Kro Bar

On of the few reasons I could come up with for not giving 5 stars to KroBar is that they don’t take orders at your table but you have to bother going to the counter to ask for food and drinks. Anyway, the rest of the service is excellent, also very fast.
The place is original, the décor is minimal yet warm, and it’s also very easy to reach since it’s on Oxford Road. Prices are affordable, I would dare say almost low, at least if compared to other restaurants in the surroundings. Indeed, for less than ⁷⁄₈ £ you can get a very good meal. I would advice to try their Danish delicacies; I had they danish burger with crispy onions and loads of gravy, excellent. I also tasted the danish meatballs with sweet red cabbage and veggies, and the red cabbage was surprisingly sweet indeed, like nothing I have ever tried before.
A very interesting offer (that I want to exploit soon!) is their 2−4−1: once you get the KroCard (which is free for students and members of staff at uni), you can get two dishes and pay only for one. What you can get with this offer depends on the day of the week, and it doesn’t apply on Fridays and Saturdays.

Kro bar is one of those places close to uni where you (a student) go for a pint regularly with your colleagues and lecturers/​professors on a Friday afternoon. After years of visiting this place I had my first lunch there the other day!
For those who have never been there, it is a Kro bar — a tad Scandinavian looking, with a selection of decent beers, a nice outside terrace. It is not the nicest place to spend too long a time in, tables are awkwardly positioned around the bar, and further in, there are a bit uncomfortable long tables with wooden benches — much like an Octoberfest style seating. However the terrace is great and that’s where I spent all my evenings!
The food: I had a Thai chicken salad for lunch, it was not advertised as spicy but I think it was implied in the word ‘Thai’. Just about the right amount of spice for me anyways! It came as a freshly grilled chicken breast on a plate of cold noodles and vegetables. I really enjoyed it and would definitely have again, although if there was one thing I would say is that the sauce seemed a bit too thin, with all the spiciness left for the end.
My vegetarian friend had a mushroom risotto and said he really enjoyed it too :)

As I studied and currently work at the University, this is the place we always meet for any straight-​out-​of-​work celebration, cheeky drinks, lunch, etc. In the last week, I’ve come here after work for prosecco and dinner and also for a work breakfast meeting.
For dinner, I had a the creamy chicken pasta thing, I remember thinking it was a bit small so I also ordered a brownie (they were out if Eaton Mess) which was served with a rather stingy serving of vanilla ice cream — having said that, the brownie was HOOGE! I’m not much of a chocolate fan but those who are would love it!
For breakfast I ordered a pit of tea but they didn’t have any pots so instead, they gave me a tea in the smallest mug they had (sad face). We all had some version of the poached egg breakfast, all came very stylishly on slate plates which were awful to drag the knife across. And for safe measure, I got a bake well slice to go lest I got hungry on my walk back to work.
Overall, it’s a popular place to get an after work drink for us uni folks. Other than painting the whole downstairs bar green, I don’t remember when was the last time they updated the place?

I used to come to Kro regularly as a student around 10 years ago, but I have to say that things seem to of either stayed still or in fact just failed to move with the times since I used to come here. I was meeting friends for drinks and food before heading off to a concert at the Royal Northern.
As I waited at the bar to be served everyone seemed to be busy but there were no other customers at the bar, so I waited to be served I notice this problem did not persist as soon as a better looking chap came to the bar, but never mind. I ordered a Caesar salad with chicken and bacon (attempting a healthier option), and my friends ordered burgers. When the food arrived it was disappointing, probably more so for my friends than me, as my gripe is more related to way my meal was served as the chicken and bacon and much of the salad was in to larger bits and either needed to be provided in a shallower bowl (so using a knife and fork would not cause issues), or in fact it would of been better served in smaller chunks so that the knife was not needed. My friends burgers on the other hand were mean, I do think if you are paying almost £7 for a burger it should include a side of some description that is not 3 or 4 salad leaves. The service once ordered was okay (still hot) the food came, but it really did just feel fairly generic and disappointing.
It seems a shame that Kro Bar has fallen so far in my opinion, I suspect that I won’t be back any time soon, considering that other options in the area.

I was on my way down Oxford Road to a meeting but had a quick hour to kill and needed to get some work done. After spotting their breakfast deal of a bacon muffin and coffee for £3.60 this place seemed to make sense.
First off Kro was somewhere that I used to enjoy going to many years ago (all incarnations — Kro Piccadilly, Kro 2 etc) but over the years I feel they’ve stood still a bit and as each place shuts down, they don’t replace it with anything fresh or exciting (with so many new places opening up in Manc they’ve fallen behind the competition)
Kro on this occasion was ok but a little tired looking, the bacon roll was ok but nothing special and the ketchup I had on it was some of the horrible vinegary kind that’s super cheap — putting it on my roll pretty much ruined it for me!
I also have to say that the wifi was super slow and in the end I just ditched it for tethering on my phone.
I’ve been into Kro for beers at night before gigs and the atmosphere has always been good but as a day time venue it was really lacking something. Just scrapes a 3 star because I know it’s not bad at night!

Would you expect a chef from Naples to deliver a great Gravad Lax?
No?
Well I wouldn’t either so what the hell possessed me to order an Italian dish in a place where it’s obvious that the head chef is Scandinavian?
Chicken & chorizo risotto caught my eye because I adore the Italian take on the ubiquitous national rice dish
Mistake!
Someone needs to tell the sous chef that you can’t just chop spicy Italian sausage & throw it into a risotto just before serving — it needs to be cooked first to remove that «cold salami taste» and render the natural fat in the chorizo
Anyway, rant over…
Cool place, great beer (Wainwright hand drawn for me), friendly staff
A wonderful use of what is probably a listed building right across the road from the Manchester University students union
I’ll be back and then make sure that I sample the exquisite-​looking Danish (I think) items on the menu
Will update review and I’m sure give more stars on my return
What could have been evocative memories of my time working in Norway, Sweden & Denmark were destroyed tonight by my own stupidity!

Longstanding bar directly opposite the student union. Prices suggest it’s for university employees and rich students.
There’s plenty of beers on offer and I like the building and interior. I’m not so keen on their food. I had Danish pork tenderloin with red cabbage and «herbed» potatoes yesterday. This was fairly pleasant but the potatoes hadn’t had even a sniff of anything but boiled water. I’ve previously had a very disappointing Sunday roast here too. The price of the roast beef was good but the quality was not. I’ve done much better myself and I’m not that amazing a cook. I remember using the words, «tastes like a school dinner». Hmmm. My cousin did enjoy her Croque Monsieur though.
I’d come back for a drink. Or a toastie.

Lush café, relaxed atmosphere, beer range is fab, the orange cake is AMAZING!
Great outdoor smoking area at the back and benches inside which is great for big groups or live music! Some great student nights here too:)

Stopped by here on a mini pub crawl around Manchester and I was really impressed. The staff were really friendly and very helpful. The drink selection was great and the food looked amazing at the table next to us. Wish we had stopped her for food as they have a danish section on their menu that looked intriguing.
The best bit they have beer gardens front and back. withe the rear garden being massive. Ideal this is on my list of places to head back to next time I find myself in Manchester.