Kro2

Meh. Kro looks really nice inside and out, but the food fails to deliver. I had a BBQ sandwich that was horrific and had nothing remotely to do with barbecue. I wouldn’t mind coming back for a drink, but I highly recommend going elsewhere to eat.

Espensiveish. Decentish. Poshish. Go Fish.

Om nom nom NOM! Why didn’t I realise before that the food here is so brilliant? And so cheap? And so *filling*?
Usually a foolproof stop-​off for my abuse of free wi-​fi and the occasional peppermint tea or glass of wine/​fruity beer, Kro2 finally became a lunch venue for me. I was craving something stupendously delicious and could not resist the fish finger sandwich served with homemade tartare sauce on foccacia bread. This was one of the sexiest sandwiches I’d ever encountered. The fish was not breadcrumbed in bright orange but instead consisted of several large proper goujons, coated in a delightfully light beer batter. Not a drop of grease to be seen. The tartare sauce was truly chunky, full of gherkins and capers, and the bread was delish. Meanwhile Alexa G had the tomato and herb oil soup which she didn’t realise was served alongside huge ciabatta hunks peppered with olives. She’d got chunky chips on the side which came in a giant bowl… a truly humongous portion.
This food is such excellent value and so gorgeously fresh that you’d be mad not to eat here. And when it’s sunshiney bright you can sit outside too. Do it now! I’ll take it as a personal insult if you don’t. (But wait until it stops raining.)

This bar is so good that it wasn’t enough to just call it Kro. Nope they had to square it. It’s like they’re saying ‘all the cool of the original Kro… but multiplied!’ Which I reckon is not so bad as far as a basic description goes. Because even though the original Kro Bar is more centrally located with respect to my daily comings and goings, it is not unknown for me to venture that extra bit north, so that I can enjoy Kro2 instead.
So why’s it worth the extra effort you ask? Well, it’s glass walls give the impression of it being delightfully spacious. I feel like I can breathe, which I know is a silly thing to say, because obviously I can breathe anywhere (aside from inside vacuums and under water, of course) but what I mean is, this place is totally void of the claustrophobic cluttering one finds at its ‘little sister’, Kro Bar, which makes me feel a lot more relaxed. Plus, as somebody has already mentioned:
Glass Walls + Busy Oxford Road = People-​Watching Heaven
Simple maths.
I do adore Kro2’s (not so) Secret Garden too. This beer garden constitutes a lovely patio area with wooden tables and umbrellas, separated from the hubbub of Oxford Road by a tactfully placed brown fence. Due to Manchester’s lack of fortune on the weather front, the Secret Garden doesn’t get enjoyed as much as it should, but I’m sure the smokers out there appreciate it, as it provides a much more pleasant alternative to huddling outside a door-​frame.
I have to be careful coming to Kro bars on a student budget, as it’s quite easy to get carried away, and its prices add up awfully quickly. However it is definitely possible to have an affordable bite to eat here — I often come for lunch to have the homemade soup which never disappoints. But the menu does offer a lot more than that, including the popular ‘Danwiches’ — I just love that word — and a wide variety of drinks, including an exciting range of liquors.
What I like the most about Kro2 is its ability run a good service all day long. No matter what the time of day, it is capable of catering to your needs, from breakfast, right through to night-​time cocktails. Not many places are able to do that, and Kro2 does it well. I’m impressed.

If there’s one thing Central Manchester has a lot of, it’s Kro Bars. Indeed, it’s pretty much safe to say that there’s one for every corner of the city centre. However, Central Manchester doesn’t have many beer gardens — especially situated on Oxford Road, an area which isn’t exactly noted for its greenery. So, if you’re around there and are looking for a bar where you can sit outside, have a cigarette and soak up the sunshine then this is as good as you’re going get.
OK, so it may be the preferred haunt of pissed up office workers and estate agents, but Kro2 isn’t a bad little bar really. Its glass exterior means you can sit, sip a beer and watch the world go by, and it also serves up some pretty decent Danish inspired food if you’re feeling a bit peckish.
Where Kro2 does fall down though is on atmosphere. Compared to other bars in the vicinity, it lacks a certain buzz that can turn a night out from something a bit meh to something spectacular. Also, I’ve always found it to be a bit pricey — although it does do some good beer and wine deals if you go there early enough.
Kro2 will never win any prizes for being the best bar on Oxford Road, but if you’re looking for somewhere halfway decent with a relatively nice beer garden, you could do a lot worse.

