Jam Street Cafe

Upper Chorlton Rd, Whally Range.

Jam Street is a cafe throughout the day and a bar in the evenings - although alcohol is available before noon. Located on the same block as the Hillary Step in Whalley Range, this is also not far from regular Chorlton haunts such as Pi and the Marble.

It serves a decent fried breakfast, and has a very limited dinner menu (usually just one dish called 'tea'). It only has one real ale on hand pump, and there is a bit too much emphasis on the quirky cafe side of things. However, there is a great beer garden at the front, and drinking here in the evenings is generally a pleasurable experience. Also, the shabby cafe look makes a change to some of the polished bars that have sprung up in Chorlton recently.

The Wheatsheaf

Oak St., Manchester

A minor refurb and the addition of two hand pumps has breathed a bit of life back into The Wheatsheaf.  It’s always been alright for a quiet game of pool and a pint of Guinness but the addition of the ale and a bit of a (sympathetic) spruce up has just tipped it over the edge into somewhere worth going, rather than just ending up. The Wheatsheaf stands out in the area as a place which is neither too young and trendy nor too rough or dodgy. Places like the Bay Horse are too far one way and Gulliver’s too far the other (don’t get them mixed up). It’s in the Smithfield bracket of a decent boozer, but is still not one to go to for a particularly lively night. Which suits at least one of the reviewers here very well.

Duffy's Bar

Barlow Moor Rd, Chorlton.

Duffy's is an unusual bar. This used to be Uluru, and we suppose it's now an 'Irish themed' Lees pub - although there isn't much that's Irish about it beyond the name - certainly not the landlord. It seems a little strange to us to have a 'tied house' themed - as to an extent the brewery already is the theme. Normally themed pubs are either independant venture like O'Shea's or 'standard pubs' which happen to have a landlord or lady of a particular nationaility. Perhaps there's more to this than we can tell at first glance. Anyway...  There are four handpumps offering real ale, including one guest beer - which was Timothy Taylor on both occaisions. The place has polished wooden floors and a lot of football related memorabilia on the walls - both United and City, which again implies brewery rather than personal influences. The decor is a throwback to the 70s, with white plaster alcoves and artexing on the walls and ceiling. The small space outside is on the main road, and it is not a particularly pleasant place to sit. It doesn't feel like a new bar at all, and it's a slightly odd addition to the drinking scene in Chorlton given the usual offerings. However, if we're lucky it'll remain a good solid boozer and a nice change from the trendier more youth orientated bars.

The White Lion

Liverpool St.

Difficult one this, it’s not trendy (loads of silly haircuts and tight jeans), which is a plus – and not rough (feels like a fight will break out any second) - that’s another plus. So has it become the promised land of just a decent, normal boozer? Well, not quite as the beer’s pricey and there are fruit machines and big teles.  I think you could analyse yourself in knots about this place (which is also a Chinese takeaway, to add to the confuciun). Best not to bother. It’s a decent old style boozer with a few hand pumps, tellies, fruit machines – nice old big bar, massive beer garden and two menus – English and Chinese. To explain a bit, the couple who run the place are English and Chinese, hence the mix of cultures, not that that’s a bad thing in this case. Also the Landlady is a vociferous and friendly character. We wouldn’t go miles out of our way to come here, but if you’re around and about it’s another decent boozer on the list.

Charango

Barolw Moor Road, Chorlton.

Third time lucky May 2010
Saturday night and this time it makes sense - good food, plenty of 'atmosphere', the staff were efficient and friendly, the place very busy and even the lone ale was OK - this time Wainwrights.  It's never going to a favourite of ours but that presumably isn't their intention - if you're into this sort of place or just like new things you may well have a good evening here. - That's quite enough Charango-ing for us for a while.

Revisit April 2010
After ‘Anonymous’ below praised the place so highly we decided to go back to check – a younger member of the team dragged ‘Grandad’ back to Charango on a Wednesday evening – long after he should have been in bed. It was much quieter than the Friday, unsurprisingly – though there were a few tables of people chattering away. In fairness the menu looked pretty decent though the beer situation was poor. Down to one ale which was actually bad – freezing cold with a coagulating head, vaguely sour and poorly kept, which at £3 is a bit daft. It was the Dulcimer beer, Blonde on Blonde.
Clearly this isn’t a place for the beer drinker so there’s no point going on about it. It seems the sort of place for dressing up a bit, sipping cocktails with ‘the girls’, sharing tapassy-type nibbles and having salsa lessons – none of which is our bag. Though being on the side of the road that gets sun in the evenings and having the large outdoor area means this place will almost certainly be rammed all summer.
Assuming it's one group of people (or person) in charge of both Dulcimer and Charango, their differences make more sense - presumably Dulcimer's covering the 'folky beery' end of things and they're hoping Charango is seen as a bit more dressed up and cosmopolitan. If the naming convention is stuck with I'm looking forward to their third venture - 'Banjo', in which toothless red-necks drink burbon all day. Perhaps Chorlton's not ready for that one.

