Oxford

The all day breakfast is good and serves no matter day or night.
The premise is too costy and only professors can afford the price lol.

Not a usual venue for me but close to where I was eating. This is a packed pub popular with students and justifiably so with affordable drinks, curry nights, late hours and sports screens. Inside is a bit too bright for me but it’s large, close to public transport and on the university strip so will continue to be popular. My taste though is for somewhere with a little more character and atmosphere

Went here last night for some cheap food and drinks. They have unbeatable deals when it comes to food like 2 meals for 7£, two for one dessert, or burger and a pint Tuesday’s for 3.99£! A house wine is about 3£ and cocktails 4.45£. I figured I’d include some prices to give you an idea of the price range… something important when you’re a broke college student wanting to go out! The burger itself was pretty bad. They were those super thin over cooked prefrozen patties. I didn’t try anything else but the wings did look pretty tasty. I might go for those next time. Anyway overall rating: food? Blahhh one star, but four stars for value and atmosphere… that’s what you’re going in for with prices that cheap. Meh I’d still go back for those wings and a cheap pint!

Great pub close to the University & Manchester Royal Infirmary
Amazing selection of beer both hand-​drawn and pressurized
Good reasonably priced & good selection
Looks like a great place to watch sports with a friendly student crowd

I was only here this week in order to help out a friend (the lovely Vickie S.) and cover running the quiz for her, but I was very glad I was there as I had forgotten just how lovely a pub it is! It’s aimed at students with regards to the prices and such, though they also show lots of sport (they had the football on whilst I was there), do cheap offers on pub grub, which I am yet to taste but the portions look well decent, and there is a lovely friendly, chatty atmosphere.
The quiz itself, being my main reason for being there, was lots of fun. There were around fifteen teams taking part, which created a nice level of sporting competition, and the prizes were pretty decent as well; £30 bar tab for the winning team, £15 for those who came in second. Not bad when it only costs a quid to enter, eh? There was a really decent mix of quizzers there as well, young and old, students and non-​students, pub regulars and those just there to check out the quiz! The way in which the building is set out lends itself perfectly to lots of different stuff happening at once, as it is split over two and half floors which meant that my booming quizmistressing was not too much of an inconvenience for those there to only watch the footy, or play darts, or just have a couple of pints and a chat.
They have a cracking beer selection, sold at cheap prices (well, they appear cheap to my Northern Quarter-​pockets!) and the staff were all very friendly and eager to help. The food menu does appear to be very similar to chain pub grub, i.e. not a huge selection of vegetarian food, but cheap and cheerful Sunday roasts and offers through the week. But at the super cheap prices (I believe I saw an offer for two meals for less than £7, which is bloody awesome!) it seems unreasonable to complain really!
I intend on returning to The Oxford soon, so I will update youse with my food-​munching and non-​working opinions in due course!

The Oxford is a regular haunt for me as a student at Manchester University — I often go there for a quick, cheap lunch, quiet drink, the weekly pub quiz or to watch the football. Its atmosphere varies but its custom is largely from students, with locals only really emerging when the sport’s being shown.
The food menu is well priced but the quality can vary, and the fact that they regularly run out of ingredients can be a pain. However, considering the prices it’s hard to complain, and the service is friendly.
Drinks are cheap but good — my friends and I usually take advantage of their offers on cocktails — meaning the Oxford can be a winner for day or night.
The setting is what you’d expect from this type of pub. We usually head upstairs to the slouchy sofas and pool table, but there are also tables and chairs more suited to dining. I will probably always like the Oxford, warts and all, for its good value and convenience for students.

Due to its central to student life location, I seem to keep returning to this place, yet have never left feeling satisfied. For a place aimed at students, the pub does well on price and probably suits most of its visitors.
On my visits however, they always seem to run out of the most basic of items. A one off would be excusable, but in a student pub, at lunch time, running out of the following (on different occasions)
*Chips
*Curry
*Pepsi/​Coke
The above are probably their most sold items, and you wouldn’t expect these to be unavailable during their busiest times, or to be told their is a 45 minute wait for them.
As for the food, there are few places that fall below Wetherspoon’s quality, and this is one of them, at seemingly more expensive prices. I also find the interior quite depressing and dark, certainly not somewhere to relax between lectures. Even if you do choose to eat here, finding a seat can be difficult with the masses of students here for the cheap food and drink
+Cheap drinks
+Central to university area
+Cheap food
–Awful reliability of service
–Food Does not taste good
–Over 1 hour waits for food sometimes
–Depressing building

Cheap drinks, and cheap eats… especially if you purchase their card.
The ambience isn’t really my style: lots of TV’s with sports games and not much artwork or anything on the walls (or at least none that I can remember, so equal to it not being there: P), but it’s clean and inexpensive so I can’t complain.
When there is a game on, be wary that you probably won’t find a table, or even a chair for that matter.
Oh, and if you’d like a cheap latte: they have them for 99p. Perfect for a break between classes!

It is cheap here, very cheap — especially compared to its only real immediate competition, Big Hands. It will, however, sap the life out of you — I’ll go in for a quick pint and some eats and end up biting down on the thick end of an existential crisis. I honestly don’t know why this is — the place looks fine, the music isn’t too loud or irritatingly quiet, I usually visit with likeminded friends of a sunny disposition but it always gets me and before I’ve finished my first pint I will feel my soul sliding into an abyss. Then the food will arrive and that won’t help at all, as I said it’s cheap but you absolutely get what you pay for here — warmed through sub-​scream bar pub meals. And yet I keep returning and keep ordering the scampi. Why?
Still, I suppose if you’re going to suffer a minor personality meltdown it may as well happen somewhere where the wine is under £6 a bottle.

