Mr Thomas’s Chop House

Owned by the same group that has Sam’s Chop House, this is an old school pub with really, really good food. A little window into days gone by, with good (ish) service, and a really wonderful Yorkshire Pudding. I’d probably choose Sam’s over this (partly because the beer selection is better there), but if Sam’s were full or closed, I wouldn’t really have a problem going here instead. Worthwhile.

Had a really lovely salad — corned beef, potatoes, pickled veg, poached egg on dressed mixed greens. Was a good place to get a relaxing casual dinner, but with higher end food. Service was kind, prompt, and offered me suggestions when asked. I wish I had more of an appetite, because the puddings looked delicious.
I ate here on a Thursday night at 2030, so it wasn’t too busy in the dining area (about half full), with several people in the bar. Would definitely return.

I am an avid non-​believer in food porn, I dont like to post photos of food, I just like to eat it. That being said, Tom’s food is a masterpiece in everyway that makes me want to photograph it, I didn’t, but wouldnt blame anyone if they did.
The Hash is sublime! It is just a shame when I try to convince others to have Corned Beef Hash they just look at me like I am mad.
The victorian atmosphere is lovely and the staff are helpful beyond reproach. The food is expensive but I wont mark it down for this, it is worth every penny for the experience and atmosphere combined with the wonderful food.
5* — Perfect for dates where good food is the order of the day!

Mr Thomas’s Chop House is to older male relatives what Mr Cooper’s House and Garden is to older female relatives: perfect. Actually I found it pretty perfect too. We shared a tasty starter of whitebait and corn beef hash then I had bubble & squeak for my main, while my dad & friend tried the Manchester Steak (which is kind of like a very advanced burger) and my sis had regular steak and some excellent giant chips. Everyone liked their food and enjoyed the beautiful Victorian setting. We also enjoyed the house red, a cabernet sauvignon. Service was attentive and friendly.
Highly recommended for a classic English meal. I note other reviewers have disparaged the English food — don’t come here if you think you’re not going to like it, I would venture to suggest! It’s not as refined flavour wise as many other cuisines, but if you want hearty comfort food, it’s a great option.

I went to the Chop House today having read their good reviews on Unilocal,and with me looking for a new Gluten Free resturant that would replace TEA4/​2 as my go to place for breakfast in the city centre. Unfortunatly, my search goes on.
I rang up this place to see if their Corned Beef Hash was Gluten Free, the man checked with the chef and told me it was, hence this is what I ordered. I was quite confused when I got to this bar, as the back enterance was closed, I thought the restaurant was shut hence I had to phone them back, the woman was talking in a way, like I was stupid, saying this is a resturant, when I accidentaly called it a shop and for not noticing the front enterance, which honestly is well hidden.
The wait for my food was slightly longer than normal, however I wouldn’t of minded this if my food is nice and fresh, I expected it to be made out of gold for its £13 price tag and taste great however it didn’t even warrant a price tag of half of their charge. The corned beef was cooked seperate to the potato, and like the bacon was very chewy, the potatos were just bland and too soft. I didn’t see many vegetables in my dish either. They call this a famous dish and it must be famous for being daylight robbery considering how it tasted and how much it cost.
The only good thing about my meal was the small egg, and last time I checked an egg on its own that size, isn’t worth £13, I bet you could get a good few dozens with that from the local supermarket.
This is a very old building but some parts are more modern than others.
Overall, the food here is terrible considering the price I paid, some of the staff here are nice, friendly and helpful and some certainly are not, that is why I feel even 1 star is generous for this establishment.
I wish my 275^th review on Unilocal could of been a more positive one, but Dissapointment just sums up my visit her today.
Thet even added a £3.23 service charge to the bill, which was compulsory and I wasn’t told about until I saw the bill. The food and service would of warranted them paying me and not me giving them £3.23. It is bad enough their pricing but adding this on to the bill is disgraceful.

The second of the three Chop Houses I’ve eaten in. I can confidently say it became one of the best dining experiences I’ve had all year.
Finding myself lumbered at the last minute with the arduous task of arranging my team’s Christmas-​time meal, I initially struggled with what type of cuisine to go for.
So instead of the standard Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Italian and after sampling the menu at their brother restaurant Albert’s (
) I decided to go for British and was relieved to get a table considering it was Christmas work party central in the city.
After a couple of local pints we arrived in good time and were seated at a great table about halfway down the venue. I had no idea how narrow yet insanely long this place was — a 19^th century Grade II listed building internally decorated with glossed tiles, ironwork and pictures of historical Manchester. It’s a sight to behold.
With the exception of Scallops & Black Pudding (I hate the latter with a passion), I would have ordered any of the starters on the seasonal menu. Ultimately deciding on the Chop House Game Pâté, it was a lovely choice and whet my appetite for what was to follow.
The legendary Mr Thomas’s Famous Home-​made Corned Beef Hash. I have to copy and paste from the menu:
«10 days in the making — to our own secret recipe — served with sautéed potatoes & creamed onions. Finished with a soft-​poached egg & Cheshire-​smoked dry-​cure bacon.»
It was exquisite. All of it. I wanted to eat it again the next day, for every meal. I still want it now — tell me the secret recipe!
The service was exemplary as well, we were asked regularly if we wanted more drinks and considering the place quickly filled, we didn’t have to wait too long for our meals.
Washed down with pints of Dizzy Blonde, Unicorn and Best Bitter by Black Sheep, it’s safe to say my team approved of my choice to come here. I’ve got a feeling they’ll demand it for Christmas 2015 as well — it’s certainly already got my vote.

