Sandbar is one of the Oxford Road Corridor’s best bars and one of the best in Manchester full stop. Though popular with students, it’s a million miles from the establishments that flyer Oxford Road every Freshers Week, attracting a bit more of a grown-up student crowd alongside academics and lecturers.
Sandbar is a great shout for pre-gig drinks if you are heading to Deaf Institute or the RNCM, or just a fine bar spot for settling in for an evening.
Dating back to the mid-nineties, Sandbar pre-dates much of the infrastructure that has developed around the knowledge quarter in the years since. Throughout all the changes surrounding it, one thing has remained consistent, quality beer.
Though now commonplace, Sandbar was serving up continental beers at a time when the choice in Manchester’s drinking establishments was often fairly limited. Like many places these days, their focus now is on local breweries and they’re pretty good at it too, picking up the Best Pub/Craft Ale Bar of The Year in 2019s Manchester Food and Drink Awards.
Beer aside, there are all the usual bar choices and the whiskey selection is probably the best in the area. If you don’t drink, the coffee is great and the kitchen knocks out an excellent menu of pizzas and calzone at a decent price.
All payments at Sandbar are cashless and their sustainability credentials make them fitting near-neighbours to The Eighth Day.
We can’t recommend Sandbar enough, housed in an industrial-era mill with a wood, brick and cobble interior, it feels well-aged and ideal for stocking carefully crafted drinks.
In the winter there can be a scramble for chairs indoors and in the summer all eyes are on the tables which surround the Sandbar’s two external walls and the cosy beer garden at the back. Make sure you’re there early to grab one.
