Sinclair’s Oyster Bar

Always a hit with its spacious beer garden, and fantastically whimsical interior. Surprisingly cheap pints smack in the middle of City Centre, many a much-​needed break from Arndale shopping has ended up here.
On a sunny day the garden will be packed full with people, but even on a rainy evening this pub has great atmosphere. It isn’t for the claustrophobic with the low ceiling (watch your head through the doorways!) and narrow staircase, but the ambiance makes you quickly feel at home.

The beer they serve in here tastes excellent and is cheap, that is all you need to know.

I think Sunclair’s suffers from being a tourist bar really, it feels slightly unwelcoming and also if you are ‘new’ you feel it rather than other bars where you can walk in and feel part of the furniture. I suspect the biggest attraction of this place is the ability to drink outside with you mates. This feels distinctly wrong considering it is attached to a pub that does so much better at making you feel welcome. Normally I would make ‘nice’ but I have no intention of returning here any time soon as it was just a huge disappointment really.

One of two historical pubs framing a little square behind one of Manchester’s main shopping areas. If you turn your back to Harvey Nichols and Selfridges you can pretend to be in a medieval market town. We stopped by on a lovely summer’s day, but apparently it is even nicer during the winter when the Christmas market is on.

As good as it gets on a summers day

How have I not written a review for this place? Crazyness!
When I studied at Chester I used to frequent a pub called the Boot quite a lot. cheap beer in a old tranditional setting. Sinclairs is the equivalent to this but with an outside area.
You have to time this place right as it can get busy despite its large outdoor area. Passing the bouncers and walking inside will lead you into a windy room /​corridor place lined with Victorianesque wallpaper and photographs. This place actually used to be an oyster bar. ironically the owner choked on an oyster by swallowing the pearl and died.
Anyway, the bar is Joseph Holt so it’s cheap because it’s non branded. They occasionally do some nice flavoured ciders which are more expensive but tasty.
Overall this is a nice cheap pub, but again can be very busy. Oh and I don’t think they serve food, just crisps.

You can’t miss Sinclair’s– a black and white old Tudor pub opposite Selfridges and Harvey Nicks. Great in the summer months because you can sit outside on the tables, although lots of people smoking which can be annoying. Quite small inside so not always easy to get a seat. Cheap is chips– £2 a pint! They come in plastic cups, but at that price who cares.

Right outside the giant mall of Edinburgh.
The outdoor area is sick. The indoor pub is sick.
Thousands of patrons drinking ales and being sociable. Strangers fukin about, taking smack. Love it.
Not one cell phone in sight, everyone’s yappin.
Dayum, this is the shit.

I’ve never actually seen anyone eating oysters here, though I believe they do sell them!
This is a beautiful old timber framed building which was moved after the Manchester IRA bomb. It’s wonderful to have a look in all the nooks and crannies upstairs.
Outside seating is very popular though the whole place could do with a good jet-​washing. There was a problem with swarms of flies, which is only going to get worse as the weather gets warmer.
I love how they have really random prices such as £2.12 for a pint of ‘Taddys’ lager or £1.03 for a coke! Very reasonable prices for Manchester City centre, when most bars in this area would charge in the region of £4 for a pint. Service with a grunt rather than a smile, but hey at least it’s cheap!

We stopped in here for lunch and it was very impressive. It has a beautiful, old fashioned pub interior with very good food. I had the steak and kidney pudding with chips and vegetables. Everything about the steak and kidney pudding was perfect, from the crust to the delicious filling.

Love it in here. One of the best pubs to go to when the sun is shining, which means i don’t get to go as often as I’d like.

I love coming to this pub for a drink in the summer time. It has a good selection of alcohol for a decent price, plenty of beers on tap etc. but it’s the beer garden that really makes it here. Such a lovely setting when the sun is out, plenty of room to grab a seat and I’ve always experienced a friendly atmosphere when here with friends. Be warned however– on the weekend this place can become stag do central. It’s much more pleasant for a midweek drink after work with some friends.

