The Sedge Lynn

Good selection of drinks including local and international real ales. For prices like £2.45! Or get 2 cocktail pitchers for £12, sounds dangerous… They also do ale and cider festivals.
Food is cheap but ok quality. I’ll come here occasionally for a cheap meal and will still be surprised at how cheap it is. It comes out very quickly so you know the microwave has just pinged but that’s not so unusual these days. I suppose the point of chains is that you know what standard you’ll be getting. The staff have always been very friendly when I’ve been there and the old men drinking in the afternoon are pretty quiet.
The star of the show is the building. I like to gaze at the beautiful stained glass roses while I’m waiting for my meal.

You know when you wake up, and there’s no food in the house, and everyone is waiting for someone else to drag their carcasses out of bed to go get eggs, bacon & bread from the store but no one does? Welllll that was today in my house. It was like a game of chicken… hubs and I letting our tummies rumble until cracks started to form in the walls of the house. But we stubbornly held our ground, secretly willing the other one to get dressed and go buy some food. After mutually flying the white flag of surrender, we did what all lazy people do… we went out to eat.
Virtually every time we’ve dined out as a family has been a disaster… some demon black cloud follows us around and puts the whammy on us. So we ventured out to Chorlton. I had remembered a place I liked from a while back (Scotts Hill) but lo and behold, it’s something else now with a dogs face etched on the glass. It looked a bit too much of a gamble, since no one was in there. However, we saw a steady stream of people coming in and out of The Sedge Lynn, so we hurried over to get out of the cold.
The first thing I noticed was it was a Wetherspoons. ‘Well, if I get food poisoning at least they are likely to cover medical expenses’ was the first thought I had. The second thought was how beautiful the building was. I’m a sucker for a gorgeous Victorian-​style structure, so I gawked at the massive vaulted ceilings, mouldings, and wood beams.
Glancing at the menu, I was pleasantly surprised to see the calorie content listed for each dish. My mouth dropped open when I saw how many arterie-​clogging units of fat were in some of the dishes I normally would have opted for. I went with a chicken breast sarnie with salad on the side (I know, yawn-​fest). Hubs had the chicken roast dinner and the lad had a cheeseburger.
After placing our order, hubs came over snickering, saying the barman must have made a mistake because the bill came to £15.81.
Our dishes came over and to my surprise, it all looked rather edible. I dug into my chicken sandwich, expecting it to taste of cardboard but no… it was good. A few chews in, and I realised it was actually… delicious! Juicy, tasty, seasoned, soft bun. it was all there! It even came with a homemade salsa sauce, which gave the chicken a little extra ‘pop’. Glancing over at hubs, he was bobbing his head up and down in approval of his roast. The chicken was moist and delicious, veg was cooked but there was still a bit of bite in them (not boiled within an inch of their lives like you find with most roast dinners) lovely Yorkshire puddings, proper roasty potatoes and thick gravy. My son, who is notoriously picky, took a bite and stopped. I was expecting him to turn his nose up and spit it out on the plate. Instead, he said ‘damn, it’s good!’ I just had to sneak a few of his chips, as I was well jel that I didn’t order some. My side salad was very blah. But that’s the nature of salad, not the fault of the pub. The chips were cooked to perfection. Crunchy outside, fluffy inside. Mmmmmm-​mmmmmm
Could it be? Were we having a tasty meal… in a restuarant… at a Wetherspoons… for £15??? Now I started feeling guilty and decided we needed to fess up and pay what we should have. I got the calculator app out on my mobile (I soooo suck at math) and to my astonishment, the bill was SUPPOSED to be £15.81!!! WTF!!! We were so pleased with ourselves that we ordered a few more pints, told stories and made each other laugh. Don’t worry, we took a taxi home. We could afford to! So two big, giant thumbs up for The Sedge Lynn. Will they be winning any Michelin stars? No, not at all. But will they win our patronage? Hell yeah.

A good pub which offers great beer and food for really cheap prices. The only thing that let’s it down is the clientele who can sometimes be a bit annoying.