Like its big brother and little sister, Kro 2 is a great place to get some lunch or have a lovely cup of coffee.
The café and bar is light and airy with huge glass windows and walls. There are comfy leather sofas to lounge on and have a drink, or ample seating to sit and have some food. There is also a huge beer garden with umbrellas and heaters to help you bear the great outdoors (and the Manchester climate) when you are having a drink.
The menu is similar to the other two Kro’s, with a great selection of sandwiches, light bites, Danish specialities and pub grub. The meatballs are particularly good and the cake is also delicious with a coffee.
More relaxed than the other two chains, Kro 2 is a perfect place to grab a bite for lunch or have a cup of coffee.

Beer lovers out there have simply got to have the Warsteiner at Kro. Its absolutely unbelievable. Pale, strong, flavoursome and crisp, this beer is one of the best available in the whole entire city of Manchester.
Believe me if there is one thing I have tried a lot of its beers, and in my opinion this here pint of Warsteiner is the best pint of lager available in the city.
The best pint of ale is without doubt at The New Oxford in Salford.
The best bottle of beer is a large bottle of Jever at Cask on Deansgate.
And the best pint of lager is without a doubt a Warsteiner here at Kro2.
Also, they’ve got a great garden with lots of benches and even heaters, called the ‘secret garden’, which provides the perfect setting in which to consume aforementioned beverage, and they sell pots of Bombay mix for a quid, which is the perfect accompaniment to aforementioned pint.

Kro2 is by far, along with its Kro siblings, one of the nicest places in Manchester to go and relax. Kro2 is all about relaxation and simplicity. Unlike the period décor of its older sibling, Kro2 is sleek, chic and minimalist, providing a fantastic resting place for the modern mancunian.
The food is, as expected from the Kro brand, superb. It really is. Nothing that I can say would change that. Specialities I have sampled here include the fantastic Swedish meatballs, nachos and the ‘Danwich’ with Brie. I can never get over the effortless way in which Kro2 is run, and seems to glide along, without ever hitting a bump. Occasionally, it can feel a bit lonely, as it is a much more open space than Kro, and therefore, you can sometimes feel a tad lost in it, but other than that, it really is fantastic.
The Beer Garden is one of my favourites in Manchester, and is the biggest outdoor space Kro has in the city, so it can be very popular, especially at weekends, and when the sun rears its head. Still, it is worth it if only for the people watching opportunities. You can get some interesting faces in Manchester.
Kro2 is definitely a place to bring friends from away from Manchester, or parents and extended family. Show them that you love it, and they will love you more. It is very sophisticated, and will undoubtedly play in your favour! Yet another reason to love the Kro family!

Manchester City Centre doesn’t have a huge amount of beer gardens, so if the sun is shining, it’s well worth trekking up the Oxford Road corridor to Kro 2. Their beer garden, now named the Kopparberg Secret Garden, is huge and it has patio heaters to keep you toasty when the cold sets in.
The bar is pretty good too. With its minimalist décor, tasty Danish menu and fantastic range of fruity and continental beers, it’s a lovely place to come for a drink or bite to eat. The prices aren’t cheap, but the quality of the food and drink is high. And the atmosphere is nice, too. It’s classy yet unpretentious, elegant yet casual the perfect place to come whether you’re on a date or just want to enjoy a few fancy beers with your mates.