Excellent boozer, smack in the middle of town. Ideal for shoppers who’re looking to grab a quick, cheap refreshment on a hot summers day.
It’s always packed, and there’s a very good reason for it too, the beer is great, and it’s cheap as chips.
Definitely worth a call.

If you’re ever in the Arndale or on Market Street and feel the need for a drink (or is that just me…) you could do a lot worse than Sinclairs.
The drinks are absurdly cheap, for a start. Is this the cheapest pint in the city centre? I think it could be. There’s a large beer garden and a number of cosy nooks and crannies to wedge yourself into inside, making it a great spot for a few drinks with a bunch of mates or a quiet get together with just one person.
Of course it gets busy at peak times — bargain prices and handy locations draw crowds, that’s a no brainer. But the times I’ve visited, on weekday evenings and midday weekends, it’s been happily busy with seats to be found.

I’m not a pub person. But there are things a pub must do for me to enjoy.
: good beer
: cheap beer
: nice atmosphere
: plenty of seating
Now it ticks all the boxes. The cheap beer is locally brewed but to be honest it’s nice and goes down very easy.
There is lots & lots of seating but the majority of it is outside.
Great on sunny days not so great on non sunny days.
The one problem I have is that due to it’s popularity even with all it’s seating it gets busy.
So now when I do fancy that beer (which isn’t often) and I’m in Manchester & it’s sunny it’s pretty much sure that I know too give it a miss. It’s a shame cos it’s really good cheap beer ! :(

I love Sinclair’s! Why, you ask? Well firstly, it’s situated close to the Manchester’s majestic cathedral and gardens, which is easily one of the city’s most beautiful areas. Secondly, it’s one of the oldest buildings in town, with an exterior that wouldn’t look out of place nextdoor to Shakespeare’s Globe theatre. And lastly? drinks prices are ridiculously cheap compared to most pubs in the city centre. Win!
On a sunny day, Sinclair’s beer ample garden gets absolutely rammed, often spilling out onto the street. However, there’s always a great atmosphere, which I feel even when I’m just walking past on my way to the Arndale Centre — and it never fails to tempt me!
Sitting inside the pub has its advantages too — not only is it a shorter distance to the bar (always a bonus), it’s set across two floors with several little nooks and crannies, low lighting, wooden walls and traditional décor. I can imagine it being haunted by some headless Elizabethan horseman, but that doesn’t put me off, in fact it just adds to its charm (plus, I ain’t afraid of no ghost).
Most of the time, drinks are served in plastic pint /​half pint glasses but it’s a small price to pay for paying a small price. Also, it can be a bit difficult to get to the bar sometimes, so those with claustrophobia and/​or bad B.O. should wait in the beer garden.
The food menu consists of basic pub grub at reasonable prices. I recently ordered a cheeseburger, chips and salad which was around £6. It was OK but nothing to write home about. To be honest though, this place isn’t really about food, it’s more about the cheap booze and great setting.

I love this pub (I know I am being completely subjective but with choosing bars and pubs I guess it must be by definition), it has exceptionally cheap beer. This makes me sound like a raging alcoholic, but let me defend myself before you decide that my second favourite spot is the park bench with my other tramp friends, as this pub not only serves incredibly cheap beer, but also has some of the best decoration in the whole of Manchester (as long as you like heavy oak walls and architecture and a cramped «this was made for the midget people of yesteryear» feeling).
Outside is sometimes like fighting your way through Mordor, but the enormously rotund bouncer tends to keep away the worst dregs of society and the plastic glasses make sure you will at worst come away moaning «why did you go and do that for?». If you are feeling a bit «Alan Bennett» then you can go to the adjoining pub, The Old Wellington, but you will only do this once when you realise the price of beer has doubled by walking all of twenty feet into a place not dissimilar to Sinclair’s.
I recommend Sinclair’s to anyone who wants to drink beer and pretend they are in an episode of Blackadder and sat in Mrs Miggins Pie Shop. Thoroughly great boozer.