There’s a lot of snobbery about Wetherspoon’s pubs, but I have to say that people should check out the one in Chorlton before turning their noses up at it. Yes, its low prices tend to attract a small contingent of the barfly ‘eccentrics’ you’d expect where the prices are less than £2 a pint, but to be fair, I’ve seen those types just about everywhere, including the über-​trendy bars. Actually what always surprises me is the big mix of social types who frequent the Sedge. In addition to the harmless (and often entertaining) old soak characters who seem part of the fabric of the building, there’s a wide cross-​section of society, from twenty-​something students, through young to middle-​aged professionals, to the CAMRA members, taking advantage of the massive and ever-​changing selection of guest ales and ciders. Personally I love finding a place which sells proper Herefordshire and West Country still cider, as I’m so fed up of that cheap girly imitation which most other places flog in place of the real thing. Cider should NOT be fizzy, and you NEVER put ice in it!
Another draw of the Sedge is its history and architecture. A beautiful example of an Art Deco billiards hall, it’s steeped in the atmosphere of a more elegant bygone era, when even the most utilitarian of buildings were designed to look beautiful. In converting the premises, Wetherspoons have tried to faithfully recreate the look and feel of the old hall, and large sepia prints of Victorian and Edwardian Chorlton scenes, hung on the walls, add to the sense of nostalgia throughout. Admittedly, many of the current features are reproductions, but they are tastefully rendered, with the stained glass windows being my favourite. I also love the old clock above the bar. I don’t know whether that’s original or not.
The food in The Sedge Lynn is standard Wetherspoons pub fayre: OK, non-​fancy meals, for ridiculously low prices. There are also quite a number of ‘healthy’ and vegetarian options on offer, it’s not all just fry-​ups. I think it’s fair to say that there’s nothing innovative or impressive for the gourmet, but if you’re hungry for a pleasant enough beer and a burger, or re-​heated curry, this place will do just fine.
Another draw of the Sedge is the fact that there’s no background music, live entertainment or big screen sports. Don’t get me wrong, I love live music, and go to a lot of gigs, but when I go out specifically to socialise with friends, I like to be able to actually hear conversations with them, rather than being compelled to just sit and nod pleasantly across a table at my companions because I have no idea what they’re saying. That’s not to say that the Sedge is quiet it’s always packed, and resounds to its cavern-​like, wood beamed, arched roof with the voices and laughter of people enjoying a pint and a good talk, but you can hear and be heard above the banter, which can’t be said of many bars on a Saturday night.
There’s a surprisingly good range of wines and spirits on offer, which isn’t what you’d expect from what is arguably a no-​frills chain. There are lots of familiar, good quality wines for example, such as Fetzer, Hardy’s and Jacob’s Creek, and, as previously mentioned, the range of real ales and ciders is impressive. The staff are sometimes to be seen making up pitchers of vivid-​coloured cocktails too, but these seem to be largely for the occasional consumption of what look like hen night or office party groups.
In terms of surroundings and atmosphere, you’re more likely to see a backgammon board or game of dominoes on the tables than the latest smart phones. It may not appeal to a trendier crowd. There’s no eclectic décor, not a trace of quirky artwork, and there’s no pounding disco to attract the ‘yoof’ either, so the appeal of the Sedge is more to a quieter, more mature crowd, who like their ale real, their bar tab refreshingly miniscule, and their pretension left at the pretty portico doorway.

Isn’t this just THE prettiest Wetherspoons pub ever?
Oringinally built as a billiard hall sometime way back around 1907, this building is literally gorgeous. As one would expect from looking at it, it’s a listed building as well. Grade II, whatever that means. Outside its old-​brick with dark green painted bits (see photos).
As a bar, well its just a Wetherspoons. The food is like any other Wetherspoons, as are the drinks. However, the place is well looked after and being as it is in such a gorgeous building, you don’t really feel that you are in a Wetherspoons at all unless you’re eating. So you get the benefits of cheap drinks whilst enjoying a lovely pub. Best of both, the phrase, not the Hovis loaf.
Here’s where I make my token Wetherspoons review mention of the rumour that Mr Wetherspoon is a major funder of the UK Independence Party. Its only a rumour, but I don’t like it.

NOOOOO! Not a dastardly Wetherspoon?!?
But… but… but it’s so PRETTY. And come on, Wetherspoons are a necessary evil sometimes when we’re light of pocket and deciding whether to eat a giant bowl of cereal or a stick of butter for dinner, and the only alcohol in our house is that old carton of apple juice fermenting away in the cupboard. This lovely-​looking building was once a snooker hall and seems to have adopted the ‘old men’s pub’ tag, namely because, it’s full of old men. But if they don’t bother you while you’re sipping your cheap Koppaberg, where’s the harm?
The food here is pretty good, especially for simple fare, and that’s one thing you can count on the Wetherspoon chain for — consistency with its grub. Plenty for veggies and carnivores alike, it might not be cordon bleu or haute cuisine but it’ll fill a gap and cost next to nothing. The anti-​Wetherspoon rule doesn’t apply to every establishment, and Sedge Lynn is one of the luckier ones. So don’t dodge it because of its name, dodge it because you’re afraid of old men or something.

This Wetherspoons made the headlines the other week. Yes, it was the place where several arrests were made following a clash between Man United and Leeds United fans before the FA cup match.
But don’t let that put you off, and don’t let the congregation of old wrinkly smokers outside put you off either. It’s not too bad on the inside of this former pool hall. OK, so it’s not the most pleasant Wetherspoons ever. It’s full of old men staring into their pints of bitter, and the tables and floors are a bit sticky.
However, I went here with my family when they came to visit and I had an absolutely delicious sweet potato and chick pea curry, which was served piping hot, unlike the food in many of Manchester’s larger Wetherspoons. I also tried an alcoholic ginger beer which was delicious and much cheaper than it would be in any other of Chorlton’s establishments. On top of this I was able to educate myself about the history of Chorlton by reading the displays and looking at the black and white photos of the good old days, that most of the patrons are likely to remember.
It could do with a lick of paint and some TV screens, but hey, it’s Wetherspoons and it’s cheap.

Opened in 1999 in a former billiards club (ironically originally built by the Temperance movement), the Sedge Lynn is Chorlton’s resident ‘Spoons pub.
The building is an imposing arch-​shaped structure, and the standard Wetherspoons faux-​Victorian pub décor sits uneasily inside it — with its high ceilings I’m sure it’d have great acoustics but sadly this is wasted on a pub chain that shuns musical entertainment.
The pub suffers from a chronic lack of atmosphere and is not a particularly fun place to go for a drink. It gets 2 stars from me because the bar prices are pretty good and they do half decent fry-​ups, but its not really worth making a special visit to