The Shakespeare

An historic traditional pub in a good location on Fountain Street in Manchester City centre.
The Shakespeare has a very grand Tudor style exterior, originally from Chester, in keeping with the pub’s name. It certainly is a stand-​out property!
The interior is very traditional, and pleasant enough. Upstairs is a restaurant.
The Shakespeare is a good pub for watching football or just for having a pint.
Real Ales are available.

Popped in here on the way to another pub when it was absolutely peeing it down!
Little old traditional pub in the centre of town, well placed next to Primark for those after shopping pints…
Average décor, quite a strange bunch of regulars in here, think it is quite a sporty-​football-​y kind of pub.
They weren’t serving anything exceptionally exciting and also put everything in plastic cups which were apparently because ‘things have kicked off here after the football in the past’ which made me feel really safe…
Toilets were pretty grimy and horrible– they really need an update!
Nothing against this pub just nothing really exciting about it…

As other Unilocalers have mentioned, this pub is nothing at all to write home about.
It’s less busy and grubby as a wetherspoons in a similar location, but altogether a nice little stop gap to escape the hellish shopping crowds.

The service is friendly and I got my Crabbies ginger beer which made my day! It gets loud and there are lots of locals but it seemed like a good fun energy to me

I like this place as for what it is. Unpretentious, cheap (booze and food) and no children running around. Nothing worse than having to watch your language as there’s kids on the next table. Hey, I’m an adult and sometimes I want to talk about adult things without being scowled at by parents!
Myself and a pal stumbled in here last week and feeling lightheaded from too much wine in The English Lounge beforehand, we devoured a plate of nachos in The Shakespeare within seconds. The £3.95 portion was more than enough for two of us.
What I DON’T like about this place is their policy of serving punters drinks in plastic beakers. Rank. Also around Christmas, the imposing doormen seem to think it’s acceptable to noisily shake a bucket (for charity, yeah right) in your face and ask for a donation to enter the venue. I normally tell them where to go and continue the bar crawl elsewhere!

This place is great for one of those moments when town is busy, and you have a mental block of where to go for a sneaky drink …
Although this is located in the main city area, it makes the world of difference being on a side street… because people are not fickle enough to come here…
The outside of this place suits its name… i. e a little hut where you can imagine the good ol Shakespeare siting down to write/​steal his plays.
The inside is nice and cosey,.but for such a traditional looking pub it does not offer the same caliber of beer…
Overall not a bad place,.

Love the idea of having a pub named the same as Manchester Shakespeare Theatre Company. We should be mates, mate!
Be in soon for a great pint as always!

For a potentially ’ character traditional’ pub, the experience is, unfortunately, ruined by a strong, unpleasant smell and disappointingly tasting ales. Staff serving are very friendly and welcoming — the problem, clearly, does not lie with them.

One of the few pubs right in centre of Manchester where you can watch the football, so worth remembering for that.
Nice building outside and typical pub décor inside. Could probably be done with an update, but most traditional pubs do.
Always receive excellent service from friendly and well presented staff.

this central pub has nice food and nice ale, wine etc. However the toilets are so smelly that it spoils what could be such a nice place, you can literally smell the gents from the other side of the pub

Well I like the look of the Shakespeare from the outside, it’s black and white beamed old looking exterior. Oh and the picture of the great man himself.
The pub itself isn’t extraordinary, stocking your usual on draught and the food range is basic pub grub. Between 12 – 4 you can pick up a £4.95 meal and its buy one get one free on meals that are over £6 so really really cheap. There’s nothing much to boast about accept for the relief from Primark you’d probably need if you happen to exit that exit and be faced with the Shakespeare

The Shakespeare, to me is a pub, where you don’t often expect to find a pub, yes it’s smack bang in the middle of town, but it’s always a surprise when I stumble by it. No really, and honestly it is. Boring everyone with the unnecesities I will continue. I find it to be a nice little pub, and I haven’t experienced any of the unsavouries previously mentioned, mainly and possibly due to my experiences here on a Sunday afternoon I guess, and often with a few of my extended relatives, we often find the time here pretty alright. We were treated nicely, warmly even, and the prices were nicely inexpensive for both food and drinks. Sunday dinner was just grand. Flippin’ massive too!!! Tasty! Good allrounder and in a fab location to pick yourself up and carry on with your shopping.

I always think this pub has the potential to be a lot nicer than it actually is. A beautiful old mock Tudor building with a picture of the Bard on the front, it looks absolutely lovely from the outside. But when you step in, it’s a different story. Don’t get me wrong; the building’s interior has some lovely old features, too it’s just that, generally, the place has been left to get a little shabby over the years, and it could do with a bit of a makeover.
Still, appearances aside, the Shakespeare is a friendly place with a good selection of beers, wines and spirits. However, it’s not as bookish as its name suggests. In fact, you’re more likely to find this pub full of weary shoppers who have stumbled in off nearby Market Street. The staff seem pretty nice, though, and the prices are quite good, so it’s worth popping in if you’re nearby.

It is such a shame that this beautiful building is not looked after properly. While they have a few good ales & beers in the offering, nearly everything else about this pub is a let down. I went in here a few months ago with a friend during a shopping trip — we did not stay long! The place was filled with rather unsavoury characters, I will rub along with most walks of life … sup and let sip I say, but there was definitely a bad vibe on my visit! I did see some food being served, and too be honest this looked as lack luster as the carpet and walls! I can’t believe such a beautiful building has not been given the respect and care it so obviously deserves and needs.

So what does reinventing the English language whilst simultaneously providing the benchmark by which all others plays in history will forever be judged get you these days? A pub.
Depressing isn’t it? The lack of imagination involved in commemorating such a lively minded genius is also fairly ironic.
I suppose at least it is pretty much the most Olde English looking pub you will ever see and the real ales on offer are fairly numerous– with some imported Danish lagers for your Hamlet reference!
Popular with shoppers and office workers alike, the Shakespeare also offers traditional pub grub, with a roast being the special on Sundays. Throw in a great jukebox and a number of TVs and what you have is a pretty decent city centre pub.

The Shakespeare is a fairly decent pub. I will comment that it has tried to modernise the interior a little and should have just kept to its roots if I’m honest.
The other thing to note is that the girls toilets here were blocked and smelt… well rank to be honest. All this said the staff were friendly, the rounds were fairly cheap for a city centre pub and it had a jukebox which is a big hit with me always.
Taking all these points into consideration I would give this place 4 out 5 which is fairly fair.

The Shakespeare on the outside looks like quite a nice, relaxed pub — shame inside that the traditional building look has not been copied inside, instead the inside has adopted a common modern pub look. It is a bit small inside so during peak hours it can be tricky to find seating areas.
The bar is average, nothing special — didn’t notice an extensive selection of beers/​ales/​spirits or wines — just the usual favourites.
The toilets although I never went in them and decided to hold myself after the comments some of my female friends were making — were disgusting, apparently very dirty, very smelly and blocked toilets. They said the smell was worse than a 3 day old festival toilet! And considering the loo door sign says these toilets are checked every hour, is a complete lie.

nice little old fashioned pub good food but niot a lot of room and soon gets packed

The Shakespeare is a nice small pub, selling good old fashioned pub food. Its just off the main bit of market street so its a nice place to have a spot of lunch and maybe even a glass of wine in the middle of a nice daus shopping. It is normally busy, the menue boasts very good qaulity pub food, gammon and chips, shepherds pie and chips, and other scrummy dishes! Defientely worth checking out if you dont fancy the usual macdonalds, subway or KFC! Prices are also very reasonable for the portion sizes!