Retro Bar

I’m definitely going to sound like a snob here.
I’ve been dragged here several times with thespians after shows at Joshua Brooks and Lass O’Gowry.
This review will be short.
The Beer’s crap. The staff are ‘over confident’, verging on rude & judgemental, and often drunk. It’s a dive.
Avoid.

Not the most beautiful exterior façade nor a beautiful interior but this old-​fashioned bar offers some perks such as relatively cheap array of drinks and some good quality food for the price. However, best of all has to be the breakfasts, which before lectures was definitely what was needed!

Not been Retro Bar since the world cup in 06. Went back last night for a hardcore night live bands and club night afterwards. It was actually in the basement in which I have never been into. The atmosphere was great, down and dirty and relaxed at same time despite what the music sounds like lol. The drinks were insanely cheap mind you I don’t drink so I was on pepsi all night. It’s a narrow room with seating down the side and tiny toilets but for some reason I enjoyed it. I liked the venue just a shame the music didn’t agree with me put my sort of music on there and you have a fan for life!

Down to the basement we go…
…For another Unilocal review =)
For a hardcore rock gig before turning in to a club night, it wasn’t half bad in the basement! Good for a live band (but take ear plugs, you’ll be deaf the day after otherwise) and don’t wear heels — your shoes stick to the floor!
However, these points should not put you off as these are essential factors that really make ‘underground gigs’ (I had to get a pun joke in here somewhere?) with local bands =)
Cheap drinks! I did enjoy those and the bar woman was lovely! Toilets were clean except no soap… I have yet to venture to the main venue!

I’ve been here for a full English breakfast a couple of times now. Always in the afternoon, mind you…
I’ve found the food satisfying, though not gourmet. But who expects that from a bar? I wish it was a smidge cheaper, but it’s not outrageously priced.
The place isn’t anything special, atmosphere-​wise. And I find that they are always emptying the Jackpot machines during the day, which can be quiet annyoing to listen to. All that quid rolling around is very loud.
The music has also been horrible both times I’ve been, but for quick hangover food I manage to deal with it.
When I go to an event in the basement I’ll update this review…

You haven’t lived until you’ve experienced Glam Rock Night in Retro Bar’s basement (£3 entry, Saturdays). I didn’t even know it had a basement. And this was the basement to end a thousand basements.
Glam Rock is an interesting breed. What is it, exactly? How broad a spectrum does it cover? The glittery, space-​age stylings of Marc Bolan and David Bowie? The name that now strikes fear into the heart of children everywhere, 21^st century boogeyman Gary Glitter? Or do we look to the US, and the big, scary hair and even scarier tight pants of Motley Crue, Poison and Kiss?
In walked our crew, soon discovering that it was the latter. There were eight of us. Glancing around, we realised we stuck out like sore thumbs. I’d stepped out of the pages of an All Saints catalogue, some of our party were in studenty scarves and tweed, but there was one common factor amongst the lot of us. We just didn’t have enough hair.
Okay, there were a lot of bald blokes around the room, but mostly it was an epic hair fest. Mullets to the left, electric shock to the right… but what amazed me is that on a night like this, where Europe and Aerosmith are played in quick succession, it’s not an older crowd. In fact it’s very mixed and eclectic. Eighteen year olds and those in their late thirties descend on the dancefloor in the same tight pants. Plus I learned several important life lessons from this experience:
1) Everyone knows the words to Ballroom Blitz (here being the Wayne’s World Crucial Taunt version)
2) Corona (£3 a pop) tastes pretty much the same with or without the fresh lime
3) I really didn’t need that last beer.

First time I’ve been here in a while and I must say it was slightly disappointing. I used to love the all day breakfast here but the standards appear to have slipped which, in combination, with a rise in price and reduction of choice does not lead to good things. If you’re after breakfast in town OK café is a much better option.

