Barking Dog, Manchester

The Barking Dog is an open plan rectangular bar with seating on bare boards and a centrally placed bar counter on the rear wall that is edged by tiles. Premium and craft keg was available and the five hand pumps were drawing Brightside’s Maverick and Dunham Massey Brewing’s Dunham Dark Mild and Castle Hill alongside a Lilley’s cider. The mild was good, but a bit pricey at £2.35 for a half. To the right rear is a beer shelf on the wall on the way to the toilets, lets call it the overspill area. There was some background music playing, but there was little atmosphere because I was the only customer during a recent late midweek afternoon visit. The doors are closed Mondays and there is late opening at 15:00 Tuesday to Thursday. The service was polite and I quite liked the décor, so I’ll try again when next in the area at a busier time.

A fairly new addition to the Urmston pub scene, the Barking Dog is in the old Post Office building. Some interesting features remain such as security doors. Five hand pumps at the bar dispensing four real ales plus one cider. Their house beer, Barking Dog Gold, is a regular fixture plus a rotating selection from such breweries as Blackjack, Tiny Rebel, Brightside, Redwillow and Outstanding. When I have visited there have usually been bitters, pale ales and an occasional IPA. It would be nice to see a porter or stout thrown in the mix too. The real ale is on the higher end of the scale for the area in terms of price; my first visit I seem to recall was £3.65 or £3.75 a pint and unless I am mistaken my most recent visit set me back over £4 for a pint. CAMRA discount gets you 35p off a pint though, which I think is a fairly generous discount. The food in here is pretty nice, there is a selection of pies on offer plus sharing platters and sandwiches etc. They apparently do a Sunday dinner pie topped with a Yorkshire pudding, but I have not been on a Sunday to test that out. From what I have heard, it gets busy. Definitely worth a look if you are in Urmston.

Official site of Barking Dog - www.the-barking-dog.co.uk

Official site of Barking Dog - www.the-barking-dog.co.uk