Along with the Chop House, Sinclair’s is my favourite non-​Metal Pub. I like the outside and I like the inside. I like the prices and I like the chairs. I like the floors and I like the ceilings and I like the windows, but I don’t like flares (WTF were Mancs thinking in the early 90’s???)
Sorry for the digression.
The last time I went in I got two beers and recieved change from a fiver. How did this happen? Don’t they know that drinks in a City centre should cost as much as is humanly possible whilst making the customer cry?
It’s a great place to sit outside in summer with a beer watching the fools spending way too much money in Selfridges, safe in the knowledge that you are getting merry, but not becoming poor.
Maybe that should be their tag line «Sinclair’s, we make you merry, not poor»…

Sinclair’s is one of those places that has gained a huge following both inside and outside Manchester but, as ever, I’m not sure I agree.
The pricing, yes, is pretty solid stuff. No arguments here. The location, yes, is impressive; located next to all the favourite shops it’s a great place to stop and rest weary feet, it’s about 3 minutes from my apartment, and there’s a whole bunch of history related to the area regarding the IRA bombings.
Yet I never find myself suggesting Sinclair’s as a drinking spot. When the football is on it becomes a mecca for drunkness that I just can’t handle; the amount of police who have to gather around reflects how threatening the outside area here can become. Visiting on St. Paddy’s day there wasn’t so much a feeling of being threatened as there was a feeling of «isn’t it a bit cold to be stood out here/​why are you so drunk on a Sunday?» This feeling comes with the entire St. Paddy’s day celebration. The seating situation both inside and out get get pretty cozy when you’re visiting on a busy day and, as it would, the tight spaces make it a sticky atmosphere when winter rolls around and heating gets ramped up.
The main reason Sinclair’s is only geting 3 stars and not 4? No toilet roll in any of the ladies loos. Shoddy work when you know it’s going to be a busy day.

Oh, Sinclair’s. How excellent and awesome are you? Let me Unilocal the ways…
First off, this place looks fantastic. Look at the pictures! Maybe most people going to a pub could probably give a toss about how it looks on the outside as long as the drinks are good and the service is decent, but Sinclair’s gives you great aesthetic in and out. Right in the middle of all the new, typically modern buildings of city centre you’ve got this excellent, old-​world style pub that’s just oozing character. The outdoor patio is spacious too! What could be better?
Well, how about the inside? SInclair’s interior is all dark woods, nook-​and-​cranny rooms everywhere, fireplaces, and embossed wallpaper. It feels a little like the «Clue» movie mansion meets Swiss Family Robinson treehouse meets classic English pub. And I risk sounding too overenthusiastic and cheesy when I say that I can’t get enough of it, but truly, I can’t get enough of it. Too bad I’m always showing up later in the day and getting kicked out of the upstairs as they’re shutting it down. I suppose I’ll just have to start boozing it up earlier in the day so I can soak up all that atmosphere as my liver soaks up all that beer. Hehe.
As a Yank residing in Britland, the exchange rate between the weak-​as-​hell dollar and the stronger-​than-​thou pound is always at the forefront of my mind. Not so at Sinclair’s, where I can get a tasty pint for just £1.50 — a price that even this broke bint can afford! That’s probably the best bit about this place is how cheap it is for such quality ales and lagers. And that’s probably why it draws such a huge crowd on most days.
I’ve stuck to a strictly liquid diet on my adventures at Sinclair’s, so I’ve got nowt to say about the food here… wait a minute, is there food? Are there oysters? I can’t stand oysters anyway, so for all you Walrus’s and Carpenter’s wondering if the oyster bed is tasty or not, please refer to other more thorough Unilocal reviews about Sinclair’s, and I apologize for my ignorance (and distaste) to the subject.
Anyway, Sinclair’s is not to be missed if you’re looking for a great place to park it for a while and enjoy a frothy pint at a nice price. Check them out; you’ll be happy you did! Maybe even as happy as I am! Hehehe.

Ein traditionelles Pub mit eigenem (superleckerem) Bier. Gemütliches Ambiente und noch dazu mitten in der Stadt. Perfekter Abschluss von einem langen Shoppingtag! :o)