O perfil de CatBow

An excellent live music venue in a particularly crappy area of Ardwick, just south of the city centre. Its a wonderful white art deco building, with a really atmospheric interior. For gigs the seats in the stalls are taken out, and as they are on a slope that means its one of the few places short people can actually see the stage from the back! There’s also seating upstairs.
Bars can get very busy, 4 or 5 deep just before gigs start, so go early if you want to get a pint or two in.

Surprisingly good place for Sale, nice bar, chilled out atmosphere, decent food and regular live music nights. Recommended.

Tribeca and the downstairs area Bed are a New York style loft bar, just on the edge of the gay village. Its a cool place with a mixed crowd, and the place really makes an effort both with decor and the different nights they put on throughout the week. Downstairs Bed lives up to its name with beds you and your mates/amour can chill out on. There's even a chance to do horizontal karaoke some nights!

A cosy little place on Canal Street, Velvet is lovely for an intimate meal. Its quirky with TVs in the toilets and live fish in the stairs, and the food is always up to scratch. Upstairs is a pub I think - I watched England get kicked out of the World Cup in the bar area and it all became a little vague...... (ps its not really a football watching bar, think this was a one-off!)

One of the places to pioneer the bar culture in manchester, this place has been around a while. However it has a lot to offer - its still stylish after all these years, and it has one of the best beer gardens in Manchester, a cool enclosed 2-level terrace area where BBQs are held on weekends. The drinks are average city centre prices, the food is pretty good for bar food, but the laid-back atmosphere is what makes it hard to leave.

I went for lunch at Stock with my dad and had high expectations as had been told it was the best Italian in town. The building itself is beautiful - its been converted from the old Manchester Stock Exchange Hall. It was quiet on a weekday lunchtime, and we got very attentive service. However I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed. We were eating from a special offer menu and maybe this meant the food was not up to standard but the pasta dish I had, although huge, was pretty standard stuff. The atmosphere is quiet, almost reverential. I could very much see this is an ideal business lunch venue, but for me, it lacked that soemthing that turns a meal into a great occasion.

Something that maybe only Manchester can offer, a bar in an old public toilet (hence the name). This bar, whose two entrances are bizzarely located in the middle of the road, is tiny, as you'd imagine, but wonderfully atmospheric. There are posters covering the walls and the dingy toilets have some of the most extensive graffiti in town. It gets pretty busy, so unless you've nabbed a seat you don;t want to hang around for long, but a night out in Manchester wouldn't be complete without a visit.

Insider tip: if you're looking for a taxi near the Whitworth St West/Oxford Road area, go to this taxi office opposite the Ritz and bang on/kick the shutters. The nice taxi ppl upstairs will get a taxi to come round and pick you up. Awesome.

Part of a chain, but with a good neighbourhood feel, Piccolino is hugely popular with Manchester diners all week long. Serving fresh Italian food off a really tempting menu, its a place you can't help going back to again and again. The place always seem hectic but the staff take the time to make you feel welcome and special. There is a range of food options - risotto, pasta, pizza, meat and fish dishes, which combined with the atmosphere takes it way and above somewhere like Pizza Express, or Croma opposite. Highly Recommended.

Ah...wonderful Pad Thai! I spent 5 years in Birmingham, but have now moved back to Manchester, and the one thing I miss, above all, is Pad Thai. Its a basement karaoke bar just off the Smallbrook Queensway roundabout, underneath a Thai restaurant of the same name. There is a main bar area, as well as private rooms for groups - there is a minimum spend for these.
However you are treated very well in the main room. There is table service for drinks, the staff will provide you with a cool Thai dice game if you ask. When you have submitted your karaoke requests, and your song comes round, they will bring the mikes over to your table so you don't have to get up on stage, which is good for novice singers!
This is a great place for groups, and it is often one of the only places in town to get seats for a group of people later on in a night. Its a great atmosphere, can be either very chilled on quieter nights or a real party feel on weekends. Highly recommended.