The Refuge by Volta in Manchester

It made our first visit to the Winter Garden, great atmosphere, you really don't feel like you re in Manchester. Vaishnavi looked after us all evening and made a special effort for my Birthday. She was so lovely and helpful with everything we needed, she really made it memorable and we will be back again

L’endroit parfait pour un apero a la social hour avec un excellent live jazz band suivi d’un très bon dîner au Refuge servi par la charmante Vaishnavi , tres gentille et souriante

Great food but the service was exceptional. A lesson in how to be a professional waitress. Thank you Kath [our waitress]. For creating a fantastic atomosphere and great service.

Went today for pre theatre drinks. Service shockingly slow, with barely any staff around. No concept of who was due to be served next. Wouldn't recommend.

This is a beautiful building, nicely refurbished and very atmospheric. But the food, beer and service leave a lot to be desired. The menu is very limited and very expensive, which would lead you to think the food would be excellent - not so I’m afraid. A £45 steak just cut up on a small tray, not even a salad leaf garnish seems a bit much. The chips were only OK and the vegetarian choice very limited. The lager was flat and there was no ice for our drinks. A pleasant young lady, her name began with V, served us and she was the only member of staff that was doing a good job, the rest seemed to be in a hurry! We moved to the bar after the meal and there was a young man who served us a few times who was downright rude and unobliging. I feel some serious staff training would not go amiss. We would not return here despite the lovely surroundings, which is a real shame.

How can a place so good looking be so terrible? We had seen this place on social media and so had booked for a meal on the back of that whilst we were in Manchester. The setting is lovely but its so big it makes for no atmosphere. We were given menus for the food but not drinks so the waitress went and got us the drink menu and we ordered a cocktail each. They then took our food order and we had 2 of the small share plates and 2 of the big share plates and some sides. The barely warm teeny little starter and main "sharing" plates arrived before our drinks somehow. Something that tastes bad in the first place tastes worse when its cold and they were the croquettes. The main "big" share plates were beef cheek and risotto and I could have eaten both on my own with the chips and still walked out hungry. It is obvious to me what is happening in this place and it is an arrogance that because of the style people will be happy with what they're given but we definitely were not happy. Also, both of the £13 cocktails would have had no more than 50ml of liquid including mixers which is unbelievable. We left £91 worse off and headed somewhere for food and a drink.

Saturday night dinner. The restaurant was not that busy. Service was poor, really slow and below par. Had to flag someone down for our first and then further rounds of drinks, to place a food order, for the bill. We might as well have not been there at all as the waiting staff just ignored us for the majority of the time (they automatically add a 10% service charge). Disappointing and will think twice before another visit.

Lovely Sunday lunch! You need to book to get in, and I would really recommend when you do asking for a table with dining chairs - several have armchairs and they are just too low to be comfortable

Wonderful experience and delicous menu. A great venue for gatherings and dinner parties. Our server Ebony was pleasant and gave 100% [10 out of 10]

Great service in the refuge bar today the guy behind the bar was great and easily sorted out a little problem for us. Great vibes and the music was fab. Will visit again, thank you.

It's nice and lively in the city of Manchester.

Cracking vibes and great whisky

We had a fantastic dining experience at Refuge. From the moment we arrived our waiter Saukhyad was incredibly attentive, ensuring our glasses were never empty and checking in at just the right moments. His friendly demeanor and professionalism made us feel truly valued as guests. Saukhyad’s excellent service was worth a mention. Small menu but high quality and one of the best meals out we have had in a long time. Highly recommended!

suma was a great host, jazz band playing through the evening was top 💫

I came yesterday with my son at lunch time the food was amazing. Loved the croqettas .We was served by Vaishnavi she was lovely very happy at her work made our experience more pleasurable. Can't wait to return.

Great Sunday roast. Quality service

Beautiful restaurant, with great ambience and excellent food. Very dog friendly as well, even for dinner. The brioche bread and butter pudding was unbelievably good!

Great food, nice place and a very professional waitress named Vaishnavi!!

Excellent food and service. Lucy was fabulous thank you so much!

A weekend visit to Manchester and what a lovely venue to take family for dinner..our waitress Lucy was great and made our evening very special,recommending cocktails and pointing me in the direction of one of the nicest bread and butter puddings I've ever eaten(and I've had a fair few!)..I'd highly recommend and will look into staying when we next visit the city..x

Great atmosphere for an afternoon cocktail or wine.

