The Famous Trevor Arms

O’Shea’s Irish Bar

Whitworth Street
Pretty big, Irish themed, serves a lot of Guinness, has a bit of music and shows the football.  Not really a venue for those wanting a pint of real ale in interesting surroundings. However, if any of the points above appeal it might prove a reasonable watering hole – and certainly preferable to official ‘Sports’ bars for watching the tele - but, to be fair, that isn't difficult.

The Sedge Lynn

Barlow Moor Rd., Chorlton
Well it serves real ale, it’s got a really interesting front and it’s right near the Marble Beer House in Chorlton – so it must be good?  Unfortunately not really. It’s a Weatherspoons pub which means unreliable beer and tons of microwaved crappy food served in an enormous barn, often with the added feature of attracting people who particularly want to get completely hammered at all hours of the day due to the lower prices.  They're the Aldi of pubs, which is fine if you’re buying cheap cornflakes but you don’t hang around for fun.  Alright, stupid comments aside, it can be OK for an early (and cheap) drink but personally I prefer smaller, non-chain, pubs with their own character. Shame really.

Panicos & Yianni's

Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton
Great Stone Road, Stretford
Yianni’s is a recent off-shoot of Panicos in Chorlton, which itself has been around for a number of years. They are slightly unusual in what they serve - Greek-style kebabs plus ‘chippy stuff’. However, what sets these places apart is that the kebabs are actually rather good – chicken, pork, lamb, haloumi and doner are all well cooked and tasty. The doner is the particular surprise, the trick being that it is cooked again on the grill to brown the individual pieces which improves it no end.  Of course the ‘naan’ bread is thin and from a packet, the other option is pitta – again from a packet, which is usual for these sorts of kebabs – there’s a choice of sauces and salad, both of which are fresh and well served – and the guys behind the counter know what they’re doing (regulars at Panicos will recognise faces at Yianni’s). These might be the sorts of places you’d overlook – assuming them to be just chippies doing a few extra bits – actually they’re a fair bit better than that and for kebabs of this type they certainly hit the spot.

Marble Beer House

Manchester Rd, Chorlton.
The Marble Beer House has been one of the key real ale bars in Chorlton for a number of years. It was once great, and is finally emerging from the doldrums after a refurbishment and some very strong competition from other local bars drove some punters away. The range of beers is excellent, with some interesting guest ales from all over the country. It also offers a number of Marble beers because this is part of the Marble 'empire', with its sister bar being the Marble Arch in town on Rochdale Road. One of the strengths of this bar is the fact that it does not serve food (aside from crisps and Bombay Mix style snacks). It is solidly a drinking establishment, and the emphasis is on real ale, decent continental draft and bottled beers, and real ciders. The terrace at the front is a great place to watch the world go by, and the location of this bar is very good because it is close to other bars and the crossroads in Chorlton. This is a bit of a Chorlton institution, so let's hope it continues to be such a great place to go for a drink.

Lass o'Gowrie

This pub is a bit of a Manchester institution. It is well located - being near the universities, Oxford Road station and the BBC - and fairly historic. The bar area has a lot of dark wood, creating the right atmosphere for an old pub, and the small 'snug' room is a decent space (and it is quieter and more private). There are usually three or four real ales on offer, and the service behind the bar is pretty good. The food is reasonable pub grub, and is not expensive by the standards of central Manchester. All things considered, this seems to be a very good place for a city centre pint.
However, despite this being the sort of traditional boozer that the Flavours of Manchester team usually rate highly, there are a few problems with it. The pub has at least two TV screens that seem to be on all the time. The area beyond the bar and the snug is often dominated by the sporting events shown on these TVs, and the pub gets very busy when big football matches are on. The range of ales is disappointing, and main seating area in the pub is rather uninspiring. It's hard to be precise about what is wrong with the Lass o'Gowrie but in our view it is not quite the classic city centre establishment that we all want it to be.

Introduction

So what are these 'Other' places?
Well, they’re places that aren’t curry cafes or kebab houses but we thought were worth flagging up – Curry Goat from a Caribbean place, for instance, or a weekend takeaway or 'proper' restaurant currry trip in the evening.  We don’t want to get into the business of reviewing and monitoring every ‘curry or kebab-related’ establishment in Manchester – there are too many bad takeaways to even bother attempting it.  However, as the purpose of the site is providing information it seems a wee bit churlish not to share our thoughts if they might be useful.  Possibly without scores – as once we change the format there’s not an equal frame of reference ie. Restaurant meals cost more so we expect more. Etc etc… That’s the plan for now anyway…