Food & Drink

Where to find the best frozen cocktails in Manchester this summer

Think frozen Vimto daiquiris, Pornstar martinis, Aperol Spritz and margaritas by the bucketload - plus some interesting curveballs you might not expect.

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 11th July 2022

You can’t beat a summer’s day here in Manchester, when the sunshine glints off the skyscrapers and people pour out of pubs and bars.

There’s nothing like a heatwave to get your in the mood for an ice-cold drink – and we honestly can’t think of anything more cooling than a frozen bev, which is why we’ve put together this go-to-guide to help you find the best that Manchester has to offer.

Yes, in previous years, some of us cocktail enthusiasts may have been a bit snobby about frozen drinks – but after a few years locked in our houses, we’ve all deserved a little bit of silliness and fun, and these drinks absolutely deliver.

From boozy smoothies, to alcoholic slushies, frozen martinis, Irish coffees and even Snakebite, keep reading to discover where to go to sip on some of the best icy bevs the city has to offer.

Smithfield Social – Frozen Aperol Spritz

Image: The Manc Group

The ultimate summer cocktail, but make it frozen. Smithfield Social has taken the classic Italian aperitivo favourite to a new level for 2022, turning it into an ice-cold slushie that’s perfect for the summer. Low ABV and full of flavour, it might just be the best frozen cocktail we’ve seen (so far) this summer.

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Sicilian NQ – Frozen watermelon margaritas

Image: Sicilian NQ

Hidden down a little backstreet in the Northern Quarter, Sicilian NQ is easy enough to miss – but don’t you dare. The tiny bar and kitchen has just launched a new range of frozen margaritas, all priced at just £5 during happy hour, which runs Monday to Thursday, 12pm to 5pm. Enjoy them in three flavours: classic, Sicilian and watermelon.

Ramona

The banana + pandan frozen margarita. / Image: Ramona
The frozen pineapple and ginger margarita. / Image: Ramona

If you’re after something a little bit wilder, head to converted MOT garage Ramona for your frozen cocktail fix and a big fat Detroit slice. Yes, they do frozen margarltas, and, yes, you can opt to get them bottomless, but be adventurous – the banana + pandan is a certified house favourite, and pineapple + ginger is well worth a look-in too.

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Read more: The new Manchester bottomless brunch with endless Detroit pizza and frozen margaritas

The Shack – Frozen Vimto daiquiris

Image: The Shack

Ah Vimto, you’ll always have a special place in Manchester’s heart. Drunk hot, cold, and now frozen with a couple of shots of rum thrown in for good measure, there’s never a bad time to enjoy this fruity cordial. First manufactured here as a health tonic in 1908, it’s still giving us life all these years later.

Crazy Pedro’s – Frozen boozy Twistas

All frozen margs at Crazy Pedros get more than a double shot of their house tequila (El Tequileño Blanco). / Image: Crazy Pedro’s

Crazy Pedro’s takes its frozen cocktails seriously, serving them up in five different flavours. From a frozen Twista ice lolly-flavoured cocktail to frozen Pornstar Martinis, Woo Woos, and both classic and strawberry margaritas, there’s plenty of choice to keep you going. Oh, and they’re all available on the bottomless brunch too.

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Pico’s, Mackie Mayor – Frozen margaritas

Image: Eat Picos

Pico’s are not fair weather frozen cocktail fans – far from it. You can find them slinging out frozen margaritas with a chilli salt rim all year round both at Manchester’s Mackie Mayor and at Altrincham’s Market House, alongside the best nachos and tacos you will find in the city centre.

Font – Vimto daiquiri slushies

We all know that Font has the best-value cocktails in all of Manchester (yes that really is a £3 Blue Hawaiian), and they really step it up in the summer.

They have a section of the menu dedicated to boozy slushies – you can grab a frozen margarita or a frozen daiquiri, in either strawberry or Vimto flavour.

Smooch – Frozen strawberry daiquiris

Image: The Manc Eats

Altrincham bubble tea shop Smooch hasn’t been open that long, but it’s already become quite the favourite with local kids. Following requests from the Trafford town’s parents for an ‘adult’ version, they’ve recently launched a new boozy menu featuring frozen strawberry daiquiris and pina colada bubble teas.

Read more: Inside the Altrincham dessert bar selling cocktail-inspired boozy bubble teas

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Kong’s sandwich shop – Frozen margaritas

Tucked under the Mancunian Way at the Hatch street food village, you’ll find Kong’s latest export slinging out half-pint cups filled with frozen margaritas, alongside their cracking new sandwich menu. We think a crisp butty and a frozen marg in the Hatch garden sound just the thing.