We only ordered 4 items, 1 was forgotten. This was pointed out straight away but we then had to ask a second time. Portion sizing is as bizarre as the bill format! Why have a parfait without anything to put it on, luckily we ordered a side of flat bread ( which it wasn't ) , but you would of thought, when ordering, you would of been advised of this. Also the salad nicoise was meant to come with Iberico ham, it may well of been, however I've never actually seen it in sausage form before. Definitely gone downhill since our last visit I'm sorry to say.

suma B is sooo kind and patient! Love her so much~ the dishes are gorgeous as well~ recommend beef cheek

Valentines Day 💌 We had a lovely spread of food here, it was a relaxed casual atmosphere and our waitress was lovely. We had a wonderful time.

Called in for drinks and to see the art exhibition. Lovely place and friendly staff

I took my son here for a nice meal before we went over to the palace theatre. Service was good and Vaishnavi couldn’t do enough for us. My son had the chicken and chips children’s meal and I had the steak. Steak was very nice and chips seasoned at the right level. We would have stayed for dessert but had to go to watch the production. Looking forward to coming back to bring my wife before we visit the Palace Theatre again later on this year.

Beautiful place and good service. They're also great with dietary restrictions, but unfortunately much of the food was inedible. The butternut squash was raw and somehow still tasted burnt since they'd blowtorched the outside or something. The pork came with a very potent sauce that tasted like they'd mixed a lot of Chinese five spice into ketchup. Most of the flavours in the dishes simply did not go together. Saying that, I'd love to go back for drinks (only) as the atmosphere was lovely.

We had a great time at the Refuge celebrating Valentine’s Day! The food was incredible, tasty and quick to be served! Our server Saukhyad was super friendly and got everything we asked for without a faff or issue - I would recommend to anyone visiting Manchester!

Food was good, can be pricey £££

We booked for weekend brunch. Was a really awful experience! Totally unfriendly welcome in a huge conference style space. Waiter didn’t care at all about us. Left for ages before ordering. Asked for a coke, took 20 minutes to arrive before unappetising starters arrived. I questioned this and he told me I needed to be more understanding as they were busy. The place was half empty and the bar guys were joking around. Food was tasty but then waited another 20 mins for drinks to arrive. Complete joke. Atmosphere horrible. Loos about 7 minute walk from table. Told ladies in reception as we left. They didn’t care. What a shambles. Manchester deserves better. Horrible place. Please avoid.

Just had a beautiful Vegan Sunday Roast here. Can't fault the service (fast, attentive, and great banter was had with our waitress). My choices with pricing: Vegan Roast: £18.50 Aperol Spritz: £12 Would Highly Recommend.

This is a really beautiful restaurant, the atmosphere is brilliant and the architecture is stunning. Our waitress, Vaishnavi, was excellent and looked after us really well. Would highly recommended.

Visited in December when the place had a great festive buzz—people out enjoying themselves, soaking up the atmosphere. We sat in the restaurant rather than the bar, which felt more relaxed. Prices were fair, especially if you're used to London rates. The starters of hummus, sourdough, and chips were all solid, and service was friendly. We didn’t stay for a full meal as we’d already eaten, but the decor inside was lovely. Bonus points for keeping the service charge at a sensible 10%, unlike London’s creeping 13.5% with no added value. Would happily return.

Ebony was a delight! So friendly, chatty and helpful. The food and vibe was great and she made us feel super welcome. An asset

Vaishnavi was the most incredible host! Her glowing happy energy made our dinner and absolute delight. We will definitely be coming back! 💕✨

Thank you Nikita for a lovely evening, attentive service and delicious food x

Amazing service very nice waitress called ebony beautiful surroundings

7 of us ate here for our belated Christmas party and we shared the feasting menu. The dining toom is beautiful and the food and vibe were perfect for us. Shout out to Saukhyad for attentive service and keeping our champagne topped up. Will come back in the daylight some time to sit in the courtyard too.

Our server Nikita was very attentive and the food was wonderful throughout the night. Great experience!

We didn't eat there, but a great bar, great atmosphere, throughly recommend it...

Vaishnavi and Nikita looked after us well.

