Balance Taproom has a genteel atmosphere, full of millennials keen to sup interesting booze away from all that city centre frenzy. And if that floats your boat, they’re the best of the small-scale batch.

Ok, so the music needs a bit of work, but overall Schofield’s Bar is one of the good ones. If Manchester’s going to earn (or maintain) a reputation as a world-class city, it needs bars like this.

A secret entrance, plant-based cocktails and a near-zero waste policy? Could Speak In Code be any more modish? It might hit all the latest bar touchstones but this is the kind of place that sets trends. This Jackson’s Row speakeasy is widely regarded as one of Manchester’s best bars, and we’d go to the wall for it.

The Rat & Pigeon is a great pub. At the downstairs bar, you’ll find a smart selection of beer, cheery staff and a motley crowd of old-school Manchester misfits: rockers, geeks and musos. There’s an unpolished, faintly lawless feel to it all – from the glitchy strip lighting on the staircase to the all-over-the-place soundtrack.

How many pigeons can one city host? Lots and lots, that’s how many. And this one’s even smoking a cig. Pigeon Beer Wanderer is the latest ale house to pop up nearby Piccadilly Train Station in an area no one is calling Manchester’s “Beermuda Triangle”.

The Abbey’s back, bebé. Or did it ever go away? It’s the last remaining building from the Greenheys slum clearances of the 1960s and 70s, brought bang into 2026 by some key figures in Manchester’s gig-going landscape. We’re talking the brains behind local institutions like YES, Now Wave, Gorilla and the Manchester Psych Fest. In short, it ain’t another chain pub.

Head Of Steam is ticking all boozy boxes. They’re nailing beers and cocktails, and serving up the exact kind of food your alcohol-addled brain could want. All high-quality, all with enough variety to keep you happy for many a blowout.

Posie is a cocktail bar, ran by our favourite team of restaurateurs and bar-owners, the 10 Tib Lane crew. This is the latest addition to their small but enormously loved mini-empire, which also includes the excellent Henry C in Chorlton. Plus, they’ve just launched a new outside terrace area in time for the coming spring-y, summer-y months.

In olden times, the word ‘Isca’ meant ‘flowing water’. Here, in Levenshulme, it’s all about flowing (natural) wine, with a neat sideline in meat-free dishes to soak up the sozzle.

Cafe Beermoth has all the trappings of ye olde traditional inns: plentiful kegs, lots of mahogany, and a reassuringly friendly atmosphere. But it also pours a revolving cast of seventeen draft lines focused on contemporary, forward-thinking beer.

Bar Lina brings Italian glamour to Quay Street. It’s a low-lit aperitivo bar with mirrored walls, a soundtrack of Italo Disco and expert cocktails.

Now under the expert control of Band On The Wall, The Rose & Monkey Hotel is one of the Northern Quarter‘s most vibrant live music venues-slash-self-proclaimed dive bar, injected with a fair amount of old-school pub vibes.

Impiety Hour is the dive bar spinoff of high-minded clubbing institution The White Hotel. Sure, it’s a bit silly – part moody pub, part avant-garde bookshop – but it’s great that places like this can thrive in Manchester. Don’t forget your scarf and Oxfam-sourced Camus paperback.

A proudly independent out-of-town gem, Nordie does everything from smart cocktails to craft beer, with a neat sideline in natural wines. Everything you could want from a neighbourhood bar.

Kerb in Ancoats is part wine bar, part gallery, with a quietly cutting-edge side. Innovative art, guest DJs and walls piled high with bottles of natural wine. Very Ancoats and very, very good.