Read more: Kong’s is opening a sandwich shop at Hatch with crisp butties on the menu

Junior Jackson’s – Frozen snakebite and Irish coffees

Image: Junior Jackson’s

The little brother to popular Manchester dive bar Bunny’s, Junior’s can be found in a basement on the Northern Quarter’s Oldham Street slinging out a plethora of frozen bevvies.

Frozen snakebite and frozen Irish coffees both sound incredible to us, but if you just want something fruity you can also get frozen daiquiris here in three different flavours – strawberry, pina colada and passion fruit. Oh, and you can get them all down at Bunny’s too.

7Sins – Frozen cocktail sharers

Image: The Manc Eats

Think frozen cocktails, but supersized for the whole group. Stevenson Square bar 7Sins has gone the whole hog this summer with some new frozen sharers, including the Passionbowl (essentially a giant jug of Pornstar martini) and Super Bramble (gin, lemon and blackcurrant).

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The Garratt – Frozen pornstar martinis and daiquiris

Image: The Garratt

At just £5 each or two for £8, these are some of the cheapest frozen cocktails to be found in the city centre. Head down to popular Princess Street boozer The Garratt, a long-time favourite of Manchester’s skaters and students alike, for a rotating selection of ice-cold drinks, game of pool and an easy-to-land spot in the sun.

Lock 91 – Frozen daiquiris

Image: The Manc Group

With a gorgeous little beer garden hidden away from view, Lock 91 is another place to put on your frozen cocktail list on a sunny day. The house frozen strawberry daiquiri here is made from scratch, fresh to order.

Herd NQ – Frozen pornstar martinis

Image: Herd NQ

This little Northern Quarter steakhouse is delivering the goods on the frozen cocktail front, with frozen Pornstar martinis and three different boozy slushies on offer. Think a ‘pineapple express’ boozy smoothie with mango and spiced rum, a ‘watermelon sugar’ version, or a ‘frozen berry blast’ with added gin and apple.  

Have we missed one? Let us know over on Instagram by dropping a message to @themanceats.

Feature image – Ramona

Food & Drink

Two Greater Manchester restaurants have been named in Time Out’s 15 best restaurants in the UK

Danny Jones Danny Jones Time Out name two Greater Manchester restaurants among the 15 best in the UK

Not one but two restaurants in Greater Manchester have been named on Time Out‘s list of the 15 best restaurants in the UK.

The highly regarded lifestyle magazine is always pumping out these rankings across the board and with decades of pedigree behind them, it goes without saying that people still take their recommendations very seriously – ourselves included.

So, when we saw that a pair of local food spots were named on the most recent round-up, flying the flag for Manchester’s thriving culinary scene, we were obviously buzzing.

But what two places have they picked out?…

Erst – Ancoats

Erst Manchester best restaurants in the UK Time Out
erst manchester reviews
Erst leads the Manchester front on Time Out‘s best restaurants in UK (Credit: The Manc Eats)

In at number three on Time Out‘s list of the best restaurants in Britain was the ever-impressive Erst, which we can confidently vouch for serving up some of the best food in the city centre just off Cutting Room Square for over half a decade now.

It’s one of those places that feels like it should have a Michelin star even if doesn’t have one right now, building a glowing reputation around two core pillars: incredible natural wine and stunning small plates.

Genuinely not that expensive considering the sheer level of quality on show, the magazine writers Leonie Cooper and Lucas Oakeley spotlight offerings such as the Cantabrian anchovies that are “excellently sourced and devilishly salty” as well as “inventive plates” like the mussels in escabeche with Marinda tomatoes, lardo and sourdough. Hard agree.

Where The Light Gets In – Stockport

where the light gets in menu
michelin star restaurant stockport
Credit: Where The Light Gets In

Second up for Greater Manchester is going to annoy all those ‘it’s always been Cheshire’ die-hards but we’ll absolutely be claiming this one; it’s Where The Light Gets In tucked away on Rostron Brow, right near Stockport‘s historic market square.

Boasting a green star from Michelin and an incredible wine-pairing selection to compliment every course, this vegetable-driven dining experience is one of the very best we here The Manc Eats have ever enjoyed.

The menu changes every time you visit and the entire place feels like something special and bespoke. Time Out describes it as serving up “plates of food have nothing to hide and showcase the best ingredients from the farmers and fishermen that chef/owner Sam Buckley has spent years building an intimate relationship with”, summing it by adding, “Sustainability has never tasted so good”.

