At last, the boozers are open. Even better, we can finally sit inside them.
Hopefully, this means no more battling it out against the elements with our anoraks and brollies – although those scenes did make us very proud of our fellow Mancs’ commitment to their locals.
Still, if you’re planning a big one it can soon add up price-wise. Especially if you’re paying over a fiver per pint, which has pretty much become the norm for anywhere selling craft beer in the city centre.
Suffice to say, after a year of not really going out and just over a month back at it, we’ve all been feeling a bit skint.
But there is some great value beer out there for the drinking – if you know where to look.
ADVERTISEMENT
We asked, and you delivered. If you know of any more, let us know @themanc and we’ll add them in here.
Sinclair’s Oyster Bar is well-known for its cheap pints / Image: Wikimedia Commons
Sinclair’s Oyster Bar, Shambles Square
ADVERTISEMENT
The most suggested pub on the list by a mile, this black and white Samuel Smiths boozer off Shambles Square is one of Manchester’s most iconic. Famously moved after the 1996 IRA bomb to its current spot just a few yards down, it wins hands down on both value and aesthetic. Note to tourists, they don’t actually sell oysters here.
2 pints at £2.20. Dark mild and Alpine lager.
The Courtyard, Chester Street
ADVERTISEMENT
The cost of Carling at this popular student bar has increased by a whopping 5 pence a pint since the start of the pandemic whilst other spots in town have put theirs up by several pounds. It’s also huge, with plenty of tables inside as well as in its namesake courtyard.
Carling, £2.60
Hare & Hounds, Shudehill
With completely intact interiors dating back to 1925, this pretty pub is considered to be of some historic national importance. Popular with Manchester’s mature drinkers and sports fans, it’s got regular entertainment on here and pre-covid was quite well known for its karaoke.
Two pints at £2.70, Holt Bitter and Mild.
ADVERTISEMENT
The City Pub, Oldham Street
This grade II-listed one-room pub at the top end of the Northern Quarter is full of characters in the day but typically quieter in the evening. For a time you could find some good real ale here, but it left the CAMRA fold in 2018 due to falling sales and now is very much keg over cask.
Joseph Holt Smooth £2.00, Boddingtons £2.10 (on happy hour, prices increase by 50p after 6pm).
Abel Heywood,Northern Quarter
This bar and boutique hotel is named after a former mayor of Manchester, as is, coincidentally, the town hall clock ‘Great Abel’ which can often be heard chiming across the city centre. Close to the Arndale, it’s a good, quiet place to head for a cold one when you’ve had enough of shopping.
ADVERTISEMENT
£3.45 Hydes Original Bitter.
Seven Oaks, Chinatown
Located just off Mosley Street, this classic pub is a favourite of city centre locals, bored shoppers and off-duty bartenders alike. It also runs a ‘husband creche’ on the weekend.
Seven Oaks ale, £2.50
Trof, Northern Quarter
ADVERTISEMENT
One of the Northern Quarter originals, due to its slightly hidden location in the midst of many new bars and restaurants, Trof is shamefully easy to forget about nowadays. At £3.50 a pint for its house lager it’s definitely stretching the boundaries of ‘cheap’ but deserves a shoutout nonetheless – much like its brilliant roast dinners.
Trof Lager £3.50 (on happy hour 4pm – 8pm, Monday-Friday).
Brickhouse Social NWS, New Wakefield Street
This New York-themed diner and bar boasts a pool room, roof terrace and ‘day of the dead’ themed basement club. Find it just off Oxford Road.
BH Lager, £2.50
ADVERTISEMENT
The Footage, Oxford Road
Formerly known as the Grosvenor Picture Palace, this student haunt still retains many of the charms from its cinematic heyday. At £3.45 for Carling, it’s pushing the boundaries of what we can really consider cheap, but their craft beers can be bought for £3 during happy hours with a choice of Punk IPA and 4-5 rotating guest beers.
£3 craft beers (on happy hour, Tuesdays and Thursdays).
The Friendship Inn, Fallowfield
Another great student drinking spot, The Friendship’s got a great sun trap beer garden with seating that goes all the way around the pub. Indoors, there’s plenty of big screens to catch the football on, too.
ADVERTISEMENT
Holston Pilsner £2.10 (on happy hour, 12-6 Monday to Friday)
The Victoria, Withington
This cosy little Victorian boozer in Withington mixes students and locals quite happily, with a big screen for sports and a popular pool table inside. There’s a good weekly quiz here on Thursdays and live Motown nights on the first Saturday of the month, plus a nice little beer garden out back that catches the sun in the afternoon.
£2.50 Holston
The Red Lion, Withington
Another very decent Withington pub, this one’s set just off Wilmslow road heading towards The Christie. Spacious inside and out with some cute little nooks and crannies, it boasts a large terrace area overlooking the bowling green and some decent pub grub.
ADVERTISEMENT
2 pints at £3.05. Manchester Pale Ale and and Dark.
The Blue Bell Inn in Levenshulme has some good beers at great value / Image: Geograph
The Blue Bell Inn, Levenshulme
A very smart Samuel Smith’s pub, The Blue Bell Inn was fully refurbished to a high standard around 2006. Spacious inside with a large garden to the rear, it’s at the heart of the community with a variety of groups using the pub to raise funds for local improvement projects. There’s even a knitting club.
2 pints at £2.20. Dark Mild and Alpine lager.
Featured image: Pixabay
Feature
Vanilli’s – the Manchester bakery and dessert spot that has carried on the tradition of an old Italian favourite
Danny Jones
Vanilli’s Cake Company is one of those names whose reach extends far and wide, with a history that goes way back into the past, and a deeper Greater Manchester heritage than you can imagine.
It’s one almost as rich as the desserts they’ve been making across the city centre and beyond for decades, but it also begins back in Italy.
