Eats

The Lamb of Tartary – inside the Northern Quarter’s brand new pub

And they're celebrating their opening with free pints today.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 1st March 2024

There’s a brand new pub right in the heart of the Northern Quarter, as The Lamb of Tartary officially opens its doors.

The stunning space has completely transformed the former Cottonopolis site on Newton Street into a bright and airy restaurant.

The Lamb of Tartary comes from the same team behind the Edinburgh Castle pub in Ancoats, which was recently named one of the best gastropubs in the country. So yeah – safe hands.

Executive chef Shaun Moffat (also an award-winner after being named Chef of the Year at the MFDF Awards), will be in charge of the menu, where he’s created a mouth-watering list of seasonal British dishes.

And they’ll be celebrating their launch today by giving away free pints of Heineken to the first 100 people through the door after 5pm.

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The Grade II-listed building itself looks almost unrecognisable from its previous form.

It’s now filled with ornate panelling and leafy green plants, with a beautiful terracotta-painted ceiling, faux windows with linen curtains breaking up the huge space, and quartz-patterned booths.

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The Lamb of Tartary has taken its name from an old tale, where people believed that lambs grew on trees and came from cotton plants, and is a nod back to Manchester’s history with the cotton trade.

As for the food, there’ll be small plates including Atlantic prawn cocktail with melba toast, burrata with pumpkin and green sauce, Otterburn Farm pork available as bacon collar and loin chops, and Cornish lobster with hollandaise.

The Lamb of Tartary is also going to have a tempting brunch menu, with dishes including bacon chop with fried egg and chips, wild mushrooms and lake’s fried egg on toast, and English muffin topped with potato rosti, fried egg, cheese and tomato jam, available from 12pm until 3pm.

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The brand-new pub, restaurant and bar will have 24 different beers on tap, like local breweries Manchester Union Lager, Buxton Brewery, and Mobberley Brewhouse.

Drinks will include the pub’s take on classic cocktails, like a Gimlet, Old Fashioned, and Sidecar, plus fan favourites like an Espresso Martini with chocolate and orange, and a Paloma with grapefruit and rosemary soda.

A range of hot drinks, soft drinks and a lower-alcohol drinks will be perfect for brunch too, like a Bloody Mary, a Garibaldi, and The Lamb’s Spritz.

Director of The Lamb, Nick Muir commented: “We’re excited to finally be able to welcome the public into The Lamb of Tartary next week.

“The venue has had a complete makeover, transforming it into a light and airy space perfect for enjoying a pint with friends or a meal with loved ones. 

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“After seeing such success at Edinburgh Castle, we are looking forward to creating something more accessible and casual to those who visit whilst still championing local produce and suppliers we’ve spent the last year or so building up.

“If you are looking for your new local in the Northern Quarter, then The Lamb of Tartary is certainly it!”

The Lamb of Tartary officially opens its doors in Manchester’s Northern Quarter on Friday 1 March – you can book a table here.

Its kitchen and bar will be open from Wednesday to Sunday from 12pm, with the bar open from 3pm on Mondays and Tuesdays too.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

Eats

The best beer gardens in Manchester for when the sun is shining

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant The best beer gardens in Manchester for when the sun is shining

With the arrival of spring comes the first promises of sunshine and, being British, of course we’re already thinking about where to go for that first sun-soaked pint.

With the sun finally starting to stick its head out, even if his visit is brief, we expect we’ll be seeing plenty of packed beer gardens soon enough.

We all know the pain of walking pub-to-pub trying to find a seat on a sunny and/or warm Manchester day, so we’re rounding up the best, the biggest and the most hidden beer gardens in the city to help you to make the most of the good weather.

You might actually stand a chance at getting a seat in one of these, if you’re quick enough.

Thomas Street and Edge Street, Northern Quarter

Common on Edge Street
Common on Edge Street
Ad Hoc on Edge Street
Ad Hoc on Edge Street

This was one of the few positives to come out of the pandemic – removing vehicles from a back-to-back stretch of the Northern Quarter.

