The Alchemist in Manchester

Cool drinks and great ambience. The staff is very friendly.

Decent bar, but in my first-hand experience can be a hotspot for petty crime (theft). Keep your eye on your stuff.

Just what you would expect from an Alchemist Bar; good atmosphere and surroundings, with a particularly excellent Brixton Pale Ale.

Food and drinks were good but our service was not. Are server took our order and then never came back to the table. We watched her chat with the other staff the whole time and another server checked us out. Don’t think I would return because of this.

Food was great, small plate options are nice to pick a few and share with friends, the drinks were a little underwhelming

Pre booked a table for food on a weekend, didnt have to wait too long for food even though it was busy. Friendly and helpful staff. Cocktails/food delicious

Taking cocktails to a new level and great nibble food

Wow just amazing!!! Love the vibe the decor. It feels like your in a science lab. The cocktails were amazing. The music the ambience. Everything was perfect.

The best cocktails in Manchester (creativity and originality at the top) Good atmosphere and good music

Excellent bar and the refurb is top notch.

Friday Early Evening 1st March Our server was Missy. Absolutely fantastic, attentive, polite and had great recommendations for cocktails! Thank you for making it a lovely experience!

Not overly keen on this one been to one in another town which was much better

Visited here on Saturday and you never know what cocktail you may try. I opted for the Jaffa cake cup - it was gorgeous and had an edible cup. The staff are always friendly and can advise you on a cocktail if you cannot choose

Plenty of drinks to choose from

Lovely waitress who first spoke to us, sat at the bar as only wanted drinks, bartender was horrific. Never met someone with worse customer service in my life, I get people have off days but this must have been the worst day anyone has ever experienced. He is the reason we will not return.

Not having enough stock for your listed cocktails at a cocktail bar is not a good look

I ve been here twice just to have few cocktails and i really enjoyed. The restaurant is beautiful,the service and the knowledge of the bartenders is top. There are a lot of choices on the drink menu and most of them has an amazing presentation. Never had chance to try the food but I will defitenely come back

Make sure to book a table in advance. Highly recommend. I went here on Valentines for a birthday meal, cutest surprise from my boyfriend!!

If your after fancy cocktails served in crazy vesicles. This is the place to go.

Everything was perfect, minus the small girl at front of house! Terrible attitude could crack a smile didn’t look like she want to be there. Everyone else was perfect so friendly and welcoming

The food was gorgeous and the drinks even more so! I managed to get a ‘Solero’ my favourite cocktail that they’ve unfortunately scrapped from the menu. The wait and bar staff are all very eager to make you any drink you’d fancy as they are all trained in classic cocktail making, so even if there isn’t your favourite on the menu don’t be afraid to ask for it and I’m sure they’ll be able to make it for you This has and will always remain my favourite cocktail bar. Can’t wait to visit again soon!

Absolutely love this place, can't fault it at all..

The best cocktails in the world

A little let down when we visited on a Friday night. We had been to the Alchemist in Edinburgh previously, so thought that this would be the sale type, but it just didn't have the vibes of Edinburgh. Not much bar flaring going on, no happy chatty staff. Ah well, back to Edinburgh in December and to the Alchemist there

You can't just go everything is excellent

Always fantastic. driven by amazing service.

Really disappointing visit. Had booked as part of the birthday offer, using the correct link sent to me via email. Our initial server was very friendly and even asked whose birthday we were celebrating, so I knew the booking had gone through correctly in order to qualify for the free birthday main dish. The drinks were very strong but nice, however only one was explained to us. We then had a different server who just threw the drinks on the table and walked off. We also found this particular restaurant didn’t include the theatrics with our main dishes that we’d experienced at other locations, despite ordering the same things from the menu. Food was nice but it’s probably hard to get chicken tenders and chips wrong. I happened to be in the toilet when my partner paid the bill, and upon discussing it with him later it turned out we hadn’t been given the birthday offer and had paid full price. We would have booked elsewhere if not for the offer, so it was disappointing and also a warning for others to double check the bill. I mean especially when the drinks are so strong, it’s easy to miss and for the establishment to take advantage! Won’t return unfortunately, perhaps we have been lucky with the previous Alchemist we visited.

Me and my partner decided to dine here for our anniversary but the overall experience was extremely underwhelming. The service itself was pretty slow, lack of attention all in all. The food was "okay", our starters (sharing platter) had potatoes that were heavily salted, to the point you could see a layer of salt on them rather than a sprinkle; mains were underwhelming, my partner had the "tempura" hake and it clearly wasn't tempura but instead a normal batter, I had the smoke board with picanha and was a touch bit surprised to see 8 thin pieces of steak after paying £22 for it. We did try to be as understanding about the service / wait-time as I'm a chef myself and my partner works as a barmaid and a waitress. At the end of the day, I'm not saying the place is horrible, we loved the one in Leeds primarily for the drinks and thought we'd try out the food here tonight to celebrate a special day for us, but with the quality of service we just experienced, i think we'll just stick to the drinks next time.