Kro 2 is great for:
1) Smokers: more space outdoors than in, and numerous parasols and patio heaters so that you can slowly kill yourself no matter what the weather.
2) Taking the parents: modern, clean and slightly pricier meals and drinks than a normal student can afford.
3) Sunny days: again, plenty of outdoor seating, if you don’t mind the noise and pollution of Oxford Road and being pestered by tramps who you have to convince that you don’t have any spare change as you’re a poor student even though you’ve just spent £3.50 on a bottle of Koppaberg.
4) People watching: the bar is virtually made of glass.
5) Recovering from Homes 4 U experiences: described well by Elliot.
Don’t take out cash from the cash machine outside — it charges.

There’s a lot of Kro Bars in Manchester. Well, three to be precise… but that’s more Kro than Pevril of the Peaks.
Anyway, whilst The One Near The Academy is the sibling in scruffy trainers and The One In Piccadilly Gardens is the one with the fashionable haircut, then The One Nearest To The BBC is the one who works in insurance.
Yep, Kro2 is a perfectly nice place to go and has a great big glass front that lets all the light in… however, it’s pretty soulless and hasn’t got much exciting going for it.
From the outside, it looks like its a conjoined twin with some estate agents, which is hardly rock ‘n’ roll.
However, should you fancy a quick snifter, you’ll find little wrong with this place. It’s a little on the pricey side compared to other places in the area… but y’know, you won’t have to take a mortgage out for a night on the pop in there.
It’s okay. Nothing more, nothing less.

This Kro is a much better version of the one in Piccadilly, as it seems to correct the mistakes made by its older brother. Of course, that could also be because it’s slightly more out of the way and therefore not inundated with punters.
It’s location is a little bit hit-​and-​miss, as placing a beer garden in a pub directly by a large road is ever so slightly odd, but it does seem to get full closer to the summer months so they did something right. The design styling of the Kro family is not exactly to my tastes — I tend to prefer the more familiar pub look — but I couldn’t say it’s bad as such.
If you like this particular chain then here’s another for the collection, and if you’re not acquainted with it then this is a good place to start.

Ideal locations are something few and far between when it comes to central Manchester, but Kr02 has definitely picked up the rear end of it. Buried next to the inner ring road is this greenhouse building. With its own little beer garden just bordering the busy traffic it seems that all is lost with this spot. So far so negative it seems. But Kr02 is a nice spot, its greenhouse interior and exterior plays host to some decent food. In the mornings you can pick up a sausage sandwich and coffee for £2.50 and the place has a nice variety of grub throughout the day. The Kr0 bars are not the saving type’s locations though, you very much get what you pay for which is high quality food. The drink has a good mix of items to be chosen, but at £5 a glass of wine can be too much for some. During the summer the place is rammed as the beer gardens are one of the few spots in the city, but being a greenhouse you can literally cook alive.

It’s no exaggeration that it rains a lot in Manchester.
That’s why the locals call it The Rainy City.
The regularity of rain however, seems to make everyone appreciate the sunshine more — which is why on a warm, spring or summer’s day every beer garden in the city is usually packed full. One of my favourite places to kick back and soak up the rays is Kro2. The bar itself is too slick and modern for my liking — all big glass windows, stainless steel chairs and chrome furnishings — but the beer garden is simple and spacious with lots of big picnic tables and shubbery.
In the summer they often have a bar and BBQ out there to keep the party vibe flowing whilst in the autumn and winter, the whole area is decorated with twinkling fairy lights for ambience. It’s too cold for a mojito but I could probably manage a hot toddy later…