Wow this place has done alright on the old review front! Well I must say I’m more with Rebecca (who gives it its lowest 3 stars) than the others. Having said that, I am willing to admit that this may be due to the fact that I share her mild hatred of rock and indie music.
I always go here once or twice a year after an exam in the Sackville Street Building, a few paces walk away. This means that we get here about 3pm, and usually ride it out till the evening. This is always in the summer because that’s when exams are. It’s a lovely place to sit on the few outside tables and have a beer, and as it’s away from Piccadilly its quiet despite the surrounding roads.
Around 6 or 7 pm, I’m sorry to say this, but the place begins to fill up with wierdos. There are lots of leathers and things like that. At this point myself and my scholarly looking weaklings of a friendship group usually gather our things and make our way back to the safety of Oxford Road. Perhaps I’m just closed minded though. In fact, I think that is the problem.

Retro Bar is one of my favourite places to eat, drink, and generally be merry in Manchester. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, or from inside to be frank, but if you give it a chance, it will change your life. How? Thanks to breakfast.
Being the busy student that I am, on many occasions, I have found myself in need of cheap sustenance in the morning when the milk is finished and the Coco Pops are soggy. Retro Bar does, without question, one of the best full English breakfasts I have ever eaten. And not just one kind. There is the vegetarian breakfast, the full breakfast, and the infamous gutbuster breakfast, which features, amongst other things, a burger. I stick to the full breakfast, which despite being ‘smaller’, still features egg, bacon, sausage, hash browns, tomatoes, mushrooms, beans, toast and fried bread. Oh yes — they throw in a drink for free. All this for £3.50? Bargain.
Retro Bar is somewhat like coming home. It is comfortable, warm, and friendly, and always has people in it. It is like the extension to your 1970s living room. They hold regular quiz nights (Every Monday at 9), and also have a basement club, which holds regular live music events. The entertainment also includes a pool table, and an ITBox, which, once I start on, I cannot leave alone. It’s a bad habit, I know. Still — if you ever have a hankering for a really smack-​up full English breakfast — look no further than Retro Bar.

I have wanted to review this place in a long time now! I stumbled here in contrast to many, on a bright sunday morning and had the best and the cheapest breakfast of my life!
Since then I’ve been using Retro bar as my perfect english breakfast spot. A full blown breakfast and a drink only for £2.50! Now, who would want to forego that?
This place also converts into the awesome club/​pub atmosphere post evening and it crowded with student and work crowd! It’s right in between canal street and the student north campus making it a lively and great spot to party away all night!

Walk past the Retro Bar on Sackville Street, and it looks like just another scruffy little dive of a drinking den. But walk inside, and you find yourself confronted by one of the coolest and most fun little bars in Manchester.
I’ve had some of the best nights of my life dancing around my handbag in the Retro Bar, and its (rather eccentric) owners appear to be adept in ensuring that only the kind of nights which will suit their diverse clientele are hosted there. On any given night, you’ll usually find students, bar flies, rockabillies and some of the Mancunian music elite propping up its rather shabby bar, necking back their truly lethal double measures of spirits for the low low price of £2.50. Take my word for it — drink enough of those and you’d find dance to the ticking of a clock.
It also has one of the best jukeboxes in Manchester, and the graffiti in its toilets is always a sight to behold (my personal favourite being the «I HEART TJ HOOKER» written in massive black letters on a toilet cistern). If you’re ever in the area, I can highly recommend popping in here for a drink and a game of pool, as this truly is a very fine ale house indeed.

Given that I am not really a fan of indie and rock music, I avoid Retro Bar for nights out. However, when it comes to eatin’ and drinkin’ during the afternoon, I’m all for it.
Firstly, the cooked breakfasts here are jolly good. A bit dirty and evidently cooked by someone with not a gourmet bone in their body, the cooked breakfasts are an exercise in perfect hangover grub. The bacon is just crispy enough, the black pudding just crumbly enough. And you get a coffee with a free refill! The sausages could be crispier, but when you’ve a bastard behind the eyes, they do the job.
The drinks here are unbelievably cheap. It’s £2.40 for a double vodka and mixer (this I only know for sure because it was displayed on the plasma screen) while all other drinks range between £1.50 and £3. As Emma-​Louise says, it’s good for pre-​drinking, because of the cheapness and the friendly early evening atmosphere.
As well as a faithful younger crown, you’ll find a gaggle of old grumps congregating round the bar, where they converse with the inimitable bemulleted barmaid. Word to the wise: she won’t take any of your shit, including asking for ‘ice and a slice!’.
Retro Bar is a nice, honest little grubber, and if you fancy seeing someone up-​and-​coming, you might as well pop in here, as my workmate reckons he saw Franz Ferdinand here 2 years before they were big.