Original blurb...
This was, until recently, Ostara. It is now a Latin themed bar named after a small South American instrument. The place is noisy due to the loud music playing, and it was very busy when we were there. There is a large outside terrace, which was also well used.

On the plus side, the lighting in the place is subtle and low - which works well with the red painted walls. There is also one real ale on handpump, which is unusual in bars like this. The place is more set up for drinkers than Ostara, which was much more of a restaurant (serving seasonal British food) than a bar. The outside space will also be a bonus in the summer.

I'm not sure such a bar is necessary in Chorlton. It feels gimmicky because of the theme, and it is certainly far from an ideal venue for a few quiet drinks.

Orlando's

Barlow Moor Road, Chrolton.
This place is dreadful. It's bland in the worst kind of corporate chain sort of way. There are no real ales, and the interior lacks any sort of warmth - being very clean with white walls and modern dining room furniture.

However, there are some minor positive notes. We were given free mini samosas after we ordered the drinks, which was a nice touch. Also, the outside space is a good size and is well laid out.

Escape

Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton.
This is a fairly compact place opposite Chorlton bus station. The beer selection is not great, with only one hand pump for cask beers. Escape has a couple of huge hanging lamps as features - placed above the large leather sofas at the back of the bar.
The lighting is one decent aspect of this place as it seems to work well with the brown and gold/orange colour scheme. The staff and the regulars seem friendly, and it's not a bad place to hang out in for a couple of drinks. It's not outstanding, but such places are - by their very nature - few and far between.

Bowling Green

Brookburn Road, Chorlton.
This pub is a pleasant surprise. It should be awful - think Sky Sports and large gleaming bar pumps for strong lager and guinness - but for some unknown reason it's actually pretty decent. Maybe the fact that it's unpretentious in comparison with many other Chorlton watering holes helps. The punters certainly don't have the Nathan Barley attitude of many trendy Chorlton types. The addition of a couple of hand pumps is a bonus, and the bar staff are very friendly. It feels like a very normal pub and is all the better for it. You can get to it through the small graveyard at the opposite end of Chorlton Green to the Horse and Jockey, and it does have its own Bowling Green.

The Beech

Beech Road, Chorlton.
This was once a very good pub. It's in a decent spot and has a few hand pumps for guest ales. The place looks alright - particularly the small room off from front bar. From the outside it seems like a very traditional local boozer. Indeed, it's a fairly small place that should be perfect for a few quiet pints. However, there have been a few undesirables hanging around this place in recent years, which has led to a threatening atmosphere. The room at the back of the bar has a large TV screen, which is always a bad sign. There might regularly be a couple of real ales on, but this is far from a welcoming pub. Let's hope things change in here soon because the Beech is potentially a good boozer.

Hope Inn

Chester Rd.

This is a very traditional pub in an area just outside the city centre (between Castlefield and Old Trafford). The only real ale served is Hydes. The front bar area is small, and there is a larger back room with a dart board and bench seating against the wall. There are wooden floors throughout, and the place looks handsome enough.  On this visit the place was very quiet and the barmaid was friendly. This is a well looked after pub, and it has clearly avoided the kind of disastrous refurbishment that was so common a few years ago. A decent boozer.

Pub Crawls

There are clusters of decent pubs in and around Manchester which are ideal for linking together as part of a crawl. Below are a few suggested pub crawls that Flavours of Manchester think are worth trying out. The emphasis is on real ale and boozers with a lot of charm. These are not complete crawls in the 'Didsbury Dozen' sense: many of them miss out less impressive pubs along the way. Many of these pubs can be found on the Manchester & Salford Pub Map.

