice according to a sign in the window. However the web site offers a glimmer of hope, advising they plan to reopen on 2nd September. This is a fairly large pub with a big outside area to the rear, so I imagine this will be one of the more viable pubs to open with social distancing guidelines in place.

This is a interesting old building, apparently John Willie Lees' flagship pub, the name Rain Bar does not reflect the regular Manchester weather but due to the pub once being an umbrella factory. A central bar with the boarded room wrapping around either side, some high tables towards the frontage and better booth type options to the rear. Down a few steps at the back is a partly separated area and the front corner has a snug which has a fire going and a picture above of some young bloke who looked rather unsettling to me. Possibly the best seats are outside, a tiered area overlooks the Rochdale canal, I visited on an unseasonal sunny Manchester early lunchtime, it was a splendid spot to sit. Lots of exposed brickwork, old beamed and unboarded ceiling. JW Lees beers, Bitter, MPA, The Governer and Drayman's Reward. Food served, I was in early doors on Friday, lots of groups were ordering food already around 12. A nice well appointed spot, bet it is heaving at night.