I love this place. First went to the one in Chester and loved that one as well. Great drinks and good staffing. Get the smokey old fashioned and thank me later!

Took 3 tries to get the £27 fillet steak (rare) right (1st one well over done, one fridge cold in the middle). The cocktails and service was great though

Lovely drinks, and absolutely above and beyond service by George. Wasn't prompted at all to leave a review, but felt I should given his attentive service and knowledge of the menu.

Visited early evening but it quickly filled up with some large parties. Amazing food and overall experience was fantastic, but a minor issue with service. Main courses were not served together and a side came after that. Overall a wow experience.

This is a fun place for carefully thought out non-alcoholic cocktails. It was a nice change to the juice that most bars serve.

They didn't let us in as they said that we needed to book it in advance!! The place was half empty!

Absolutely loved this place. First time here and when we arrived we were able to get the last two chairs at the cocktail bar so were able to watch the theatre of cocktail making. We had the most fab cocktails which we thoroughly enjoyed. Can definitely recommend the Brulee Vouz and French Kiss, but the Margarita and the Lava Lamp were also delicious. The bar man was so busy, but still had time for a quick chat to explain ingredients if you were unsure, and also time for a laugh. How they remember what goes in which cocktail while customers talk to them is beyond me, but it was just a fantastic place, and when next in Manchester we will be back, and will try the food too. We had a booking elsewhere for dinner otherwise we would have tried it that evening.

Fabulous place. We have been twice over two days, both as a couple and with our children. The first night was just us in the evening and enjoyed various cocktails which were amazing to watch and tasted great. The second day we went back with our children for lunch and enjoyed a meal with two cocktails. The use of dry ice and lights, make these cocktails fun and exciting. No children are allowed past 8pm and no dry ice can be added to cocktails for under 18’s. They also add a £1 for the local charity on to the bill.

Fantastic ambience, dazzle and staff!

Gehobenes Restaurant mit entsprechenden Preisen , dabei mit großer Cocktail Auswahl

We have tried the non alcoholic drink and some food. Food was ok and the drink was interesting to see what will happen. We arrived an hour too early, but been organised a seat pretty quickly, which we appreciated. We didn’t stay for a long time, but I think it’s nice place overall.

Great Food, amazing cocktails and a fantastic atmosphere. The service was top notch making it a great night out in Manchester.

Excellent bar, great cocktails and fantastic service

Myself and 10 others went for a work Christmas meal, I hadn’t been to The Alchemist in a long while so was unsure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised, the Christmas menu was a little different to usual Christmas menus but in a really nice way. The gravy with the turkey in a basket was amazing! The price was also reasonable. The table serving team were really lovely and the atmosphere was friendly too. I’d highly recommend.

The best place ever you visit 👌😍

Beautiful place with lovely staff and great food and service. Will definitely go back

Very nice espresso martini. Enjoyable outing.

I want to be fair here. We live nearby so I pop in ... I just popped in and left as it was too busy and crowded. That said in the past the bar staff have such passion and are lovely to speak to... If they weren't this would be a one star review.

Great food, great cocktails, brilliant value for money

Christmas Dinner. Food was good. Feta salad as starter, really good salad. It was tasty although the avocado was not the best one, I truly recommend this starter. Ribeye steak as main. Tasty and Delicious. Brownie as dessert. Also a good option. The atmosphere was great although the place is noisy which makes difficult to keep a conversation with your colleagues. Cocktails and drinks are probably the best asset for this place. If you are a food lover there are better places in Manchester, but in general a good experience.

Rude staff. Took 40 minutes to take drinks and got vocally annoyed when we didn't tip. Drinks lacked alcohol

Walked in to a busy bar area, didn't know where to stand at first and staff were flying past us and not acknowledging us at all. Manged to get a waitresses attention who told us to wait at the desk only to be stood there for another 10 minutes waiting to be seated for our booked table. After finally being seated we were left with the menu for 15 mins until the waitress came over and went through a few recommendations. At this point we had already chosen what we wanted to order but were left another 15 minutes for her to come back. The waitress was very pleasant but as you can imagine we were quite disappointed at this rate. Ordered our 2 cocktails and had to wait a further 15 minutes for them. The cocktails were average and drank in 4 gulps as they were so small so for the price you pay I wouldn't say they are worth it at all. After this being our first time we were not happy with the experience whatsoever so asked for the bill which has a service charge on it, the staff member already knew we weren't going to pay it so removed it from the bill. This ruined our full night as we had tried to book everything timewise as you have to in Manchester and this was meant to be our last stop but was cut short. The full experience was such a disappointment as I'd never been to the alchemist before and always wanted to try it. Definitely won't be returning which is a shame.