Went for the chop house roast so I had the lamb, gammon and beef. It was pretty tasty however the red cabbage that came on the plate had too much vinegar in it and there should have been more gravy as it was a little dry. The meat was delicious and the potatoes and Yorkshire pudding were crisp. I quite liked the décor, they’ve got a lot of original features and it genuinely seems like a traditional sort of place. The beer choice was a little limited, only really Heineken, Guinness and fosters on tap, I expected a few more, also the food selection didn’t have a lot of vegetarian options for a couple of my friends that dined, you’d expect at least a nut roast so they could have a roast meal as well. Overall it was good but room for improvement, you expect a heritage place to have more local produce and some interesting beers.

This place is great… awesome value traditional British food… I’ve just had turkey dinner (I know that’s American) with all the trimmings for £13.00 … was top quality too.
Amazing décor, good beers and friendly staff. .one f my favourites in manchester for lunchtime.
Enjoy

I came for a drink not food so can’t review that. The bar section is nice and relaxed with Victorian style interior. There’s a few beers on tap although some weren’t available. I went on a Saturday night and there seemed to be more of an older crowd.

Hey guys before reading any further I haven’t eaten here so I’m only discussing the bar!
For a start as a self respecting Mancunian I’m ashamed to admit I still couldn’t tell you which one is Tom’s and which is Sam’s (I’m pretending that thing on Albert Square doesn’t exist… ghastly). All I know is I like the ‘Chops’… They’re a staple of my drinking and have been for years. They are cosy and fill that cheeky pint after work void. They have a good selection of ale and change it up too. It’s a tad expensive and can become filled with types I usually choose to avoid. It loses a star for me for those reasons. I just like it. I don’t love it. Maybe the food would get it an extra star.
It’s a good solid pub/bar…a PAR or a BUP perhaps? Anyway… go. It’s nice.

We finally got around to eating at the Chop House. Lunchtime midweek and we found ourselves nearby with a need for comfort food and a bit of cash to splurge, so we decided to venture in. It’s an interesting building, Victorian tiles and dark wood everywhere with a good atmosphere and a delicious menu. We ordered 2 courses, myself the vegetarian scotch egg followed by steak and kidney pie and chips, Mr Z, the onion soup and the corned beef hash. The onion soup was, to state the obvious, oniony. Really oniony. Thick and oniony and sweet and rich and topped with a melty cheesy croûton. The scotch egg was perfectly soft and runny wrapped in a crumbly layer of vegi black pudding which was identical to the meat version in taste and texture and served with deep fried capers, little salty and sharp bites within a tempura thin, ultra-​crispy shell. The crowning glory though was their home made brown sauce, fruity and spicy and the perfect compliment to the divine oozy egg.
My main dish was huge. A massive pile of chips, a creamy and comforting dollop of mushy peas, a jug of gravy and under the heavenly suet crust, an ocean of rich beefy sauce studded with generous chunks of steak and kidney all soft and yielding and full of savoury goodness.
The corned beef hash was topped with the second oozy egg of the day and nothing quite beats the look and taste of runny golden yolk trickling down a mini mountain of beef and potatoes.
A bit pricy for a regular lunch, but perfect for a treat, and you certainly won’t leave hungry!

What a great bar! Very old fashioned and traditional with a great buzz about it.
Not being a local to Manchester I was fortunate enough to come across this wee gem of a bar. Of all the bars I tried whilst in Manchester this was the one that struck a chord with me. Great beer selection both bottled and on tap.
Will be sure to pay another visit next time I’m in town.

Good for: tradition, Summer
Bad for: The tall and wide and the claustrophobic

One of Manchester’s oldest traditional boozers. Situated in a tiny attractive Victorian building and internally the green ceramic tiles add to the atmosphere. Good outdoor area in a small square overlooking the Church just off St Ann’s Square.
Unfortunately as with a lot of old skool boozers also pricey and this along with Sams this is probably the priciest! However it is definitely worth it.
Only eaten at lunchtime but the door stop sarnies are especially good — recommend the fish and mushy peas. Yum!

