The Slug & Lettuce

Rude staff, loud and overpriced
We couldn’t sit outside cos he had a pint we went to sit an empty area, we got told off again but the rude staff, said we couldn’t either, my mate got his bag checked and because he had biscuits they asked us to leave them out, we just wanted to have a taste of the place abs all you get is silly politics, rude staff expensive drinks, AVOID

This place was refurbished a couple of months ago and it has made a major difference, it has a lot of light and looks very modern. There is a large sheltered outside seating area as it was good evening we decided to sit outside and have drinks.
There cocktails are Buy one get one free — all day every day.

A very good restaurant l. I went it on Monday and I enjoyed a 50% off. I had a country pie which is made by mesh potato and green been.

Slug and Lettuce is a nice, street front restaurant in downtown Manchester. I had a long layover in Manchester and decided to head into the city rather than spend it rotting at the gate. A quick ride in the Manchester-​Piccadilly train later I found myself in beautiful downtown Manchester with a craving for fish and chips. This was my first time in England and I knew I had to try it out. Slug and lettuce was the closest place to my location on Unilocal that had fish and chips so I headed over. It was largely empty given that it was 11am but the restaurant itself is quite nice and I chose to sit outside and people watch while I waited for my food. The fish and chips came out with a side of boiled peas (I found this to be strange but apparently it’s normal.) The fish itself was 2 big pieces of beautifully battered and expertly fried cod and a very generous helping of chips (fries to us Americans.) The fries and the fish both needed salt in a big way but as soon as I salted them myself they were fantastic. Not overly oily and surprisingly airy. The fish tasted fresh, no fishy odor, and it flaked apart quite readily. My only gripe was that the soda didn’t come with refills and it was actually quite small. Not many places outside of the good ol US of A do refills however so I wasn’t too surprised. I’m no expert on fish and chips but Slug and Lettuce did the job admirably and while I’m sure there are far better places in Manchester, Slug and Lettuce delivered the goods. The restaurant is relatively easy to get to from the airport via train and is in a really nice part of the city. Check it out if you’re in Manchester for a couple hours and need a quick taste of an English favorite.

Good for a drink after work or a pre-​drink before dinner. Much nicer than it used to be, the new look certainly suits it! The outdoor seating is really nice when the sunny weather decides to show it’s face, although would be nice if there could be a none-​smoking area. 2 4 1 cocktails all day every day — works for me! Not somewhere I’d choose to spend my whole night but fine if you’re just looking for a bar as a time filler

This place has been refurbished recently and it’s made a dramatic difference, it’s so light and airy now and it has a very modern feel to it.
I am aware that this is a large chain bar/​restuarant or whatever you want to call it, however with places like this, people should know what they’re getting. Quick service, a good selection of food and cheap drinks. If you want somewhere fancy with excellent service, go elsewhere, this isn’t the place for you. I’d basically call it an upmarket Wetherspoons — but there’s nothing wrong with that.
There is a large, sheltered outside seating area, so as it was a nice evening we sat outside and enjoyed our drinks.
Buy one get one free on cocktails — all day every day. That’s better than most places around here who only offer this deal between 5pm and 7pm on weekdays!

It was pissing rain, pissing! And we had this window to see a bit of Manchester. We decided to take a break from the storm and stop for a «coffee» which quickly became two for one cocktails!
Despite the weather and despite the chain, it really was nice to sit in the terrace area, being sheltered from the rain, but still watching the city go by, and looking at Albert Square. We got a bite to eat here too and it was pretty reasonable.
It really was perfect for afternoon drinking!

I’ve never really been into slugs. Or lettuces, for that matter. Both can be a bit slimy and dull, much like the clientele of chain bars such as this.
The people behind Slug and Lettuce can make their bars look as glitzy as they want but we all know it’s just another cattle market-​style venue, a la Wetherspoons, where people go for their 2−4−1 cocktails, chat up equally as classy folk then spew on the sofas.
On my recent visit here, I could barely hear myself think — and this was in a sparsely populated area of the bar, so I have no idea how people could engage in conversation in the busy part. Mind you, they’re probably so out of their tiny minds on ‘Jagerbombs’ they’re not talking to each other all, just making grunting noises and pointing at their empty shot glasses for a refill. Animals.
The music’s ****, the staff are gormless and I don’t ever want to go there again. PLEASE don’t make me go back! PLEASE!

Location is probably the strongest point of this place, next to the Town hall you’re fairly central to pretty much everything in the city, so makes a great starting block for a long afternoon and/​or which exactly what we used it for.
Beers a standard affair as is the slugs choice, so it’s not gonna wow you if that’s what you’re after.
Food again is standard slug affair, I’m perfectly happy with Slug food it’s tasty it’s not wow, and if you can grab it on one of their offers the values pretty good.