Formerly San Marco Products, a fellow cult-favourite bakery, suppliers and catering company from way back, owner Sapna Kumar took over their old premises on Crown Industrial Estate over in Ancoats more than six years ago, and has been carrying on their sweet treat traditions ever since.
The difference these days is that it’s gone from more of an Italian ‘pasticceria’ to a Mancunian bakery with both local and Indian roots.
Born out of pregnancy cravings ahead of her third child, ironically, Vanilli’s Cake Co. went from an unfortunately timed passion project conceived on the cusp of the pandemic to a mainstay of Greater Manchester and North West markets and now part of a mini Manc empire in the making.
After taking control of the old commercial premises back in 2020, their understated but impressively high-output unit still has lots of regulars in the know coming in for the good stuff, but still operates somewhat under the radar.
Maybe that’s part of the reason their quality control has remained at such a high level: although they provide to plenty of vendors all across the city and wider region, they’ve never overextended themselves to the point that even the slightest of standards slips.
If you’ve met Sapna before – the charismatic matriarch behind this brand and others like spin-off Cake Bar Co. and most recently, Punjabee – you’ll know that she doesn’t do anything by half measures.
And yes, there are Vanilli’s desserts on sale here, too.
A familiar face at the likes of Foodie Friday and various other street food stalls across the 10 boroughs and even further afield, she’s been doing some of these events since the very outset.
Sadly, without going into too much detail, she admits that there have been instances where her generosity has been “taken advantage of on more than one occasion”, but they will never stop her continuing to offer a helping hand.
The difference this time, however, is that she’s not simply putting others before herself all the time anymore; the Manc mum who’s played mother to many through her work over the years is finally shouting about herself and her unsung but nevertheless dedicated and talented team more.
And not just a little bit, either (no half measures, remember?) – she proudly proclaims that not only does Vanilli’s serve up some of the most authentic traditional recipes, but she happily lays claim to whipping up “the best Manchester tart” you’ll find anywhere.
As for this location, specifically, she simply wants to give people like you a reminder that it’s been there for more than 30 years at this point
She’s also looking to rebuild support throughout the community by teaming up with local brands and creators moving forward. Again, it’s about time she finally got on the receiving end of ‘You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’, which sounds like it’s long overdue.
Having recently put on a speciality spread for us, showcasing not only the classic but some fresh new ideas and creative takes on familiar, we can assure you some very delicious things are coming from Vanilli’s throughout the rest of 2026.
So, if like Sapna, you love “indulging in the sweeter side of life”, give a Vanilli’s cake, pastry or one of their other tasty desserts soon.
Find all of these and more at Unit 8, Crown Industrial, Poland Street, M4 6BN. (Credit: The Manc)
Blossoms deliver most rock and roll performance in years as Declan McKenna joins them on stage
Danny Jones
Last night, we were fortunate enough to be there in the flesh not only to see Blossoms play a special anniversary show in Manchester, but to witness Declan McKenna join them on stage.
A tiny part of us was wondering if we’d see Rick Astley roll out into the venue, but let’s just say we’ll absolutely take this.
Celebrating a decade to the day since the release of the self-titled debut LP – yes, we feel old, too – Blossoms announced the one-off intimate show at The Deaf Institute, a venue they hadn’t played in 12 whole years (good lord…), and it served as much more than a night of nostalgia.
But we’ll admit, the highlight was almost certainly seeing the ‘Brazil’ and ‘British Bombs’ singer join Tom Ogden, Charlie Salt, Josh Dewhurst, Myles Kellock and Joe Donovan on stage for their smallest gig since god knows when.
We’ve gotten somewhat used to seeing the Enfield-born solo artist popping up at random venues across the country and even performing DJ sets at local pubs.
If you haven’t seen that Kylie Minogue clip before, you really need to…
However, we don’t think anyone in the crowd was expecting this cameo, let alone hearing them perform a co-written track off the new record live in front of the audience for the very first time.
As if all of this wasn’t already a bit bonkers and left-field, the song in question, entitled ‘Additional Driver’, was self-admittedly so surprising in SO many ways that Tom felt he needed to explain the full story behind it and why Declan shouted “shoulda got the 192” before they started playing.
Yes, in some kind of Greater Mancunian fever dream, we’ve finally got artists writing lyrics about the region’s most infamous bus route that we’re sure most, if not all of you, can relate to.
But it wasn’t just this moment that had us debating in our heads, ‘are they the best Manc or maybe in Northern band full stop going right now?’, it was seeing them slip so seamlessly back into the more straight-down-the-line indie rock from their first chapter of studio material that did it.
Everyone knows and loves the biggest bangers from that inaugural outing: ‘Getaway’, ‘Charlemagne’, ‘At Most a Kiss’, ‘Honey Sweet’, etc.; but it’s hard to forget just how quintessentially rock and roll tunes like ‘Blow Rose’, ‘Cut Me and I’ll Bleed’, ‘Texia’ and even some of the other deep cuts/early releases are.
Don’t get us wrong, we love how much the dressing up (musically and quite literally) they’ve done over the years as their production, creativity and experimentation has increased, but it’s always hard to beat that feeling you get when finding an artist’s first album – especially one as good as Blossoms‘.
In fairness, listening back to ‘Deep Grass’ all these years later, we’ll still remember how spacey, psychedelic and downright different that intro felt back in the day; it now feels like a fitting end to that maiden outing and the perfect jumping-off point for what has been a real sonic exploration ever since.
For a lad born in SK2 and lucky enough to have seen these lads right from the start, stuff like this will never not feel surreal to me.
Long live ‘Blossoms from Stockport‘, and roll on Songs From The Wedding Cake this October.
Georgina Pellant -
4th June 2021 