It’s still not quite spring or summer yet, as per the British climate. The days may be sunny but the evenings are cold and rainy, and quite windy. If you’re craving traditional British stodge in a cosy environment, this is the place to come. Mr Tom’s keeps its food simple and its gloriously Victorian tiled walls warm for one of the friendliest welcomes you’ll find in all of Mancunia.
Wander along Cross Street, and you certainly won’t be expecting to see a place like this. Sure, we have tons of old buildings in the city centre nestled amongst the space-​age architecturally crazy new ones, that’s part of the Manchester landscape and its status as an acquired taste (very Marmite, and of course I love both Marmite and Manchester), but this little spot stands out not like a sore thumb but a very intriguing one. A twisted, higgledy piggledy tower that would look more at home in Exchange Square; wander inside and it’s been kept lovingly as Victorian as possible. Those wall tiles I mentioned? They’re certainly authentic when they’re that delightful bottle green colour. Dark wood as far as the eye can see, a bar that serves wine in gargantuan goblets… it’s like a warm hug in pub restaurant form.
The food is heavy. Be warned, you don’t come here if you want a salad or a sandwich. There’s no escaping a good side of something oily or chunky… even a lighter option like the pan-​fried seabass comes with a pile of buttery new potatoes. Only the brave need go for the starters on top of all this, they’re a meal in themselves — chunky soups, goat’s cheese on toast etc. I went for the traditional fish and chips with mushy peas, and my chips weren’t regular chips. If He-​Man or King Kong wanted chips, this is how they’d look. Forget long thin fries, each chip uses up about a quarter of a huge potato. The mushy peas were exactly as I like them, more solid than liquid (yay!), the home made tartare sauce was to die for and the main event, the fish, was a beast of a thing that melted in the mouth beneath its delicious batter. It wasn’t greasy, I promise you, but the batter itself was in fact a little rich and might not suit all tastes. Even a crispy coating lover like myself struggled with it!
There was a slight issue when someone at our table ordered a steak he thought would be fillet, but it turned out to be rib-​eye, which he’s really not a fan of. But those who actually like the fatty cuts of beef would have certainly been chuffed… it’s just a shame the menu didn’t make things slightly clearer. It goes without saying we had absolutely no room for pudding, but had we given it a little longer we’d have been unable to resist that dark chocolate and honeycomb parfait, sticky toffee pudding, even cheeky nods to Manchester like the Vimto jelly and ice cream. All in all we were full, we were happy and it was proper pub grub at its finest. I’d heartily recommend!

Mr Thomas’s Chop House is the place where I always choose to meet up with my out of town buddies, i’m not 100% sure why, it just seems like a meet up kind of place, and it’s always buzzing.
It’s always a good stop off point before and after being dragged around the increasingly dull Yule Market, and I like to pop in and have a couple after a spree in Waterstones.
Even though I have been in there at least 20 times, I am yet to eat there, and going off what some friends and Mrs Z have said about the food it seems I am missing out. Maybe that’s where the missing star will come from.
Yep, as a city centre Pub, the Chop House is a winner, and if you pop in around November or December and you see a bespecaled weirdo crying at the bar, put your arm around my shoulder, buy me a Bourbon and Coke and tell me «It’s alright Lee, you don’t have to go to the Market, stay here and keep warm».

This was very good English food but still, English food.
I had the Salmon Salad to start then the Pork Belly with Black Pudding.
The Salmon Salad was advertised as coming with Waldorf Salad but it was only a few walnuts, a grape, and a piece of apple spread out on the plate. OK but I was disappointed.
The pork belly was English-​style — very overcooked. It was local and high-​quality but overcooked for my tastes.
I had forgotten the Black Pudding (blood pudding) I had had before in England and was expected something like French boudin (not the Louisiana boudin). The black pudding was so loaded with breadcrumbs that you could barely detect the liver-​like flavor of the blood.
I give them three stars though because it was a very good example of English food and the beer and atmosphere were great.

Mr Thomas’s Chop House exemplifies every thing that is wrong and terrible with traditional British cuisine. British food lives up to the stereotype at this Establishment.
I went here for Sunday lunch and nothing was appealing from starter to pudding. The goat cheese tart was cool in the centre. Leg of lamb roast was so dry it needed the gravy. Bottom line recommendation is to not come here for anything but a pint.

Wandered in here on the off chance last Saturday night. Great interior and a bouncer who was civil made an immediate impression.
We only had drinks and as I didn’t get the round in I can’t comment on whether the prices were through the roof but purely for the look of the place I’d go back and check out the menu.

Mr Thomas’ Chop House!!! Saying it like that makes it sound awesome. But whenever I walk past here my nostrils are filled full of the smell of a hard working kitchen, the kind I use to work in before I came to uni, the food is to high standard and everything it rehearsed and runs like clockwork. The smallest or cosiest (you decide) restaurant in Manchester this places dates back to 1872 and is all about the industrial nostalgia.
The Victorian feel takes you back to the times before you were born with a big variety of ales and lovely jubely home cooked style food. Try the corn beef hash and you’ll be pleasantly surprised that something you may consider to be a tad vulgar to be sooooo gooooodddd. Additionally the fish and chips or ale and steak pie are all sound options. Watch out tho if your heading to this place on a evening chances are its going to be rammed. Book ahead to avoid disappointment.