From sophisticated rooftop terraces to sports bars, breweries and underground cocktail bars, Manchester likes to keep everything in close proximity. We’ve rounded up some of the best bars and restaurants in Manchester city centre that are great for meeting up with colleagues or clients to unwind and mingle after a long day.
Each of the bars and restaurants on this list is personally recommended by the Manchester Confidential editorial team. We make it our job to sample and taste test around the city so that you don’t waste a second of downtime on rubbish pints or cocktails.
Looking for entertainment? The Blues Kitchen could be right up your street with its house band playing most nights alongside a cracking range of beers, wines, cocktails and softs. Local brews are always on offer at Bundobust and Seven Bro7thers. And if it’s cocktails you’re after, look no further than the stylings of The Alchemist, The Jane Eyre or Three Little Words.
Keep scrolling for 22 bars in Manchester that are perfect for after event drinks:
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Spinningfields
20 Stories
Manchester’s highest – and possibly finest – restaurant, bar and terrace. D&D London’s flagship Manchester restaurant, 20 Stories was the opening of 2018. Floor to ceiling windows (and a huge, outdoor terrace, the same size as the entire restaurant floor), afford breathtaking views of the city and surrounding countryside, while the menu offers modern British, seasonal dishes.
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Book Now Manchester City Centre
53two
With a gentle gradient throughout and a lowered bar, 53two is one of Manchester’s most inclusive and accessible venues. Half bar and cafe, half performance area, this unique space under Manchester’s Grade II* listed railway arches is the perfect stop for a drink and a snack before hitting the town or the local theatres – including the one in-house.
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Book Now Spinningfields
The Alchemist Manchester Spinningfields
The Alchemist in Spinningfields was the original of three Manchester venues and has a good-sized outdoor terrace and plenty of copper colours and bronze hues. And while base metals don’t magically become gold here, theatre is promised at The Alchemist.
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BOX Deansgate
BOX is all about big-screen sports, booze (including two-for-one cocktails) and blokes singing – “bandeoke” is a thing and it exists here – live music Thursday to Saturday, shuffleboard and tournament-themed food (Six Nations served up fiery dragon fries and a burger de Paris).
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The Blues Kitchen Manchester
The Blues Kitchen Manchester is the first opening outside the capital for Columbo Group, which also owns the Jazz Cafe chain. And while we always enjoy treating cut-and-paste transplants from London with a healthy dose of scepticism, this one serves Manchester’s food (and music) scene well.
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Book Now Greater Manchester
Bundobust Brewery
A real Northern success story, the second location for Bundobust in Manchester and the fourth in the family of northern-based restaurants (Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds and Liverpool have come before), the Bundobust Brewery is a welcome addition to Oxford Street at the southern part of the city.
With a menu that mirrors its sister restaurants, the food is a reliable selection of Indian-style vegetarian small plates. Expect to find crisp okra fries dusted with black salt and mango powder and the iconic vada pav – a deep-fried mashed potato ball in a bun, with red and green chutneys.
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Northern Quarter
Ducie Street Warehouse
Ducie Street Warehouse is all sorts of things, but one of those things is a restaurant. It’s an all-day affair with everything from classic brunches to late-night cocktails. On the menu you’ll find a good selection of small sharing dishes and large plates – it’s a sociable kind of place. And of course, you’ll also find Ducie Street Warehouse’s signature focaccia flatbreads.
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Ancoats
Elnecot
Named after the first recorded name for Ancoats, Elnecot (meaning ‘lonely cottages’) takes its influence from historical cooking methods with lots of fermenting, a little foraging and a few nose-to-tail dishes.
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Manchester City Centre
Escape to Freight Island
Food hall meets music festival is how we’d describe Escape to Freight Island to anyone confused about what they’ll find at this regenerated rail depot beyond Piccadilly Station.
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Grand Pacific
Grand Pacific is the work of Living Ventures and it easily outshines its sibling venues in terms of pure glamour. Not in a big chandeliers, glass and chrome Spinningfields way, but with a decadent blend of colonial Raffles-style grandeur and some of the best of the city’s Victorian architecture.
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Manchester City Centre
Haunt
When Peter Street lost its Caffe Nero it gained Haunt, an independent coffee shop and wine bar. Stepping inside, you feel like this corner spot in the beautiful St George’s House, with its views of the Midland Hotel and Central Library, has finally got the classy occupier it deserves.
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Book Now Ancoats
The Jane Eyre
The Jane Eyre is a self-styled ‘neighbourhood bar’ offering seasonal food, classic cocktails and local beers. Presided over by Eyre siblings Jonny and Joe, it is, mildly disappointingly, not a Gothic homage to the Yorkshire based tragic-heroine but actually named after their late mum.
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Manchester City Centre
The Mews
The Mews is one of a clutch of new places to set up shop on Deansgate Mews, or ‘deli alley’ as we’ve heard it called.
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Manchester City Centre
Mount Street Dining Room & Bar
Set inside Manchester’s iconic Midland Hotel, Mount Street Dining Room & Bar is a chic space with an all day menu that offers a modern take on British classics using top-notch, locally sourced, fresh seasonal ingredients.
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The Refuge
Winning small plate fusion in an iconic and glamorous setting. Housed in Manchester’s iconic The Refuge Assurance Company dating back to 1858, this DJ-run restaurant and bar is large and sassy.
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Salt Dog Slims Manchester
“Steins, brines, and good times” – that’s how the saying goes at American-inspired Salt Dog Slims, new over from Liverpool, although tbh it’s probably more of the former and mostly the latter, but then who wants to get in the way of a fine rhyme as we all just try and rub along in this world?
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Manchester City Centre
Sam’s Chop House
The acclaimed and atmospheric Sam’s Chop House serves British classics from a kitchen where flavour is king. Part of the Victorian Chop House company, the menu is similar at Mr Thomas’s Chop House and the Albert Square Chop House.
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Book Now Manchester City Centre
San Carlo Bottega
Head to any of the ristorantes in the acclaimed and award-winning family-run San Carlo Group and you know you’re in for exceptional ingredients, artfully prepared, and served in super chic surroundings. Bottega is the place for Champagne and cicchetti-style medium-sized plates that are tailor-made for sharing.
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Ancoats
Seven Bro7hers Ancoats
This bar on Cutting Room Square from the Seven Bro7hers Brewery clan is perfectly placed to cater for the craft beer drinkers of Ancoats.
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Manchester City Centre
Society
Located in between St Peter’s Square and The Bridgewater Hall, Society brings new life to the quiet yet elegant stretch of city between Oxford Street and First Street. The outside area is a sunspot bordered by a fountain and a garden, making it feel more like Madrid than Manchester (weather permitting of course).
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Manchester City Centre
The Fountain House
The Fountain House is the newest lodger of the Gothic-arched Memorial Hall sitting one corner of Albert Square, and its modern old-fashioned surrounds and plentiful portions of proper pub grub – mostly British but with a little European inspiration – do the imposing building proud.
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Three Little Words
Three Little Words is housed under the arches at the lesser-visited end of Watson Street, near Beetham Tower. Inside you’ll find the Spirit of Manchester gin distillery, a cocktail bar, and a kitchen serving small plates with thoroughly decent cooking. It’s certainly a place worth knowing about.
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Manchester City Centre
Wood & Company
With its disguised entrance and back street location, Wood & Co has the feel of a secret speakeasy only frequented by those in the know. The unmarked door is on South King Street, in between Cross Street and Deansgate. Descend the steps and you’ll find yourself in a tiled, sleek space centred on a marble bar that stretches the length of the room.