Matt & Phreds Jazz Club — Restaurant in Manchester

We had such a disappointing experience. We were in the Manchester for only three days and had gotten rave reviews about this place and decided to go on our last night - which happened to be the opening night of the Jazz Fest! Seemed ideal! Yet was an absolute bust.

when we arrived, about 15 minutes before the band was supposed to go on. The venue was absolutely busting full, we thought this was a good sign! But turned out there were about 10 tables of people sitting right in front of the stage, eating their delicious looking food, and everyone else was squeezed back in front of the bar. This meant navigating through the tightest knit crowd I've ever seen to get to the toilets, the bar, anywhere. And forget about seeing the stage!! There was even a bouncer guy "protecting" the people at the tables eating from us peasants at the back. The band was so fun, but no dancing room!!! It was ridiculous. When it was clear this was gonna stay this way we left, knowing that we would just get frustrated from not seeing anything and having people elbow is all night. It's obvious that for a gig night for a bit festival, the venue should not have food serving and make lots of spacious standing room for their patrons!! But our disappointment doesn't end there. After leaving we went for a bite elsewhere, but then thought we'd check back to see if the crowd had dispersed a bit or maybe they'd cleared the tables as it was getting later in the night. At the door, we showed our stamps but the bouncer said "you're not welcome back here, you've been asked not to return". Very confused, we asked what he meant, as we'd had not interacted with anyone except for buying a drink. He said "you were kicked out". We said that we don't think we had and he looked at us very dubiously. He said he'd have to check with the staff inside and looked really suspicious of us. We said that was fine and then he looked at us again and let us in! This was such an unexpected and bizarre thing to happen, and left such a bad taste in our mouth. Honestly Matt and Phred, it's not that hard to make your customers feel welcome and like there's space for them...and we felt none of that. Poor management I reckon! The bar staff on the other hand were so nice and obviously working so so hard. Props...

I was over here for a work event and stayed overnight. A colleague had been before and had a great night, so had booked table as there was a band on.

I'd had a couple of beers before, and turned up nicely in time to get settled before the band kicked off - they were great, by the way. A two-piece piano and guitar and their first set might as well have been picked off my top 50 Spotify list!! Not jazz, though :)

The venue is fairly open plan, with tables dotted around to make the most of the excellent stage at the back of the room. I've played city centre venues before, and I would have loved them all to have a stage as good as this one! Decent windows at the front probably let a nice amount of daylight through, but it was February, so there was none to be seen!

It didn't get too busy while we were there, but there were a decent number of folk and they were paying the band appropriate respect and attention, which was well deserved.

The beer selection was alright, which was a pleasant surprise; I was half expecting to have to navigate some bland keg options, but they did well. In addition, they'd bolstered it with a range of cans and bottles, and some great Scotch on the shelf.

A range of pizzas, and whilst it wasn't a massive choice, it was wide ranging enough that I was very happy. It came without too much wait, and was absolutely cracking - just what I needed.

The staff were super friendly and helpful.

I had planned to head back to the hotel and get a few work things sorted before the next day, but I was having far too much fun and stayed for the full set.

One thing i will say is the suitability of this place as a base during any zombie apocalypse. Whilst you'd need to use some of those tables to block out the windows, I don't think it would be too hard. One of the big challenges would be if you got caught downstairs in the loos when a...

Great place for live music. .well established legendary venue.

Been playing live music in there for years and it's always a great night.. often major celebrities just pass through and just jump on stage and perform.. how amazing is that. . First Monday of the month is the Blues and soul event.. and it's FREE Join Franny and live band and you can even get on stage and sing or play along with the amazing resident band !!!

This place used to be open till 1am but new residents have moved onto the city centre where one would expect there to be clubs and bars with loud music?

Yet they complain about the noise to the police about a well established well loved venue that's been here forever, yet priority was given to the complainant so the licence is now only 11.30??

The venue was here first..and if you don't like a lovely musical City? Why would you choose to move on to live where there are music venues and then complain ?? It's beyond me ? Priority should be given to long established licenced venues.. and not to people who decide to live in a noisy city.. that's their choice.. the venue has none..it's just conducting business as usual for decades..

Get a life and get out of our beautiful City if you can't live with our established culture .

Miserable party pooppers.. !?!

Stop spoiling our Great cities culture, go and live in the country where it suits your boring lifestyle and you can complain about the Owls and foxes making noise . And...