Really lovely place, five star service, gorgeous food and lovely atmosphere. And dog friendly too :)

We visited the Kimpton hotel today for Sunday lunch and was greeted by vaishnavi , who looked after our party absolutely brilliantly , nothing was to much trouble perfect and even brought me a birthday cake , the food was well cooked presented perfectly overall I wasn’t exspecting this exsperiance highly recommended

Delightful relaxed but upmarket eatery. Limited vegetarian choice but the dishes we had were delicious and we left replete without the deserts. Special thanks to the bar team who whisked us up Brandy Alexanders even though they aren't on either the cocktail or dessert menus. 😁🍸

Absolutely delicious. Had the pork belly and it was well worth it. Our waitress Nikita was lovely and made sure we had a lovely evening.

Enjoyed having the breakfast buffet here every morning. We stayed at the Kimpton clock tower which is attached.

Food was amazing. The goats cheese dish is not worth even half the price they charge, but everything else was worth it, top quality and well cooked. The service was so bad. I asked for the service charge to be removed and even that caused issues. For context, we waited for 6 mins after ordering drinks for the server to then ask us what we ordered again. Once ordered, she took the food order. The 7 small dishes of food arrived 15 mins later, but still before our drinks. Nobody cleared out mains plates, we ordered dessert and coffee, for the desserts to arrive (wrong) before any mains plates still cleared. No chance for a 2nd drink either. Mixed experience.

Saturday the 11th I booked a table for 2, the food was tasty we ordered tapas style dishes, Ebony looked after us she was polite & Friendly I would eat here again well done!!

Lovely food and great service, sockets and decent wifi, fab for a working meal near Oxford Road station

Food was delicious and service by Vaishnavi was excellent! She was attentive and very thoughtful.

The building is gorgeous inside and the food was sublime. Sunday dinner service was both quick service and tasty with excellent staff on hand. The dinner itself is not cheap but I do find it to be worth the price.

Always enjoy the Refuge, food was delicious, great wine and fabulous cocktails, the service was really really good, our waitress Vaishnavi was amazing nothing was too much trouble she is a real credit to the company.

Staff were really friendly and great. Our waitress helped us with the menu. Love the Winter Garden, was surprise there were no afternoon tea sets. Feel like it's a missed opportunity. We had the: - Grilled squid, vizcaina sauce, Spanish black pudding (small portions but decent, not a wow though) - Buttermilk-fried chicken, chip shop curry sauce, mushroom ketchup (this was surprisingly very nice) - Mojo rojo pork belly, miso aubergine, yoghurt (So delicious and highly recommend) - Slow-cooked beef cheek, butterscotch celeriac, remoulade (Nice as well and very soft) - Beef fat mashed potatoes, overnight onions, beef gravy (yummy mash)

Poor service, strange menu. The service here left much to be desired — took ten minutes or more to get asked if we wanted drinks. We received our appetizers after 20 minutes, which was fine, but it took another 10 minutes to get the first drink (Bloody Mary,) and another 15 to get the second drink (Flat White,) and the flat white only came when we flagged down a server that wasn’t our own to ask about it. The menu is definitely strange. Perhaps not to personal taste, but it was also very limited in options altogether. Quite a disappointing meal, since the stay at the hotel was very lovely.

Popped in for a few cocktails before going to the theater on boxing day. Beautiful building. The cocktails were very good indeed.

Great place and the service is excellent (high five to Suma). Highly recommend if you want to enjoy both great cuisine and a beautiful building at the same time

Gorgeous venue, beautiful food, outstanding service. Kat was very efficient, friendly and provided service second to none.

Spent New Years Eve here and had a great night. We had the 5 course meal and had the table all night so could nip up for a dance. Had a fun night!

Had a lovely roast dinner waited by the lovely Suma. She made our experience delightful. The atmosphere is amazing. Would highly recommend this spot if your in Manchester. A must go!

Had breakfast at Refuge with my kids this morning and Sara was amazing! She was super friendly, smiled the whole time, and really made us feel welcome. Such a great vibe—thanks for making our morning! 😊

We had a great time at Refuge. Very beautiful, colonial style bar and restaurant. Enjoyed the Sunday roast very much and the service was great. Vaishnavi who served us was super sweet and helpful.

A beautiful lunch! Denisa was fabulous and the Sunday roast was exceptional.

Amazing food and stellar friendly service. Highly recommended. Plenty of vegan options.

The food was good, unfortunately some on the menu was not available. The service of vaishnavi was great.

Had a delicious meal here on Christmas Eve. Stunning building . Thankyou Vaishnavi for the friendly and excellent table service . Back soon !