City Centre - Northern Quarter
The Castle Hotel
Crown and Kettle
Bar Fringe
Smithfield
The Angel
The Marble Arch

City Centre - Oxford Road
The Briton's Protection
Peveril of the Peak
The Temple
Lass O'Gowrie
Salutation
Sandbar
Kro Bar

Salford - Crescent
The Crescent
The New Oxford
The King's Arms
The Mark Addy
The Old Black Lion
The Eagle
The Dutton
The Derby Brewery Arms
The Queen's Arms

Chorlton - North
Hilary Step
Jam Street
Pi
Marble Beer House
Dulcimer
The Bar
Oddest

Horse and Jockey

Chorlton Green.
This used to be a slightly rough place where kids went to drink. After an expensive refurbishment it has become a bit posh for its own good, styling itself as "the Inn on the Green". The exterior still looks quite impressive - with a large beer terrace overlooking Chorlton Green in front of the half-timbered facade. The low wooden beams have also been retained.
The emphasis is now solidly on food. This is served throughout the pub and in a separate dining room. There are a few decent beers available, but this pub feels very much like it has been sanitised. Everything is too clean and shiny and new. Not a great place for a few pints unless you are outside in the sunshine.

Kro Bar

Oxford Rd.
The original part of the Kro empire. This bar is in the middle of Manchester University's campus. As such you do find a lot of students drinking in here - which isn't really a problem. The bar area is a bit too bright, but the bar is fairly well stocked. Upstairs is a better bet for a drink. The two linked rooms are rather grand with high ornate ceilings, fireplaces, large mirrors and subtle lighting. I'm not certain, but it seems likely that this was once a large house. There is plenty of outdoor seating in the beer garden at the back and the terrace at the front. There is also an eating area with a range of benches that looks like a canteen.
Not a particularly inspiring place to go, but if you get a space upstairs you can spend a pleasant enough evening in here.

Sandbar

Grosvenor St.
This bar is superb. It has a great range of beers and a genuinely interesting interior. There are local cask ales, real ciders and a wide selection of european beers available on draft and in bottles. The place occupies a couple of old houses - the old exposed staircase is even used as extra space to store bottles. There is a rather ramshackle arrangement of different rooms, with each one having a different character. The front bar is light (due to huge the windows) and very lively. The back bar is quieter and a bit more civilised. The enclosed 'yard' area is fairly dark, and it has a stone floor and a huge bench for seating. There is a new smoking area/beer garden next to the main bar. Outdoor seating is aslo a feature, with a decent amount at the front and some round the back near the yard entrance. Sitting outside Sandbar on a summer's evening is a very pleasant experience. The toilets are unusual and worth noting. To get out you have to open a door plastered in posters, which is not an easy feat when faced with it for the first time or when drunk.

As with most great bars, Sandbar gets very busy at the weekend. It's big enough to accommodate a large number of drinkers, so there is usually somewhere to sit or stand. The punters here seem to be a pretty decent bunch, with a similar mix to that found in places like the Bar in Chorlton. Sandbar is easily one of the best places to drink in Manchester, and it is currently vying with Fringe to be the best bar in Manchester.

Jabez Clegg

Portsmouth St, near Oxford Rd.
This cavernous pub is located on the Manchester University campus, set just back from Oxford Road. It's not a great place for a drink - the clientele largely consist of bored students who lack the energy to head into town. The bar staff all seem to be about 16 years old and aren't happy to serve people. There are a couple of real ales available, but this hardly makes up for the lacklustre punters and staff. The place looks okay because the large main bar has lots of exposed brickwork. It feels like the sort of pub where it would be alright to watch an important football match - which is not a great recommendation. Something strange also happens in here at around 10pm. The drinkers are ushered out of the place and it is turned into a club. This is yet another reason to avoid Jabez Clegg.

Argyles

Wilbraham Rd, Chorlton.
It is reasonably well placed as a stop off point between the 'four banks' area and Beech Road (albeit much nearer the former). Argyles (sans apostrophe) is a very modern looking bar, and as such it lacks any real warmth. The interior is quite stark, in the style of some city centre bars that were popular in the 90s (think Berlin, Prague V or Dry Bar). The cocktail menu is extensive, but there was only one hand pump serving real ale when I visited. The bottled beer selection was also pretty uninspiring.

This bar is fine for a quick drink, but not really the sort of place you would want to spend an entire evening. The menu looks alright, and there is a decent beer garden at the back of the building.

AQSA Chippy & Spice Grill

Great Stone Road, Stretford.

JUNE 2010 - They had no curries or kebabs (except elephants foot doner) - I left. Seems they're concentrating on the chippy sifde of things, shame.

