The best happy hours in Manchester

Positioned just off Cross Street, in a smart looking former townhouse, are all three floors of 10 Tib Lane – an idyllic hideaway, perfect for a moodily lit rendezvous. Their happy hour is the stuff of legend too, during which you can pair a handsomely discounted cocktail (£6 – YES £6 – for every single one on the menu) with oysters for a quid on the side. Just get down between 4 and 6pm, every single day.

Albert’s Schloss are big on glass tankards of Bavarian beer, long communal tables and quiet evenings which turn into rowdy ones, which makes them an ideal spot for city centre post-work drinks. It’s also an evergreen hit, beloved by your pals, your parents and Pauline from finance. Their ‘Après-Work’ offer includes selected £7 cocktails, £25 bottles of prosecco and £5 pints of Pilsner and Hofbrau. To that we say: Prost!

Historic Salford boozer The Black Friar has a radically simple happy hour premise – every weekday between 4 and 6.30pm, you can participate in ‘After Work Drinking Club’, where cocktails are £5, beers are £4 and bottles of wine are £15. Daft value, really.

Complimenting their variety of spaces in this cavernous live music and drinking den, there’s also a variety of different ways you can do happy hour at The Blues Kitchen. Mondays are all about margaritas – from 5pm they’re £6 for the rest of the night. On Wednesdays, loads of cocktails are £6, and on Fridays from 5 to 7pm, selected wines and beers are £5, while bottles of fizz are £25.

Crazy Pedro’s are known for their outrageous offers and even more outrageous pizza creations. An after-hours failsafe for excellent, borderline silly, vibes, their post-work game is also extremely strong. Every 5-9pm Sunday to Friday, cocktails are two for £12, pizza slices are £2.50, whole pizzas are £12 and there’s plenty of what they affectionately call ‘cheap plonk’. It’ll turn from ‘just one’ to 4am debauchery before you know it.

Elnecot are known for bringing a level of elevated sophistication to Ancoats dining and drinking, but that doesn’t mean they’re averse to a good, old fashioned happy hour. From  3-7pm every Friday, you can enjoy two-for-one on cocktails and £4 pints. And those cocktails in question are impeccable, the rhubarb margarita and tiramisu martini are must-trys.

These guys are nothing if not specific. The very cool Ancoats venue and kitchen is plenty of fun, and their happy hour is as irreverent as they are: every Wednesday or Thursday, Pisco Sours are £6 all night long. The sweet-but-sour brandy-based drink has its origins in Peruvian and Chilean cuisine and we can only presume that the guys at The New Cross think they’re really delicious. Which they are.

Being the steak and seafood behemoth that it is, it’s no surprise that Hawksmoor pairs their cocktail happy hour with oysters. Natural oysters with a mignonette dressing are two quid every weekday from 5pm-6pm. Cocktails-wise, you can choose from a Pink Gibson or a Green Maria – which is reminiscent of a margarita, but fancier – for just £10. Get yourself down there after work for a truly decadent early evening.

A little spot just up from vegan grocery utopia Unicorn, this New Orleans-inspired bar is a rather fetching shade of salmon pink. Inside, the space is cool-but-cosy, and perfect for people watching. Prop up the bar and chat to the knowledgeable bar staff (fans of sister bar 10 Tib Lane should know that some of the team began here) about their house infusions like black pepper vodka and beetroot tequila. Happy hour means their impeccable cocktails are £6 between 4-6pm everyday, and all day Sunday. Pints of pilsner are also a more than reasonable £3.80.

Another Chorlton-based happy hour, The Jane Eyre is a classics-focussed cocktail spot with a prime people-watching location on Beech Road, which makes it the perfect post-work set up. From 3pm to 6pm, Tuesday to Friday, bottles of house wine are £15, bottles of fizz are £9, selected draft is 20% off, and loads of their crowd-pleasing cocktails – like the spritzy, elderflower-influenced Hugo – are £7.

Junior Jackson’s bring the signature ruckus of Bunny Jackson’s to an underground hideaway in the Northern Quarter. Their happy hour is a serious business too – buy one get one free on absolutely everything from 3pm until 8pm every work day. Careful though, this is a dangerous one for those who have to roll into the office the next day.

Every weekday between 9 and 5pm, you can find your way to Oldham Street’s Lost Cat, to enjoy their cocktail list which is full of sultry concoctions like Frenzied Girl (vodka, white cacao, vanilla, matcha and almond milk) and the Sunnydale President (gin, pear, almond, lemon, soda). Focussed solely on the hard stuff, this is the sort of ‘nuclear option’ happy hour we can get behind every now and again.