5-10 minutes wait to be welcomed for our pre-booked table. 10 minutes to bring over the menu and explain how it works, disappeared another 10 minutes before taking our order, 15 minutes for drinks to come. 45 minutes before our first sip, ridiculous. Had that one drink then asked for the bill, they had the cheek to add a service charge. Do not come here to spend your Saturday night unless you’re looking at 1 drink an hour. No apology given, no heads up that the service is slow, even our waitress acknowledged there was a problem. If I could give 0*, I would have.

Came for the exquisite duck spring rolls. THEY REMOVED THEM FROM THE MENU. Absolutely devastated. Otherwise 5 stars. I cry for the loss of the spring rolls. My farther once said, a true cocktail bar in Manchester serves premium duck spring rolls. Please give me my duck spring rolls. Kindest regards, customer without their duck spring rolls x

Absolutely fantastic food. Very clean. Excellent table service. I ordered the fish curry and it was amazing.

Amazing food, atmosphere and service.

Delicious cocktails, very well presented, excellent DJ

Very noisy and quite expensive. Fancy cocktails though...

Absolutely loved it. Fantastic place. Made to feel very welcome. Excellent service. Superb quality food. And exceptional choice of drinks. Wish I could work here. 👍

Great food - relaxed atmosphere - good price - what else do you need ?

Great place to enjoy one of the more unusual cocktails. We tried the popping candy plus a few others for the start of the night. Service wasn't great, had to queue at the bar to eventually get served but that's alright was early in the night. Lots of people trying out the cocktails, always as much fun to watch other people trying out the drinks.

Birthday lunch out, service was brilliant. Thank you, Poppy. Foot was amazing, and cocktails were fantastic ! We especially loved the Jaffa Cake Cocktail with edible wafer cup.

Recommend the "special" cocktails - which you can recognize by the eye logo on the menu. It was incredibly fun to watch how they prep your cocktail (with fire, smoke, lights, bubbles ...). Ours were served in a test tube and light bulb. We both really enjoyed ours. The couple after us ordered the cocktail with tongues and they were not impressed. They took one sip and left the drink behind.

The cocktails are spectacular, but the staff make sure that the drink becomes an event. We always enjoy our time in here 😊

Great bar,cocktail menu brilliant,very knowledgeable staff

Went for drinks, drinks ive had there have been very nice

Very helpful staff, good customer service. The only thing was: that on the display they had glasses that are used for Margeritas, they were filthy with the kind of slodge that isn't called "watermarks" like it was described by the member of staff I flagged this to. Also "didn't have time to polish them" isn't ever a good excuse for anything in the service industry. I arrived there with my group around 16:30pm, it wasn't massively busy and this should not have been on their display. The shift from last night should not have put those glasses up and the shift that opens up should have taken them down and washed them again. The manager that was bobbing around should have picked this up or any of the bar staff thay was working should have, as is their job. The idea alone that I might have been served from those glasses makes me feel ill. The glasses were removed as per my request thankfully. Although I feel a better practice is required with regards to closing and opening duties and checks. Respectfully, someone that has worked in the industry for a long time.

Came here for dinner earlier this week as we were over for a trip in Manchester. The atmosphere was such a vibe we loved it! Staff were friendly and helpful and the food was EXCEPTIONAL! The chorizo and cheese doughballs were so yummy. I got the BBQ Chicken Smoke Board which was incredible I really enjoyed it and our desserts were so dreamy. Great menu variety!

We went for brunch and I had the Chicken & Waffles. The entire table loved the food. The staff was friendly and the atmosphere was fun! I’d love to return one day.

Nice place to have amazing drinks, love their interior

What an experience... it is an expensive one, but was very very good.

Great place to get a quick drink. Spoilt with options. We went as a couple on a Saturday night and the atmosphere was fun.

Probably one of the best places in Manchester city center

The only way to describe The Alchemist is that it's an amazing experience with fantastic drinks and food.

Always worth a visit when in Manchester even if it's just for a couple of drinks. The staff is friendly and the drinks are amazing as always.

Amazing experience here at The Alchemist. The most unique cocktails with a smoke & mirrors twist. Yes, they are a bit pricey but definitely worth going at least once. The food was also very tasty, atmosphere was great and service was exceptional. Would definitely recommend!