Had breakfast Christmas morning, Ash my server was lovely and very helpful and made me feel very comfortable and the other staff I spoke to were very friendly. There were a lot of options and everything was delicious 😋

Great location and our waitress Vaishnavi was an angel! She took good care of us and made our day. We’ll definitely come back with our friends

Drinks a little expbut it is manchester

Everyone in the North West needs to try the Sunday lunch at Refuge at least once in their life! Our Sunday Roast here was absolutely divine with food at another level to anywhere else in Manchester. The surroundings of The Refuge make the perfect atmosphere for food and good times with friends!

So torn with this place - it’s close to work so a regular for us. Atmosphere, drinks, food are all great but the same issue every time is slow service. The bar is big and poorly staffed so queues form in random places and no system to serve people swiftly. Really does let the place down.

Super smiley lovely service - thanks Noemi! And really yummy food. Bar noise a little loud, but overall would deffo come back.

Just had drinks but very nice large venue

Breakfast was fab, and Ash made it even better by being so friendly and attentive.

It's such a beautiful place inside here. Really chilled atmosphere and great vibe inside. If your a insta/social media pic hunter get yourself down to refuge. Get some amazing food drink and top quality pictures!!

Fantastic Sunday lunch. Love the atmos, food and service.

Michael was a brilliant waiter, the food was gorgeous and the service was super slick!

Lovely atmosphere, great food and our server Michael was fantastic. Would highly recommend and will definitely be back if visiting Manchester again.

All style, zero substance. Laughable experience. Our party of 11 booked on for the Christmas set menu at a price point of £45 per head. At such a price point, one would expect a certain level of competence. How wrong we were. Upon hearing that one of our party doesn't eat pork, our waiter told us that means she HAS to have the vegetarian option as no menu adjustments could be made. You'd think being unable to cater for Halal requirements would be something that you're informed of upon booking or that they could facilitate the seemingly straightforward task of ensuring the pigs in blankets are kept separate to the rest of the food whilst in preparation. Apparently not. When bringing out the starters, it became apparent that there wasn't enough salmon for everyone. We queried this and apparently it was one small piece of salmon per person. However only 5 pieces of salmon appeared. Our waiter conceded that he did not bring enough and bought out one extra piece. When we asked where the rest was, he informed us that he had provided enough as it was 6 meat and 4 veggies. Apparently no pork means that you can't eat salmon, who knew? Also riddle me this, does 6 and 4 amount to the 11 in our party? We finally confirmed that there were 8 meat eaters, one without pork and 3 veggies. So we asked whether we would now have the correct amount of starters. Our waiter laughed in our faces and walked off. At this point, we're now 90 minutes into our meal and we've seen an incorrect starter and one order of drinks. Of all the places that one could be both hungry and thirsty, surely a restaurant should not be one of them. The lack of attention to our table was baffling, so much so that even taking the rather extreme and petulant measure of raising a hand like a schoolchild to attract a waiter didnt raise any questions to the staff. We were informed that to make the adjustments for our party, we should expect a delay on the food so after about 1 hour and 45, the mains arrived. Underwhelming is the word. Already dehydrated from the lack of drinks service, the turkey sapped any remaining moisture from me. There was something that resembled a roasted carrot. Bland would be complementary. I think the biggest kicker was that the venue wasn't even particularly busy as a level of justification. The whole time, I was expecting someone to jump out and tell us we were being pranked. The venue itself is very nice but if you're considering their Christmas meal, go elsewhere.

DO NOT GO HERE FOR A CHRISTMAS MEAL. The price was £45pp - for this amount of money, you'd expect excellent food and high quality service, which was the opposite of what we experienced. Yesterday night, the staff could not understand the dietary requirements of our party, even though we'd clearly explained them weeks in advance, and were told they could be catered for. This led to the staff consistently bringing out the wrong meals. When we questioned this, the manager was hostile, argumentative, and laughed at our requests - it was absolutely appalling behaviour. All vegetables that were served with the main meal (except maybe the potatoes) were ludicrously bland - it was difficult to tell what food we were even eating at times. The service was slow and empty glasses were left on the table for eons, even though the restaurant was not particularly busy (which says a lot, considering the day we went is probably the most popular day of the year for groups of people to go out for a Christmas event). We were sat down for about 90 minutes before our main meal was served. The reason I'm giving this establishment 2 stars instead of 1 is because the rude manager conceded that the service was poor enough to warrant a 50% discount for our food. Additionally, a different, much more professional manager served our table towards the end of this ordeal, and he was kind enough to also remove the cost of 1 bottle of wine from the bill. However, the staff still had the unbelievable AUDACITY to add a 10% service charge to our bill, which we promptly requested to be removed. The venue itself is nice, and I imagine it's a decent place to just have a drink, but what we experienced last night for our Christmas meal was frankly shocking.

