October 9, 2009
Very nice hotel bar, that is one of the main stays of the northern Manchester pub crawl. The bar itself isn’t the most luxurious, slightly scruffy, with a pool table and some tables with plastic chairs. 8 hand pumps with an ever changing range of beers mainly from micros from all across Britain. Mainly well kept. A good seelction of interesting bottled beers as well. Very friendly and efficient service. Inhabited mainly by locals and the odd beer geek. One of the best pubs in Manchester. (Visited July 2009)

August 25, 2009
Visited during RBESG 09. Dark, bit shabby looking place, an older couple running the bar. Ambiance was off because of the enormous screen covering almost the entire back section showing golf. The most expensive cellar run we had on the trip, but still cheap. Had some nice American bottled beers (Goose Island stuff) here and a whole lot of crappy bitters/golden ales. Good for a scoop, but not somewhere I would stay for a long time.

August 21, 2009 [ Updated August 25, 2009 ]
[RBESG 2009]. Some average casks, later the stuff did some cellar runs for us. some nice US bottles. Pretty average though

July 30, 2009
Barman seemed grumpy at first, but was good enough to provide us wth some cellar runs. Good portfolio of cask ales and some hard to find bottles from both UK and US to top it off. The bar lookes shabby but in fact this seems a well run place, always good for a few scoops.

July 30, 2009
Stopped by at RBESG. Very dark and cluttered interior. I tried two halves and went back to Marble Arch. The staff looked annoyed that so many wandered in, and the beer was below par. Yeah, there might have been many casks on, but when the room won’t invite you to enjoy them, then why?

March 22, 2009
The best scooping pub in the city. Pretty much everyone will find something new here every time they visit. The place itself is basic, verging on shabby but you can’t have everything.

February 22, 2009
Wow, what a beer mekka beerwise. I visited during when NWAF was on and they had their own Alternative Winter Ales Festival with around 60 casks rotating thru in 5 days - I wonder if any other bar in the world does that. So you have to come back every day of the festival, but if you stay at the hotel, the bar is not far away. As far as I’ve understood they have other festivals during the year, and 8 cask on all the time plus some bottled beers. Definately a must visit. The pub itself is quite dark, narrow and deep, a bit worn, with a thick red carpet and a run together of tables and chairs. The kitchen is across from the bar and looks like a kitchen You’d have at your house not the local pub - I didn’t try the food, but it looked allright. The service was nice, attentative, and knowledgable, doing cellarruns to keep the rotation flowing. Half pints sold at £1.25 - nice price.

November 29, 2008
Excellent boozer. Very basic and you could say it looks rather grubby but it has its own charm. Interesting selection of beers plus its own Smithfield Bitter produced by Phoenix. Basic but good food available.

October 31, 2008
Not the place where I would bring wife and kids. It looks a bit cheap, but we are here for the beer. Smithfield has 6 taps constantly changing according the owner. For me it was the first time that I tried English brews. I’m pleasently surprised.

January 22, 2008
Visited here on Saturday 19-01-08 having decided to give the national Winter Ales Festival in New Century House a rest for a bit. It was very busy as the pub had presumably deceided to have their own beer festival on this weekend as well. Both of the beers that I tried were in very good nick, the service was fine and the pub a great little place.