Ok while enroute

Another solid experience at the Slug in Albert Square. After huge deliberation as to where we should go to eat, cutting NQ out due to its general pricing structure, the boyf and I wandered over to our old haunt, lured in by the promise of an empty table and Wine-​Down Wednesdays (a personal favourite.)
Choosing where you sit in a restaurant always gives you a sense of power and it’s something I really appreciate, seating myself facing the majority of people so I can have a good nose. [Note: I am not the only woman to do this and I’m starting to think that it’s a biological thing — we just HAVE to know what’s going on with the couple next to us; «is this a first date? second maybe? has he done something wrong? will she eat his chips even though she’s already professed to not wanting any?» All are perfectly acceptable questions and ones which I know the woman on that table is thinking about us.]
Ahem. Wine-​Down Wednesdays, where you can get any bottle of wine, other than the usual restrictions of bubbly etc., for £10.95 saw us partaking in a lovely bottle of Chablis, priced at £19.95. The food here is pretty much always the same — tasty, but quite average. I ate a thai green curry which, although tasty, wasn’t quite the same as any other thai I’ve had before. They’ve jumped the creamy coconutty thai and gone for more of an Indian style curry, with spinach and green peppers. Also, oddly enough, it was served with a tomato salsa-​y garnish, which was completely out of place and did make me question whether they’d though through what they were cooking.
The service was great on this occassion and the waitress never seemed to get annoyed at the fact we took ages deciding what to eat, simply coming back to us at regular intervals to check up and make sure that we were okay. When ordering dessert she convinced us to have 2-​for-​1 desserts (and when I say convinced I mean she mentioned it and I jumped on it), making our meal even better value.
I think people should stop being so hard on the Slug and simply accept it for what it is — good food, great offers, and generally lovely service. Makes a change from the sandals and shorts of the NQ.

So this is the perfect example of one bad meal eradicates any positive experiences gone by.
I was, and I stress the was, quite a regular customer to this particular branch of what must surely be ironically named pub chain.
Yes it is well located especially in the summer & when the city’s European markets are on for people watching. The menu does have a reasonable choice & the bar is nothing extraordinary, however on recent visit the adequate food wasn’t enough to make up for the particularly poor service.
I was happy to accept the advised 40 minute wait for our food on a busy lunchtime service, after the 10 minute wait at the empty bar to be served, but the subsequent 20 minute wait for drinks which were being brought over «straight away» rather took the proverbial! After asking AGAIN for our drinks the rather muddled barman, brought small not large glasses of wine. Okay, staying calm… the large glasses that followed had the previous users lipstick still on the rim and although it was a nice shade I didn’t feel the need to road test it in such a way.
Having resolved the wine issue, my coffee, which I ordered at the same time as food & wine and even attempted to help the guy (who I was by now convinced was hired due to the Equal opportunities policy of the company and not because of his ability to string a sentence together of remember his name) by pointing out I it wanted with the wine, arrived in nio just a slightly chipped cup but in a dirty, chipped, cracked & leaking coffee cup.
Had our food not arrived at this time, admittedly looking edible, I would’ve left at this point, but I saved my story for the manager much to relief of my none complaining friend. The managers response was the nail in the coffin for any hope there may have been I might have returned to this apparent purveyor of food & merriment, «its very busy here at dinner time you know»…need I say more?

Located on Albert Square opposite the town square, this Slug is the perfect Slug and Lettuce to dine in. I’ve been here a couple of times for food and it’s been amazing. I recommend the butternut squash, spinach and goat’s cheese lasagne. Magical.
The Slug and Lettuce offers good value, great meals. So yes it’s an inbetween pub bar, basically a pub trying to fancy itself up but what’s wrong with that? It does better than the average pub grub, with a not so rowdy clientele. I often don’t take to these gastropub types but I like Slug and Lettuce muchly with a bit of everything on the food and drink menu and a great building and location to consume in.

I hate the Slug and Lettuce brand name. It’s supposed to conjure up an image I’m sure but I don’t know what of. I can only think of a slug and a lettuce leaf. A big bloated slug writhing around on a withered old scrag of vegetation. A salad with a big, fat slimy gastropod in it. Straight away I don’t want to eat there. When I get into the place and I see it is full of fnarring, guffawing city boys, many of whom actually look a bit like slugs, I want to eat there even less.
The food as it turns out is perfectly acceptable, the chorizo and red pepper tostada was actually pretty tasty. The U2 soundtrack, though, and the din of a thousand Blackberry wielding, pint sloshing Damiens is not so agreeable. The place itself is fine (as the previous Unilocaler noted it’s basically just an upmarket Wetherspoons) but it is polluted by obnoxious people with terrible bar etiquette.

Bandying a cooky name and original cuisine around like it was unheard of is the slug and lettuce. This smallish restaurant benefits from one of the best locations in Manchester straight across from the town hall and facing out to albert square.
During the hot summer days this is one of the spots where you can really tune into the vibe of the city centre and sit sipping your cider and watching the people and traffic for hours. Slug and lettuce deals with the food you come to expect of an upmarket weatherspoons of sorts, the bangers and mash I had there was top notch and I can recommend to anyone. This aside they do all sorts from thai curries, sandwiches and salads, however it must be noted this is all bar produced food, why exactly you would spend money here for food when you’ve got power players such as tampopo next door is beyond me… Especially when considering most dishes are going to cost you an equivalent 7 or 8 pounds. So in summary an up market watering hole for the office creatures of the city centre with a great location.

Mediocre bar for people that think David Dimbleby is a radical.