Stayed here for dinner and service was extremely quick didn’t feel like we were waiting too long. The restaurant is next to a bar but not nearly as loud. The lights aren’t too bright and the atmosphere is enjoyable. Tables are a bit close together in certain sections but isn’t a big deal. The look of the restaurant is very pleasing. Would go again!

Just came for drinks but we’re bowled away with how lovely the service was! We had Federica who served us and she was really attentive and friendly and helpful xxx

Suma was a lovely waitress to us! Super friendly and helpful she made our time here delightful ❤️

Went for coffee with a friend. Nice surroundings

Wonderful classic British bistro.... Roast beef & Yorkshire pudding to die for! Sticky toffee pudding....worth living for! Service Stars...Alisha/Vaishnau..... Great staff!

I didn't even know this was a bar/restaurant, I always thought it was an office block! We only popped in for a quick pint before going on the markets on a dismal Saturday afternoon! What an amazing bar it is, very ornate with the ceramic tiled walls and high ceilings! Look at my other reviews to see where I've been!

Absolutely awful experience here. We booked a private room for a Christmas do and had to pre order a few days in advance with a minimum of £550. On arrival we were told that half of the things we’d pre ordered they didn’t have, meaning everyone had to re order. When food came out there was a meal missing which we were told would be at least another 20 minutes (it was a lot longer) and was cold when it arrived. All side orders were missing and came after the food was already finished. We ended up leaving before the final course as the service was so appalling and neither the waitress or the manager had apologised at all and the manager instead that we must have got it wrong. The manager was extremely rude, interrupting us each time someone attempted to explain the situation and we left with no resolution and having to pay for cold food that wasn’t even what we ordered. Disgusting place.

Great atmosphere for our team Christmas party, with great service from Saukhyad.

We tried to call and book in a few times during the day and couldn't get through. We arrived and there were no tables available. Fran the manager was incredible. He bent over backwards to squeeze us in as it was a special occasion for a friend. The food was incredible and you can tell the chef has passion. The service was also top notch. Friendly staff and amazing food, amazing atmosphere. Absolutely quality.

My guy Saukhyad made the experience fantastic!

Great food, really generous portions. Lovely cocktails and a great atmosphere. Not too loud, not too quiet. Saukhyad was really helpful when it came to making sure the food I had was gluten free. Thank you!

Amazing birthday meal! Service was 10/10 with Saukhyaal. We had such a lovely night!

An excellent breakfast and our waiter Nikita was very helpful and friendly.

Great pub for socialising. Love it here

Had breakfast here few days ago, the food was amazing, and Sarah was very welcoming!

Let me tell you beforehand , the food here is to die for ! It’s so good that you’ll visit again and again ! The service and the quality of food is beyond my expectations

A mixed bag. I have been to The Refuge several times before and loved it, but this time round, it was a disappointing experience 😔 The food wasn't great at the restaurant and we only came for the food ☹️ The hummus was substandard. We had to send back two small plates as the chicken was overcooked and dry. By the time the new plates arrived, we had already eaten our remaining food. It put us off ordering any dessert. A small bugbear. The Glamour of Manchester gin cocktail was served in a prosecco glass (!) I really wish bars and restaurants would stop doing this. Cocktails should be served in appropriate cocktail glasses, and at £13.50 a pop, it should at least be in a nice looking glass please 🙏 On a side note, the female toilet cubicles need alot of attention. It's not acceptable to have such messy and unclean cubicles for what is, overall, a lovely looking venue. I realise it must be challenging for staff on a relatively busy Saturday afternoon, but it's off putting and unhygienic. Ending on a positive though, the service was great; our server and her colleagues were professional, very friendly and helpful, which was much appreciated, thank you 😊

Federica always knows my order and makes the best cocktails! Love it there!

A brilliant experience today at Refuge. Huge thank you Vaishnavi for looking after us so beautifully!

Lovely roast dinner with excellent service from Michael

We had a lovely time, thanks to Michael our server. The food was amazing and the place is gorgeous.