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We’re obviously biased but there are definitely a few more places around Greater Manchester that we’d throw in that for Time Out‘s list but, who knows, maybe they’ll make it on there next year?

Either way, we’re just happy to celebrate two absolutely top-tier eateries in two very distinct parts of the region – it’s not all just city centre spots and it never will be.

Are there any amazing Manc restaurants that you think should have made the list?

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — The Manc Group/Where The Light Gets In

Food & Drink

The quirkiest pubs in Manchester, from wonky buildings to 7am pints to BYO chippy teas

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson

Pubs are an integral part of British culture, and nowhere does them better than Manchester – in our humble opinion.

We’ve got tiny ones, giant ones, shiny ones and ancient ones.

There are some that serve seriously fancy gastropub food and others that serve a whole menu of crisps – and one that just encourages you to bring a chippy tea in with you.

There are real ale pubs, craft beer pubs, taprooms, and pubs that also do pretty good cocktails.

Whatever your brief is for the perfect boozer, Manchester will have somewhere that fits the bill.

We’ve rounded up some of Manchester’s quirkiest pubs that offer something a little… unexpected.

Temple Bar, Oxford Road

It is always, always that trip to the toilets that makes you realise you’ve tipped over into inebriated – staring at yourself in the mirrors above the sinks thinking ‘Oh, yup, too many pints’.

Here in Manchester, it can also be a trip to the toilet that gets you sozzled in the first place.

The Temple – or Temple of Convenience to give it its full name – is a tiny subterranean drinking den that in the Victorian era, was actually a public toilet.

It’s so narrow you can almost reach wall-to-wall if you stand with your arms outstretched.

But down here you’ll also find a great selection of bottled beers, a jukebox, and bags of charm.

100 Great Bridgewater Street, M1 5JW

The Victoria Tap, Manchester Victoria

Victoria Tap is open in Manchester now
Victoria Tap is open in Manchester now
Inside Victoria Tap in Manchester
Inside Victoria Tap in Manchester

What makes The Victoria Tap such a little gem? For one, it’s taken what was a literal bin store and turned it into a genuinely beautiful drinking den.

For two, as it’s inside the train station, it’s got a departures board – the twist being that it tells you how many pints you can drink before your train leaves.

And to be honest, we’d quite like to use pints as a unit for measuring time forever more.

The new craft beer bar has also built a small beer garden on its far side, where trams slide past within inches of the boundary wall.

Victoria train station, M3 1WY

The Marble Arch, Rochdale Road

Come, venture slightly beyond your comfort zone of the city centre and Ancoats – for just beyond you’ll find one of Manchester’s very best pubs.

The Marble Arch building has been here since 1888, and to this day is one of the most impressive historic pubs in the UK.

Its tiled walls, ornate ceilings and mosaic floors, not to mention its roaring fire and its beautiful wooden bar, are just part of the charm.

One of the strangest experiences when visiting The Marble Arch is the way the bar seems to draw you in to it.

It’s all thanks to its gently sloping floor – some say it’s this way to make rolling barrels easier, others say it’s for cleaning, but out favourite theory is that it’s to encourage inebriated customers to totter back to the bar for another round.

73 Rochdale Road, M4 4HY

The Seven Oaks, Chinatown

Image: Geograph

By day, The Seven Oaks is a fairly normal pub – a lot of beer, a lot of sports, a lot of regulars.

But by night, it becomes the stuff of hospitality legend.

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This is the pub for people who work in pubs, a place where the hospitality staff normally pouring drinks for everyone else can come and have their own after work – even if they happen to finish work at 4am.

Built for the people who work ‘the wrong 9-to-5’, if you’ve got proof of working in the hospitality industry, this Chinatown pub is the place to come for late night, or early morning, pints.

5 Nicholas Street, M1 4HL

Peveril of the Peak, Great Bridgewater Street

Image: Adam Pester

You cannot miss the Peveril of the Peak.

Not only is it clad all over in ceramic tiles in vibrant shades of chartreuse and mint green, but it also stands alone at the fork in a road.

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Manchester’s only detached pub has been here since the early 19th century, with a jumble of cosy rooms arranged around a central bar.

Inside, there are all the best sorts of pub trimmings, like a jukebox and a dart board.

It’s also had the same landlady for 51 years – Nancy Swanick, 90, is pretty legendary in her own right.

127 Great Bridgewater Street, M1 5JQ

Circus Tavern, Portland Street

Image: Commons Wikimedia

In stark contrast to the Peveril of the Peak, The Circus Tavern is very much a pub you can miss.

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This tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it drinking den is home to the smallest bar in Europe.

