Hands up if you’re always on the hunt for a happy hour Manchester – from drinks deals to cheap pints.
Oh yeah, that’s literally everyone.
Manchester is happy hour mad, with everything from discounted cocktails to BOGOF deals on frozen drinks to cheap bottles of wine.
Some of the best Manchester bars offer really decent after-work deals too, and there are even some offers that run at the weekends.
So we’ve gone ahead and rounded up the best Manchester happy hour deals around the city centre.
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And if you’re after more information on where to eat and drink around the city, visit our Manchester food and drink pages.
You can also see the latest events and things to do at our what’s on Manchester page, and all the late-night events you can get up to when happy hour’s over at our nightlife Manchester pages.
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Northern Quarter happy hours
Manchester Northern Quarter happy hours – Smithfield SocialManchester Northern Quarter happy hours – PublicHappy hour Manchester – Common
Here are some of the best we’ve found on our hunt for happy hours in Manchester.
Trof, Thomas Street
Monday to Friday, 4pm til 9pm
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£3.50 lager
£4 house spirit and mixer
£6 disco cocktails
£15 house wine
£21 bottle of fizz
Bay Horse Tavern, Thomas Street
Monday to Friday, 4pm til 8pm
£3.50 pints
£4 Guinness
Two for £12 cocktails
£5 Aperol Spritz
£6 doubles
Smithfield Social, Thomas Street
Monday to Friday, 4pm til 7pm
Two cocktails for £12
£4 pints of Guinness or Social pilsner
£20 bottles of prosecco for
£15 bottles of house wine
Common and Nell’s, Edge Street
Sunday to Thursday, 4pm til 7pm; all day Monday
£6.50 cocktails
£4.50 pints
£19 bottles of house wine
Friday and Saturday, 8pm til close
£6.50 cocktails
£2.50 shots
Turtle Bay, Oldham Street (and Oxford Road)
Sunday to Friday, 11am til 7pm and 9.30pm til close; Saturdays, 10am til 7pm and 9.30pm til close
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Two-for-one cocktails
The Lost Cat, Oldham Street
Every day, 5pm til 9pm
Buy one get one free on selected cocktails
Public, Stevenson Square
Whenever it rains, weekdays until 8pm
£6 daiquiris
£4 lager or wine
Flok, Stevenson Square
Monday to Thursday, all day till 7pm
£16 bottles of house wine
Two for £15 cocktails
Two for £9 mulled wine
Two for £8 house lager
The Pen & Pencil, Hilton Street
Monday to Friday, 4pm til 7pm
Two for £12 cocktails
£4.50 Amstel
£20 bottles of prosecco
£17 bottles of house wine
Ancoats happy hours
Manchester Ancoats happy hours – NamManchester Ancoats happy hours – Jane Eyre
Looking for happy hour Manchester? Ancoats has more than a few tricks up its sleeve for you.
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Ever since the redevelopment of Ancoats began, turning former warehouses into fancy apartments, the neighbourhood has attracted some brilliant restaurants and bars.
Here are the best Manchester happy hour deals in this blossoming neighbourhood of Ancoats.
Marco Pierre White praises Manchester restaurant serving ‘the best pizza’ he’s EVER had
Danny Jones
Legendary chef Marco Pierre White has given his verdict on where he thinks does THE best pizza not just in the UK but perhaps in the entire world, and it’s right here in Manchester
Rudy’s, Nell’s, Double Zero and now this – we really are spoilt for slices in 0161, aren’t we?
Pierre White, who was not only the first Brit to ever win three Michelin stars but the youngest person to achieve the feat in history, recently visited the restaurant in question and was more than happy to share his bold claims, dubbing it “the very best I’ve ever had in my life”.
That’s saying quite something, not only from one of the most famous chefs in the world, but given his own family heritage. He even saw fit to sign the menu and write the man in the kitchen a thank-you note.
A recent London export, which only just launched in spring 2025, the 63-year-old chef, entrepreneur and TV personality says that Forbici is now his number one, stating simply: “Let the pizzas do the talking.”