Retro Bar is one of those lovely dives you find where you simply walk in and start drinking beer without ever wondering whether your scruffy trainers will be scowled at by other patrons.
Despite the slightly daft name, this little beaut is tucked away from the main drag, but well worth snooping out.
Focused primarily on music, the tunes are indie and rock classics for the most part and you get the sense that everyone sat around you is either a budding musician or a gig promoter in-​waiting.
Downstairs is a club venue with a tidy little dancefloor. There’s gigs put on by up-​and-​coming bands and some great nights.
Two personal favourites have been the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hellkat and Voodoo nights specialising in voodoo rock ‘n’ roll and garage punk. However, there is a ska night and a straight ahead punk night if memory serves.
Basically, this is a brilliantly unpretentious place that should be on the mental checklist for anyone into music.

Now this is quite a cool little dive bar which is trapped amongst a network of back roads away from the heart of Manchester. Making the trip out to it though is well worth it, especially if you are of the student persuasion.
You’ll find a wealth of new and upcoming bands playing here down in the basement, and the atmosphere itself is generally lively. The small venue means the noise can be overwhelming, but as James pointed out, that’s sort of the point. The one odd thing is the placement of the stage behind a pillar that directly obscures the view. I guess some things will always remain a mystery.

Definitely one of the better bars around Sackville street.
If you like notes strung out in a melodic sentence and you like those notes live then Retro is the scene to seen it would seem if you know what I mean?
Lots of up and coming bands play… lots of false dawns play too, but that’s not really the point is it? Listening to gentle background music whilst you have a nice chat is all very… nice, but it’s not exactly an experience is it? You’re just be telling the same old lies to each other whilst gritting your teeth through false smiles that give you jaw ache due to the fact that you’re clenching so hard just so you don’t let out a wndow shattering scream in the face of such eye watering, nausea inducing boredom… hang on, am I typing out loud again, I may have revealed too much!
If you want a night you can really see, touch and smell– something visceral, then what you want is live and loud music played by somebody who, frankly, just isn’t very talented– Retro has lots of it.

My absolute favorite haunt in Manchester. Decently priced doubles, somewhat douchey hipster clientele during university season, but the regulars make up for it. Had some great conversations and a lot of fun. One of the few places where you can go drink and talk in Manchester without the normal element. It’s one of the things I miss the most about England!

love this place
indie heaven and real mix of students mancs and other misc
great little venue downstairs too
may it go on 4 ever
hope to pop in this week

Aww! I used to run to Retro Bar back in my miserable year of Manchester, for their «indie» night, and to see obscure bands. I still remember the first show of Hooker with their running film strip, cute-​angry girl singer, and sinewy, shaven, shirtless drummer.
I felt like the indie nights would end up being a year to the day ahead of parties in the US (I ended being right). It was very fun, but I danced alone.
The only friend I could drag along didn’t like it. Eventually I learned one of the judgmental faux-​gingers I had a crush on who was always surrounded by a gaggle of large rockabilly-​goth chicks was a friend of the other miserable American in our group.
One of the DJs would end the night by playing the Golden Girls theme. I remember a dude wearing sunglasses indoors and dancing like Michael Jackson in Teen Wolf.
At the end of the year, I approached one of the DJs with a mix tape I made for him, and shouted into his ear, «Now you owe me one.»
«Wot’s your address? Yes, yes, aoh! Bowwwwden Court? Yes, I will send you a tape!»
He never friggin’ did.

Upstairs this place is your normal bar you’d expect to find in a student area. Good food (have eaten lunch a bunch of times) and a pretty cracking scene at night.
Downstairs is a fantastic basement club that is DIY friendly. I have seen many a great local band here.

Great music/​band venue– small and relaxed, Rock n Roll Hellkat/​Voodoo/​Sin City are just some the undergound rock clubnights that are put on in the basement. They also do the best value breakfast in Manchester £3 breakfast with refillable tea and coffee, attracts plenty of students, LGBT Welcome, arty rockers and more