It means that the bars along Thomas Street and Edge Street can now fill the roads with tables and chairs in one giant beer garden, but being such a busy stretch it’s often the first place punters think to go for a drink in the sun.

You’ll find the likes of The Morris, Common, Ad Hoc, Terrace, Smithfield Social, the Bay Horse Tavern, Cane and Grain and Wolf At The Door all being given the al fresco treatment.

Terrace also has a gorgeous little hidden beer garden upstairs, and if you find yourself really struggling to find a perch head over to Trof which has a tiny little hidden beer garden on its middle floor.

The Wharf and Dukes 92, Castlefield

Manchester pubs on best beer gardens in UK list 2025

Two beer garden institutions both stand in the canal-side setting of Castlefield.

Both The Wharf and Dukes 92 are stuffed to the brim with pub-goers in spring and summer, thanks to their massive terraces, with more people spilling out onto the green lawns surrounding them.

Down here you’ll also find Bar Barca and Albert’s Shed, both in prime position for soaking up some rays with a broad array of seating on offer.

It’s one of the prettiest spots in the city centre too, right on the water with narrow boats and plenty of lush greenery in view.

Stevenson Square, Northern Quarter

Stevenson Square has turned into one giant beer garden in Manchester
Stevenson Square has turned into one giant beer garden in Manchester
Public's beer garden in Manchester
Public’s beer garden in Manchester

Very much in the same wheelhouse as the aforementioned Thomas Street is Stevenson Square, another pocket of the Northern Quarter that’s really still benefitting from those relaxed pavement licenses of 2020.

A number of local operators vie for precious outside space here, including Flok (which does a roaring trade in Aperol spritzes and peach Jubel in the summer), Public, The Faraday, and Eastern Bloc.

There are even a handful of seats outside Soup and Noho when the weather is good, even if they don’t get quite as much sunshine.

The Oast House, Spinningfields

Manchester’s massive free festival Manifest is back for the August bank holiday weekend
Manchester’s massive free festival Manifest is back for the August bank holiday weekend
Manchester’s massive free festival Manifest is back for the August bank holiday weekend
Manchester’s massive free festival Manifest is back for the August bank holiday weekend. Credit: The Manc Group

Beer gardens seem to be everywhere in Manchester these days, which is of course a good thing, but we still have a soft spot for the original outdoor watering hole.

Cast your mind back a few years and The Oast House was one of the only venues that really focused on an open-air offering.

It’s still the same today – masses of tables in the heart of Spinningfields, with bleacher seating all the way round, plus live entertainment and a belting Aperol Spritz.

The Corn Exchange

Banyan is one of the Corn Exchange bars with a great beer garden
Banyan is one of the Corn Exchange bars with a great beer garden
Salvi's sunny terrace at the Corn Exchange
Salvi’s sunny terrace at the Corn Exchange

Another corner of the city where bars and restaurants spill outside alongside one another is the Corn Exchange.

Its residents – including Salvi’s, Banyan and Cosy Club – almost all have their own terraces, but it’s the ones on the Exchange Square side who get the most sunshine.

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Neighbouring it, meanwhile, are two of Manchester’s oldest pubs – Sinclari’s Oyster Bar and The Old Wellington – both of which also boast large sun trap beer gardens, for those after something a little more traditional.

You might have to queue a little while, but with so much seating, you’ll be sipping a drink in the sun before you know it.

Cutting Room Square, Ancoats

Set in the middle of Ancoats, also known as one of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world, Cutting Room Square is guaranteed to get the sun all day long – and with plenty of bars here to choose from you’re pretty much guaranteed to find a seat one way or another.

There’s the classic pub reborn Edinburgh Castle, brilliant cocktail bar Jane Eyre, and local brewery bar from Seven Brothers – drinkers are spoilt for choice.