Noting that he’s been all over the world and eaten at some of the most highly-rated venues in the world (especially given the fact that he is of Italian heritage on his mother’s side), including some of the most authentic you’ll find in the likes of Naples, Rome, and so on, he still seemed confident in his declaration.
Citing other famous names in the world of cooking, like Nancy Silverton of Pizzeria Mozza fame, as well as fellow TV chef and restaurateur Mario Batali, he says that the creative takes on Neapolitan ‘pies’ that master baker Davide Argentino is currently cooking up are nothing short of “delicious.”
Having first become famous down in the capital for its name, which simply translates as ‘scissors’ – also the chosen utensil given to diners for cutting up their pizzas – it proved a smash hit when it made its way up North, garnering massive opening day queues outside its restaurant on the corner of Cross Street.
Better still, you can now order it to take away, too… Game-changer.
Now, it goes without saying that we’re lucky enough to have many restaurants serving some of the authentic food from various regions all over Italy, not to mention a plethora of incredible pizza spots in the city centre and the wider boroughs.
It’s no exaggeration, therefore, to say that we struggle picking our absolute favourite from week to week at this point.
What we will say is that we bloody love Forbici, too, and are glad to see them getting so much recognition since arriving in the region.
You can get 25% off your bill when eating out at this well-known Italian restaurant with a secret code
Danny Jones
Fancy going out for tea but still trying not to spend too much money at this time of year? Well, Manchester, you can get 25% off your bill at an already affordable British restaurant chain by simply saying a special phrase.
This deal is only available this week, though, so we wouldn’t wait around.
We’ve all been there: you’re fed up of getting home after working and having to cook, so you start trying to justify ‘just one‘ night out, but it can be a real pull between enjoyment and ease versus trying to save those pennies – especially with the festive period looming.
Luckily, well-known Italian restaurant group Carluccio’s, who have a site right here in central Manchester, is offering a significant discount by simply asking for the bill in Italian. Simple as.
As a recognisable name on the UK high street, the authentic Italian eatery dates back nearly three and a half decades, the London-born deli and food shop going on to open its first-ever sit-down venue called Carluccio’s Caffè back in 1999.
In addition to their long-standing Manchester location in Piccadilly Station, the brand was also a shop-window establishment for the Trafford Centre, sitting front and centre as one of the first places to eat as you walked in the Orient entrance.
Now, as for how you access this welcome bit of money off your bill, it’s very straightforward and can be secured as fast as you can say “The bill, please”; well, actually, you need to ask for it in Italian, as it is this phrase that Carluccio’s has dubbed the ‘secret code’.
Following a study by language learning app, Preply, which recently carried out research into menu anxiety and struggling to make a decision when dining out, they’ve teamed up with Carluccio‘s to help push people to feel more confident ordering dishes not in their native tongue.
They found that almost half (49%) have felt embarrassed about not speaking another language, with one fifth of those surveyed lacking the confidence to try and pronounce foreign words, while one in six worried they’d be judged for getting it wrong.
Well, there’s no getting it wrong in this instance, as the Carluccio’s and Preply are giving you the specific keywords not only to ask for the bill in Italian – “Il conto, per favore” – but to unlock the bonus of a quarter off the final sum.
Anna Pyshna, spokesperson at Preply, says: “People may know how to say gnocchi in theory, but when the waiter’s standing there, confidence can vanish. We want to show that getting things wrong is part of learning and sometimes, even worth a discount.
“By turning a simple phrase into a real-world reward, we’re helping people take that first, brave step to speak up. It’s a reminder that the language learning process doesn’t start with perfection, it starts with the willingness to try.”
So, that really is it: dine at any of their restaurants across the country (including here in Manchester) and ask for the bill in Italian to get 25% off your bill; once again, the offer is only on until 9 November. You can find your nearest Carluccio’s location HERE.
Daisy Jackson -
15th August 2023 