Not so much a chain bar as a Manchester institution. Kro shouldn’t be marked down for simply being successful and opening a few other bars, it’s not like it’s Wetherspoons or anything!
The Kro I’m reviewing today is the Kro2 on Oxford Rd.
The big shiny steel and glass place next to the BBC, even if you haven’t been in Kro2, you’ll definitely have noticed it– it’s very much the diamond in the rough on Oxford rd.
Whilst the bar itself is lovely enough, with a really spacious and relaxed ambiance and live music playing most nights, it’s obviously the Secret Garden I want to talk about! Now this isn’t me using artistic license here, that is actually what they have named the brilliant beer garden. Strange yes, as it actually couldn’t be more conspicuous from the street but still, a nice little touch I thought. It got me thinking that more bars should start naming different areas around the premises, some ideas I had were the ‘Go on then– leave’ car park, or the ‘Don’t be moaning when the DJ wants to set up there in and hour and you have to move’ corner seats. But then, punchlines have never been a strength.
Anyways! Back to the secret garden. It’s one of my favourite places to spend a sunny day– it’s also lots of other peoples so if you want a seat turn up early. You wouldn’t think it but sitting in a beer garden immediately adjacent to the busiest bus route in Europe (true) is actually strangely relaxing. I think it’s because you get to watch everyone else rushing by whilst you know you don’t have to– hey workers, say hi to ‘the man’ for me!
Though the bar is really not that far away from the Secret Garden, those crazy Kro kids decided what was needed was another bar just to serve Al Fresco, so quite fantastically, Al can now get a drink at the INFLATABLE OUTDOOR BAR!!!

How slick is this place? It’s all glass and metal and pretty. I used to work over the road from here and would make this my Friday happy hour stop. It’s a bit expensive and the food just isn’t all that good. For a nice place to drink and people watch though, it’s fantastic.

Kro is a chain of bars in Manchester of which Kro 2 is one of, there is another one further down Oxford Road and also one in Piccadilly gardens. In my opinion this is the best of them.
It is a large glass building with picnic benches out the back making it one of few places where you can sit outside in Manchester city centre in the summer.
The best thing about Kro 2 though is the breakfast, they do full cooked English breakfasts, teacakes, musli, sausage and bacon sandwiches and the coffee is top notch. If you go before 11am they have a deal where a coffee and a sausage sandwich is £2.50. They also have a coffee and a cake deal on all day but the price of that slips my mind at the moment.
At night Kro 2 gets busy in the summer, often too busy to move which can be annoying and it can get very hot in there with it being glass.
The bar prices are too expensive at £5 for some glasses of wine there are cheaper, better places to go for a night out.
In short i’d recommed Kro 2 for breakfast, a coffee or a sociable drink outside on a summer day but there are better places to frequent on a weekend night.

I gotta admit, my first impressions of kro2 were not the best, however having gone a couple of times for a coffee early evening I found the bar staff to be so friendly– eager to help me find a good deal on the menu, and Emma the blonde Welsh barmaid was a star the wedges she recommended were hand made and well cooked with an excellent spicy dip. The coffee and cake offer is a good one and you don’t have to spend a lot to enjoy yourself there
The venue itself is pleasant on the eye and there is a good selection of beers and drinks if you fancy something a little bit stronger will definitely go again soon

Kro 2 is one of a number of the Kro chain bars which are situated across Manchester.
Despite this trendy bar being in the heart of student-​ville, Kro 2 is also popular among young professionals and and is based in what looks like a massive glass shoe-​box! However, it’s the outside which I think is best.
On a lazy Summer evening, this Kro is one of the most fun places to be in Manchester. Right beside this glass box is a heated outdoor area that stays buzzing until the early hours and is unlike anything else in the city.
I’ve lost many an hour sitting reading, chatting to friends and supping a budvar on those outdoor benches.
As it is situated by the BBC on Oxford Road, it’s also not unusual to see some minor celebrities hanging around but don’t let that deter you!
Finally, Kro has a fantastic array of drinks, reasonably priced tasty food and the bar staff are friendly and not «too cool for school»!
All in all a nice place!

Kro2 is run, unsurprisingly by the Krobar people. The beer and food are just as good (and expensive), but the location isn’t quite as cool. Next to the BBC and across the road from Man Met Uni.
The main thing that I’ll always remember about Kro2 is that it’s where I lost my first iPod. I think it was stolen, but I was drunk enough that maybe I just left it lying around