Piccadilly Tap, Manchester

Official site of Piccadilly Tap - piccadillytap.com

Official site of Piccadilly Tap - piccadillytap.com

Visited on Saturday evening while waiting for a train at Piccadilly. The Smokeless by Redwillow took our fancy, at £3.80 a pint on cask - yet they somehow feel justified in charging £5.00 for two halves. To be honest this is just a piss take and takes a couple of points off what I had previously found to be a good place with a decent beer selection. My friend was ordering the drinks and he did query the price, pointing out the £3.80 a pint listed on the chalk board, but was assured that £5.00 was correct for two halves. Apparently another couple of punters at the bar looked on in disbelief. I have no issue with places rounding up the price of a half to the nearest 10p for convenience but I am not sure how adding 60p on can be justified at all. This would definitely deter me from going back if I knew I would only be in for a half.

I do like this place, with its ever changing cask and keg options, the great big chalk board listing everything in clear detail, and despite my initial uncertainty even the strange understated interior with retro mock wood panelled walls has grown on me. It feels part industrial and part 1980s café. Plenty of tables and chairs, though I think most, if not all, of those were high tables and stools (or high chairs). I normally have a preference for cask but on my most recent visit the Session IPA by Shindigger on key took my fancy, and very pleasant it was too. Busy, as you would expect on a Saturday evening, but I managed to find a perch by the shelf against the wall. Very handy for Piccadilly station but also worth going out of your way to seek out.

Usual decent selection of ales and I managed to get a seat for once. Could do with the toilets being downstairs as it's a Spoons like walk to them.

A functional and fairly bleak feeling place, the large ground floor room has a long truncated triangular bar to the rear with a model fish affixed for reasons unknown. Bar area walls are lined with unbonded stone, a bit like a dry-stone wall, the white ceiling is not properly finished and could do with skimming. High tables and basic stools down one side, more conventional seating along the other, another room upstairs has a table football game and more seating. The minimalist and inadequate toilet provision is up here consisting of three possibly four, single cubicles marked as F or M. There is enough room for a decent (and legal) level of provision. The beers, both cask and keg options are listed on boards near the bar including info about style, abv and price. Saturday's options on the cask side were First Chop Rye Pale, Redemption Trinity, Revolutions Cocker, Cloudwater Bitter, Abbeydale Absolution and Track Toba stout. Whoever writes up the board has issues with spelling. I didn't think the prices of the cask ales were that bad although I am used to London, I paid less, similar and more during my Manchester trip. As for the pub, the beer range is interesting but the interior is basically drab and feels unfinished. So much more could have been made of it. They are going to rake it in though here on Piccadilly approach so maybe not a need to try too hard?