Platform 5

Well this was a pleasant surprise — a great pub, selling great food and only 5 mins drive from my house. After Hyde’s doing the Abel Heywood in town, it’s cool to see Holt’s doing something similar and really moving with the times in offering a relaxed (if somewhat still faux independent looking boozer) and multi-​faceted 3^rd place.
I had a meeting here and decided to stay on for lunch so I can comment that the coffee (9 different blends — I only had one mind you…) was pretty good, the black and blue burger was tasty (lovely chips and sides — although the pit beans were a bit off in the spicing — a bit too much star anise I think…) and it was a good place to meet and also get some work done with loads of room to move around in and fairly quiet on a Thurs lunch.
Although I wasn’t partaking on this visit, the beer selection on draft was a good mix of Holt’s and local breweries — plus regular lagers. What I was impressed with though was the large selection of bottles from Sierra Nevada (3 types), Founders All Day IPA and other great breweries.
Ok so this place is very towny and I imagine could be a haven for the ‘shirt and shoes brigade’ on a weekend evening but overall it had enough to make me want to keep coming back.
Nice work!
ps amazing cake selection — check out my pic!

This is a suburban Joseph Holt’s pub which has recently undergone a massive renovation and is an obvious attempt by Holt’s to capture a different market. Gone is any mention of Holt’s on signage and the whole look is trying to convince you it’s an independent free hold. Even the Holt’s branded pump clips are absent at the bar replaced with little chalk written clips.
Overall this re ‘un-​branding’ works and the pub was very busy though big enough to be full of people but still not rammed. Small touches linked the place to it’s location right next to a train line, with signage alluding to a train station and concrete rail sleepers used as fencing in the beer garden.
The beer was Holt’s fairly unremarkable standard, though still far superior to most pubs normal selection of lagers, they had one guest beer on which was a pleasant pale but not amazing enough to have held it’s name in my memory.
The big selling point of this new refurbishment is the restaurant. You can tell a lot of money and thought had been placed into the new gastro focus. The place has been re done pretty much like most places you’ll find in the Northern Quarter with lots of wood panelling and mis-​matched chairs and edison style light bulbs.
The dessert bar was the most impressive I’ve seen in any restaurant for a long time. A full ice cream bar on display as well as their huge selection of 5 inch deep cheesecakes.
The menu was extremely varied but had a focus on the new trend in American style street food dining with pulled pork and hot dogs amid a selection of more standard choices like pizza or fish and chips.
Everyone’s food looked amazing and there was a general consenus that nothing served was sub par. My pulled pork hash was great, served with a mustard apple sauce and poached egg were spot on choices and a side of dirty beans which seemed to come with everything which they were calling P5 Pit Beans.
Overall it’s a local gastro pub done very well by a local chain which has been very underwhelming in recent years. But they are clearly trying to overhaul their image in selected locations around the city. I can only hope this happens in more of their locations and it was a very welcome change.

Popped in for a quick drink a few days after it opened. Really nice atmosphere and decoration. Good selection of ‘craft’ style beer in bottles, selections of lager on tap and cask ales. I had an Erdinger and it was good. Didn’t eat, but the food coming out looked good.