Well no sooner did we review Yianni’s than it closed – days later it reopened as AQSA (an Islamic holy place in Jerusalem – if you’re interested). It’s a bit hard to tell what’s going on here. After literally 2 days closed this place has reopened as something else.  Seemingly a Pakistani kebab/chippy place. Which is something we’ve never encountered before, hence it's in the sundries section. They’ve kept most of the fixtures from before – even the menu on the wall, presumably that at least will be changed in the near future. The only obvious difference from the front is the removal of the grill (precisely what I’d do when opening a ‘Spicy Grill’!). however in its place is pretty much the only thing better – a tandoor. The draw back to this is that it seems everything will be cooked in the tandoor and to save time the large seekhs or kobedas (hard to tell) were pre-cooked then microwaved. It wasn’t until this process was happening that I saw the fresh stuff hanging up in the fridge - skewers of meat, chicken legs and chops. Onion bhajis wand samosas looked home made and rather than the usual microwaving were crisped up in the chippy fryer. I love it when a plan comes together!  I’ve really no idea how this place will work out – it may try hard and be good or lower standards and end up pre-cooking and microwaving everything. Hard to tell at the moment. Lets hope the latter.

Mother Mac's

Back Piccadilly.
This is one of a select group of hidden boozers in Manchester - places like the Jolly Angler, the Egerton Arms and Corbieres all spring to mind. Mother Mac's is tucked away behind the bustle of Piccadilly in a very dodgy looking back alleyway - it's not really a fully fledged street. This place is very old-fashioned, which lends the pub an air of authenticity that you rarely get with places in the city centre. It's a very traditional back street boozer, with only Hydes beer available on hand pump. This might not be a real ale haunt, but it is a good place to go for a few quiet pints when in town. The clientele is unusual, with a number of old Irish blokes there for the last visit and no youngsters at all. A genuinely interesting pub.

The Angel

Angel St/Rochdale Rd.
Formerly the Beer House, this has been named the Angel for well over a year. It was a genuinely great real ale pub for a number of years - although the final stages of the Beer House saw the place truly fall from grace. It reopened with an impressive menu, but without completely surrendering the boozing element. Much of the menu has gone - along with the chef - and the pub seems to have settled down as a decent drinking venue. Real ale is certainly back on the menu here: the beer and cider range is impressive, boasting around 8 handpumps. The lighting is subtle, and - combined with an attractive interior - this makes the pub a good place for a few quiet pints in the evening. The location means the Angel is on the edge of town, but this is no bad thing as it avoids crowds of idiots. It certainly does no harm to the nearby Marble Arch.

Current Recommendations

Rusholme Kebab:
Pakistani/North Indian – Saajan Halal – just gets it right nearly every time.
Honourable mentions to:
Lal Quila Express

Middle Eastern –Zam Zam - consistently good, £2.99 kobeda is a winner.
Honourable mentions to:
Kobeda Place
Jaffa
Afghan Cuisine

Town Kebab:
Marhaba, as the only place that does tandoor bread it’s an easy winner.
Honourable mentions:
Janam
Kebabish Xpress
Tastemaster’s – not incredible but better than you might think

Cheetham Hill Kebab:
Lahore Karahi
Honourable mention: 
Qila Khyber

Northern Quarter Curry Cafés:
This is really difficult as the 5 mentioned are all good, all have devotees but all have off days too:
Yadgar
Honourable mentions:
Kabana - Sunday Nihari and chops a particular favourite.
Al-Faisal
Marhaba
This & That  -though it has been a bit up and down.

Cheetham Hill Curry:
Top Quality – Cheaper and better than the competition. Special mention for the chicken biryani + 3 on a Friday.
Honorable mention:
Qila Khyber

Chorlton:
Zam Zam Tandoori - There's not much comptition and the tandoor naan would win it on it's own. However add in £3 tikka kebabs and good Pakistani dishes and Zam Zam is well in front.

Fallowfield:
Saajan Original - Almost Identical to the Rusholme Saajan Halal with less competition

City Centre pubs:
The Marble Arch - Classic historic boozer without equal
The Castle Hotel - A ramshackle old Robinson's pub with bags of character

City Centre bars:
Sandbar - A really good bar with a great range of beers and plenty of charm
Bar Fringe - The jewel in the Northern Quarter crown

Salford pubs:
The Crescent - A Salford institution that is still going strong. A haven for real ale fans
The Kings Arms - An interesting and attractive pub very close to Salford Central station

Salford Curry - Ok there aren't any (except possbily Halal Bites) but on that side of town This & That 2 is the nearest.

Chorlton pubs & bars:
Pi -This place is intimate and has an extensive beer menu, with hearty food on offer and excellent service.