Thought I’d just do a quick one of The Oxford, even though its been reviewed to death. Basically you fans of The Oxford, though you seem to feel its not the best place ever, may be interested in the new BARRY card scheme that they run.
Basically you buy a BARRY card for £2, and this entitles you to a number of deals that make the pub really one of the best value places around. One of the things you can get is a burger and chips for only £1.99! You can also get a pint of Heineken for only £1.99!
You also get a little booklet with it that entitles you to a load of free things and deals that you can only use one (whereas the card can be used infinitely). These include a free desert, a free shot, some cheap corona and some 2 for 1 pints.
Also, for this month only, Scampi and Chips is a mere £2.
The food and drinks are really cheap, and you won’t find cheaper with the levels of quality that they uphold here. Especially this month, so get down there!

For a while last summer, the boyf and I went to The Oxford every weekend, because it was theonly pub that was sure to be showing West Ham games. Perhaps the manager is part of the claret and blue army? Who knows.
The Oxford is alright. They do good solid pub grub very cheap (around £5 a head) and the selection of beers and whatnot is totally standard. The wine is gross but it always is in these places. If you’re going in for a pub lunch, my tip would be the cheese and bacon burger. It is ridiculously naughty, and made even better if you add curly fried (Jamie Oliver would cry blood!) for an extra 50p. Yes, you feel like you’ve committed carb’n’cheese suicide, but it’s so worth it for a dirty treat.
For night times drinking, The Oxford is at best a stop-​off or starting point, not a destination. The drinks offers are attractive, but this place lacks the atmosphere to make your evening.
Be warned, too, your food will take forever to arrive during term time. Like, an hour. So if you’re starving and need a dirty burger treat, there’s a Maccy D’s practically next door.

James B., are you sure you passed the idiot test you describe? The Oxford is so-​called because it’s on Oxford Road. I went to Manchester University because it was my first choice, not because I didn’t get into Oxford. The Oxford isn’t ‘old and pub-​like’, and it doesn’t pretend to be. And for your information I spent my student days drinking in the Oxford and came away with a first class degree.
Sorry everyone, rant over.
The prices here are good, and even cheaper if you can find your loyalty card stuffed away in your wallet with your V-​card and Yellow Card. Most of the bar staff are quite friendly, but once I decided to strike up a conversation with one who shared my name. She didn’t seem quite so thrilled to be chatting to a fellow Kirsten as I did (come on, there aren’t that many of us!). The quiz nights are good and the Sunday roasts aren’t too bad either (on a par with a Wetherspoons roast).
They are very strict with their ID policy, and once turned my Kenyan friend away as they thought that his Kenyan ID card was fake. They won’t accept student cards as proof of ID. I guess this is fair enough as they probably get their fair share of teenage My Chemical Romance fans on the quest of a pre-​gig drink. Talking of gigs, this is a perfect place for a pre– or post-​gig pint as it is open until midnight every night.

I’ve been to The Oxford a few times in my years at Manchester, and have mixed feelings towards it, enough to give it a perfectly average score.
It certainly looks nice and pub-​like inside, with a comfortable atmosphere and good seating, but from the outside looks about as far removed from a pub as one could imagine. I’m not too sure whether it was originally built as a pub or, as James said, a doctor’s surgery. So, both up and down on aesthetic appeal then.
There is a nice variety of drinks on offer with some ales to add to the mix, and also some good food as well. An up. But then this is coupled with some downright surly bar staff. I hasten to add that they are not all miserable gits, but some certainly fall into that category. What is the point of having bouncers ID checking everyone who wanders in, if you only go and demand ID again at the bar? And then fail to spot idiocy in such a procedure? So, a down again.
The prices are pretty good most nights, there’s WiFi access, a pub quiz. More ups! And then the location is downright stupid. It’s annoying to have to trek to a bar unless you happen to live in Whitworth Park opposite. Another down.
So, a tasty 3 out of 5 overall. Cheers, Oxford.

Walk in and you’ll sort of melt into the warmth of this cosy pub. It competes with the best of locals, but in my opinion has an edge. It’s far more in touch with the student populous. Drinks are cheap, the fires are roaring, there’s a good selection of ales and what have you coupled with students staffing the bar.
Not a bad spot at all then, add to this Wi-​Fi can make this an escape to take note of for those work sessions you need to cram in; after you’ve wandered around the main library looking for somewhere to sit for many an hour only to eventually turf yourself out onto the streets.
The foods good for what you pay for, £3 breakfasts see this place full of medics after their mad evenings of working in the hospital up the road. Upstairs are the sofas which are cosy if you can get one. Good for pre drinks before heading onto a gig at the academy.

I’ve yet to visit a city that doesn’t have a pub called the Oxford in it’s student area, but it’s only recently that this has begun to annoy me. I think it has to do with the shamelessness of the Manchester version. Yes it’s a lame attempt at somehow linking their student area with that well known university that none of us got in to but at least all other Oxford pubs have the decency to be old and pub-​like! Manchester’s looks like some kind community centre or doctors surgery– and no, before you start, that doesn’t make the place good for what ails you.
It’s a tacky and cheap ignoramus of a building which I’m sure the universities must have had built to act as some kind of idiot test. I’d be interested to know the percentage of people who chose to spend their student days drinking in the Oxford that came away with thirds or lower.

The Oxford is a modern, contemporary pub near to Manchester Academy and the University. This used to be a regular haunt of mine when I lived in halls of residence nearby, unfortunately, when I returned more recently it seems that standards have gone down. It is useful for going for a few drinks there before or after a gig at the Academy, or a few drinks after university. Personally, I now prefer Kro which is a couple of minutes down the road. Standard pub beers and spirits on offer, food in the daytime which is fairly good value. They used to have a £1 drinks offer on thursdays but it is a shame that they no longer do this.