You can even soak up some rays outside Rudy’s (and the Ancoats one is the OG pizzeria), perch outside the award-winning Erst with a nice glass of wine, or jump in to Elnecot’s patio, where you might even find a BBQ on sunny days.

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New Islington Marina, Ancoats

Waterside neighbourhoods are difficult to find in Greater Manchester, which is what makes New Islington marina feel so special.

In the warmer months, the bars and cafes along here throw out the furniture so you can sit with a pint overlooking the water.

There’s Flawd, an award-winning wine bar; Cask, a brilliant local craft beer bar; and Pollen, if you fancy a pastry garden rather than a beer garden.

Piccadilly Trading Estate, East Piccadilly

Drinking around the Beermuda Triangle in Manchester
Drinking around the Beermuda Triangle in Manchester
Cloudwater's Taproom on the Beermuda Triangle

Beer paradise awaits just past Manchester Piccadilly, with plenty of beer garden space too, in an industrial estate that’s nicknamed the ‘Beermuda Traingle‘.

There’s the lovely Track Taproom with a huge outside space out the back; Cloudwater Taproom, which is an absolute sun trap; and then Balance Taproom and Sureshot just around the corner, which have less space but just as many vibes.

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It’s the perfect activity if you’re looking to drink really great beer and not walk very far whilst still visiting a range of top class spots, because after all…variety is the spice of life.

Society, central

Manchester bar Society to give away FREE Aperol Spritzes to gig-goers
Manchester bar Society to give away FREE Aperol Spritzes to gig-goers
The beer garden at Society Manchester
The beer garden at Society Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group

Not only is this spot right on the water, with excellent views of the Bridgewater Hall, but it’s also home to the biggest beer collection in Manchester.

Society has a whopping 44 beer taps, with a vast range from loads of different top northern breweries, including Cloudwater, Pomona Island, and Rivington (along with a few globally-brewed favourites).

The new beer range is flowing now, alongside all those amazing food traders that call Society home too.

Mala, Northern Quarter

This ‘secret garden’ bar is right in the heart of the Northern Quarter in the midst of the pandemic and is another great outdoor space for getting the drinks in when the sun is shining.

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Tucked behind those big mint-green wooden boards on Dale Street is a cluster of picnic tables and wooden huts festooned with fairy lights and plants.

It might not be the tropics, but they’ve got the cocktails to trick your tastebuds into thinking it is – we’re talking frozen strawberry daiquiris and frozen pina coladas. Oh, and there’s beer too.

Featured image – The Manc Group

Eats

Manchester pubs are doing half-price pints of ‘proper northern stout’ for St Patrick’s Day

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson J W Lees are doing half-price pints for St Patrick's Day

Pubs across Greater Manchester are pouring half-price pints in honour of St Patrick’s Day – but it’s not Guinness on the taps today.

A Manchester-based brewery has decided to seize an opportunity to show off its own ‘proper northern stout’ on a day that everyone rushes to the pub for a pint of the black stuff.

JW Lees pubs right across the North West, including two in Manchester city centre, are slashing prices for one day only.

There’ll be 50% off pints of its Black Tuesday stout, a proudly British beer that they’ve created to show St Patrick’s Day isn’t exclusively limited to Irish beers.

The brewery has selected 50 of its pub locations across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire and North Wales.

That includes two in the heart of Manchester – the Founder’s Hall in Albert Square, and Rain Bar and Great Bridgewater Street.

William Lees-Jones, Managing Director at JW Lees, said: “While 17 March is traditionally seen as a celebration of St Patrick, we don’t think it should be a celebration exclusively for Irish stout fans.

“As more and more British pubgoers participate in St Patrick’s Day, we are challenging them to ‘dare to be different’ and try our Manchester-based stout in one of the selected 50 pubs during what is set to be a truly party atmosphere next week, on Black Tuesday.”

50 select JW Lees pubs will serve half-price pints of Black Tuesday stout on 17 March.

A full list of JW Lees pubs taking part in the Black Tuesday offer can be found HERE. 

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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