Nice choice of cocktails and the usual drinks. Wasn't particularly busy on a Saturday late night and had a DJ playing. Pretty quick service

Great fun, my wife and I had a smashing time. I recommend you do it at least once in your life. Tasty food and beautiful cocktails.

Really good food and surroundings look great.

Great place for lunch with amazing food and lovely staff.

Absolutely fantastic atmosphere, really good staff, service was quick and food excellent. Also a little bit of magic with all the cocktails, making it a worthwhile experience. Great menu including breakfast and brunch options until 2pm.

Came with my friend for a couple of cheeky cocktails and luke was fabulous, he gave us ideas of cocktails that we'd never normally try 😁😁

Fantastic cocktails and really lovely staff

Smokes and mirrors with the cocktail display but it can’t mask the fact that most drinks are premixed and the flavor is pretty average. Bar staff can be a little more friendly, considering the price of the drinks versus the quality of the drinks. Avoid cosmic oyster which was complete garbage. More hype than substance is the general theme here. Try Blinker Bar around the corner, you wont regret it!

Good tasting food and cool drinks. Really lovely staff served us on the evening. Apart from having to remove the service charge due to some big gaps in the service at times, great effort from the girls working there. Would definitely recommend.

The drinks were very tasty and creative. Chill vibe and great decor with friendly staff, would definitely recommend if you want to to go out for drinks and a bite to eat.

Really delicious food and some funky cocktails, the music is just too loud to talk with each other, so not quite a place for a relaxed dinner.

Great cocktails and our lovely girls looking after us nailed the service

Enjoyed a lovely lunch today. Food and atmosphere were great as usual but the stand out was our fabulous server ( Yasmin according to our bill). She greeted us with the biggest smile and was so friendly and engaging. She even let our kids have a go with the ‘bubble gun’ after they saw a cocktail being served. She really went above and beyond to ensure we had a great meal!

Amazing service, atmosphere and location. The food and drinks were amazing 👏

Creative Cocktails, not cheap but fun. night out

There is a reason why this chain is expanding. Overall it’s a great concept. It’s stylish, it’s fun, it’s cool and the staff were personable, efficient, professional and attentive. Most of the menu is pretty tasty and it’s fairly reasonably priced. Drinks were very, very good. Sadly, I don’t think the kitchen could cope with the lunch rush. Looking back there weren’t that many people in the kitchen and the place was packed. Some of the dishes, the expensive ones, weren’t cooked properly in the staffs opinion, and mine. Not the fault of the kitchen, I just don’t think they had a fair opportunity to deliver. A little out of their depth if not just because of the volume of food involved. Overall, I think when you’re charging decent prices, you have to get it right. The dishes in question were comped, but for me, I didn’t feel like it was enough, and it was an opportunity to impress squandered. That said, I’d probably give it another go in the future.

Fried shrooms Starter was very salty. Steak was so small for £29 Fries were lovely Zombie and other cocktail was not very nice at all. Usually love this place. So disappointed it spoiled the night. Staff were friendly and professional

Arrived at 555pm, barman unsure what time they stopped servingand if the kitchen was closed. After a chat he told us 630pm but we couldn't eat outside ?? Won't be going again, their.loss and brewdogs gain

Great and original drinks. Service was outstanding.

Trendy bar resturant central Manchester recommended

Amazing place. Casual , warm , welcoming. The staff was helpful when I asked about a drink being made in front of me. I was amazed by seeing the drinks being made and definitely would go again.

Fantastic way to start our day in Manchester off, great drinks, food was amazing & staff were excellent too! 👌

We visited The Alchemist on New York Street in Manchester for a corporate event and were initially faced with a challenge in finding adequate seating for our large group. However, thanks to the kind and accommodating staff, we were able to secure a shared large table. The standout of the evening was the extensive and impressive selection of cocktails. They exceeded our expectations, both in variety and quality. It's clear that the mixologists at this venue are true artists in their craft. The cocktails were among the best we've encountered, and though we didn't handle the bill ourselves, the prices seemed reasonable for the exceptional quality. On the downside, the cocktails were quite strong in terms of alcohol content. While some might appreciate this, our group felt that it detracted from the overall experience. We were there to enjoy a good time without necessarily getting drunk, and the strong cocktails didn't align with that aim. It would have been better to have cocktails with less alcohol, but perhaps more volume. All in all, The Alchemist on New York Street in Manchester is a great choice for those looking for a unique and memorable cocktail experience. We do hope they consider adjusting the strength of their cocktails to accommodate a wider range of preferences.

Great atmosphere, lovely food and drink. Just make sure not to wear any football jerseys or you won't get in!

Bar staff is not help full very bad

Boy behind bar he not helpful and talk for service very bad 15 Aug 2023 22:00pm.