Beech Inn Chorlton-Hardy — Restaurant in Manchester

The Beech was my go-to pub. It was the pub we’d make sure to visit at the end of a Sunday walk. It was the pub where I’d meet people for a relaxed drink in a nice atmosphere surrounded by good people. It was the first pub on my stag do and I loved it.

The interior décor was tired, unfinished and confused. The gents stank of piss and the best seat in the house was always already taken by a cat but somehow, all this worked perfectly. The fantastically friendly staff and the honest, unpretentious punters created island of normality in a sea of hipsters and industrial chic.

Then the chain took over.

I’ve visited The Beech three times since and each time it’s been a heartbreak. The interior décor now matches the standard, “off the shelf” hipster pub template. The walls are adorned with random nick nacks. A giant slice of pizza sporting an eye at its tip with the words “in pizza we trust” cover a wall where a row of seats once stood. The gents doesn’t even stink anymore and pubcat is nowhere to be seen.

Its all trying very hard to be cool, whereas before the utter lack of an attempt made it stand out from the crowd. Now it’s just another Chorlton pub, overcrowded with the same people you’d find in Dulcimers, Wetherspoons or The Laundrette – loud, obnoxious and utterly oblivious to the fact that they’re sitting in the ruins of something that was once worth having.

No doubt, it will do very...

Staff were aggressive, rude and extremely intimidating. We had an issue with only half of our party being served before last orders. We were all there pre the bell and we also asked to check if they were still serving (as they were pulling pints). One man replied sarcastically 'obviously - what does it look like'. They served one male and then refused the female who was with is. They then lied and said this conversation never happened and they had never seen us before. We were swore at and told 'we don't need to learn about customer service because we have plenty of custom so we don't need yours'. I have never been so disgusted. There were eventually 5 of them who were shouting at us. We also noticed other customers being spoken to horrendously by other staff members, who we spoke with afterwards who, like us, have lived in the area for a long time and never really drank in there. We noticed a different attitude from the staff to their regulars. May I also add we had been for a meal, we were by no means drunk. Extremely unfriendly, rude, cliquey and dirty to be honest. Not the...

The Beech is simply the best boozer in Chorlton!

t's been our local for decades and has gone through many changes in that time. But it has always retained that feeling of being of being a 'proper pub'.

It's most recent refurbishment a couple of years ago was sensitively done - keeping all the character but smartening it up where necessary. And the important stuff was retained - a great choice of ales and brilliant staff.

The pub has skilfully navigated its way through the craziness of Covid and has always been scrupulous in observing and enforcing restrictions without alienating its customers.

The beer garden is the biggest and best on Beech Road and provides a wonderful venue to sit a while away a sunny Summer afternoon. Oh - and check out the pizzas, they're...