Don’t expect a massive selection of beers here – there simply isn’t room.

It’s the weeniest pub in Manchester and also one of its oldest, dating back to 1840 (though the building was here even earlier).

Back in the day, it used to be a regular haunt of circus performers (hence the name), and Manchester United players, including George Best.

86 Portland Street, M1 4GX

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The Old Wellington Inn, Exchange Square

The Old Wellington pub in Manchester is one of the city's quirkiest. Credit: The Manc Group
The Old Wellington pub in Manchester is one of the city’s quirkiest. Credit: The Manc Group
The Old Wellington pub in Manchester is one of the city's quirkiest. Credit: The Manc Group
The Old Wellington pub in Manchester is one of the city’s quirkiest. Credit: The Manc Group

When you’re nursing your drink in the Old Wellington, you’re surrounded by masses of history.

The city centre pub is the oldest building of its kind in Manchester, dating all the way back to 1552.

Back in those days, the walls, floors and ceilings were all wonky, and the ceiling beams were so low that punters had to duck when they were walking around. 

The pub might be ancient, but strangely, it hasn’t always been here on Exchange Square. 

The medieval building actually used to be about 70 metres down the road, and had to be moved bit by bit and piece by piece after the IRA bomb in 1996.

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Over the course of two years, both the Old Wellington and Sinclair’s Oyster bar were completely rebuilt in their new home here, where they still stand as two of Manchester’s most amazing pubs – and pull some of the city’s cheapest pints. 

4 Cathedral Gates, M3 1SW

Mother Mac’s, Back Piccadilly

Mother Mac's, a historic pub in Manchester, has closed down
Mother Mac’s, a historic pub in Manchester, has closed down

Back Piccadilly in the city centre isn’t exactly a wholesome location as things stand – there’s a lot of graffiti, rows of bins, the occasional rat, and (if you’re really unlucky) human faeces.

But if you travel back in time to 1976, things get significantly more bleak. We’re talking mass murder bleak.

A previous landlord of the Mother Mac’s pub turned and killed his wife, then his three children, then the pub’s cleaner, before setting the building ablaze and killing himself.

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Mother Mac’s has now actually closed, with plans to turn it into a new pub called the Rat & Pigeon – which is fitting, given that’s mostly what will be walking past.

33 Back Piccadilly, M1 1HP

The Shakespeare, Fountain Street

Image: Wikimedia Commons

If you’re a fan of a ghost story, this is the pub for you.

The Shakespeare on Fountain Street – directly across the road from Primark – has had plenty of paranormal activity, if we believe the reports of its customers (who, admittedly, are likely to have been worse for wear).

Punters have reported seeing a flaming ghost at the top of the stairs, believed to be the spirit of a young girl who accidentally set herself alight while lighting candles at the inn.

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It’s also said to be haunted by a former chef who hung himself here – you can apparently still see the rope marks on one of the ceiling beams.

Spooky past aside, The Shakespeare is a good-value pub with a menu of typical pub fare.

16 Fountain Street, M2 2AA

Briton’s Protection, Great Bridgewater Street

The Britons Protection. Credit: The Manc Group
The Britons Protection. Credit: The Manc Group
The Britons Protection. Credit: The Manc Group
The Britons Protection. Credit: The Manc Group

Famed for its Jack Daniel’s collection, the Briton’s Protection draws in whiskey fans from across the globe.

Every year the owners travel to Tennessee to make bespoke casks – and they’ve even created a Jack Daniel’s-themed room in a snug behind the bar.

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Home to some exceedingly rare bottles, including one with an unaired Sinatra concert recording hidden in a tie clip, collectors pay thousands for bottles from the Manchester casks.

That’s not all, though. The pub’s history dates back to the Peterloo massacre, attested to by a mural in its hallway.

Not entirely historically accurate, look closely and you’ll spot some of the rebels bear a striking resemblance to famous Manchester footballers.

Apparently, the previous owner was a bit of a fan.

Great Bridgewater Street

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Cask, Liverpool Road

This beautiful teal-fronted pub on Liverpool Road makes this list for a few reasons – the main one being that you can bring your chippy tea in with you.

Cask has become a firm favourite with Manchester beer-lovers in the two decades since it opened, boasting perhaps the most comprehensive selections in the city.

There are imports from across Europe, America and even further afield, plus a cracking selection of board games and a brilliant jukebox.

And yes, our favourite bit is nipping next door to The Fish Hut and bringing a chippy tea back to your table – you just have to agree to tidy up after yourself.

Liverpool Road, M3 4NQ

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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