Odder Bar

Fab bar:) good beer and pizza deals! Love the new décor and the fairy lights. Lovely quirky bar– perfect for dates and romantic drinks!

We visited on a Saturday at lunchtime, presumably after the breakfast crowd had long gone and way before the action would hot up. What I’m saying in a round about way is that we were the only ones there. I asked the extremely nice barman what his favourite cocktails were (taking into consideration my fondness for sours) and I had what he recommended. My wife plumped for a Mojito (yawn) and it turned out he didn’t have any mint to hand (!) Hmmm. She chose a Tom Collins instead which was delicious so the missing Mojito was soon forgotten… er, although I have kind of unforgotten it by mentioning it here. Let bygones be bygones, I’m sure if he’d had the ingredients it would have been as great as the drinks he could make.
We’ll visit again during mint season and maybe put on the extra star.

I’ve got to say that I don’t really know what to make of Odder. I’ve been coming here for years (including Odd in the NQ) and I’ve always found it a bit average and resting on it’s laurels. I mean it sells beer and it has seating so people tend to go in, the setting and scenery is cool if getting a little tired now but there’s nothing massively pulling me in — it always tends to be networking events or friends birthdays which bring me to these shores.
I also find that there is usually one element on each visit which let’s down the whole experience. Last time it was that the burger which was poor (in taste and presentation) compared to others in the vicinity and this time it was that there were 3 real ale pumps but not a single one was working. That’s pretty poor for a Friday night at 7pm guys — surely the manager should have been rolling up this sleeves and making sure it was all ready to go before the start of the weekend!
It’s good to see that they’re embracing the craft beer revolution by selling brewdog and flying dog bottles (snake dog is a fave of mine) and although the downstairs bar is pretty small, they have a much bigger one upstairs for if it’s busy so it may be worth nipping up here if you’re looking for friends on a night out.
Overall I don’t have any problem with Odder and would happily go along if with a group of friends, it’s just that there’s never a lightbulb that goes off in my brain that says «hey I can’t wait to go there tonight» when there’s loads of other bars popping up which are a little bit more clued up and offering something a bit fresher.

Great place for a chilled out school night out! The dance floor upstairs is pretty good too! They also have a great lunch menu, which is cheap and cheerful.

Nice bar opposite what was the BBC building. Good place to go for a drink if you don’t want to have to shout to hear other people.
Went on a Friday about 9pm and it wasn’t that busy. A few tables free.
They serve my fav beer Asahi so that’s a good bonus :)

Good for: location, cocktails, students, room hire
Bad for: A quiet one

Music was a bit too loud, but the drinks were awesome (interesting, unseen before choices… for me, an American girl). The wallpaper and artwork was cool too.
It’s not too big, which makes it more intimate, and both the upstairs and main level have a good feel.
Cool place to go with a boy/​girlfriend or to have a drink with a group.
Odder= ecclectic, funky, young, loud, cozy
Now on to try the other «odd» bars in town…

I like Odder, more perhaps than its big brother Odd. Situated on Oxford Road just a stone’s throw away from Kro, Revolution and the MancUnion, Odd was a late comer to the student village beer races (especially with both Scubars so close as well) and benefits from not being in the pretentious surrounds of the Northern Quarter — especially at the weekend.
What you’ll get at Odd is an interesting mix of intellectuals, students, regular working joes and old people. Like me. You may or may not also be fortunate enough to sit next to someone who scares away the people he’s sat with by shouting at them emphatically about something they have no clue about. (That person wasn’t me FYI, just the guy at the next table…)
Odder always feels busy but it never seems to be too hard to find a perch, drinks are reasonable priced for the city centre and with the upstairs and downstairs bars, you’re never waiting all too long to get a drink. Plus they sell Zubrowka. Reason enough to go to any bar.
As comfortable for an mid afternoon drink as it is for a late one, Odder is in an extremely convenient location if you happen to be heading up Oxford Road towards studentville, heading the opposite way for a jaunt into town or heading home via the train station.
Casting my mind back I can remember a few occasions in my *ahem* youth where I came here for a sneaky after work pizza and (at least if the offer still exists) their pizza and a beer offer for around £6 is hard to beat — especially when they’re handmade and so fresh. And yum.
Odder is probably one of the best bars in the area but seems to have established itself more as somewhere you’d drop in as you were passing by rather than as somewhere you’d cross town for.

Odder is a great bar which can be found opposite the bbc building on oxford road. It has a great young, vibrant atmosphere with comfortable seating and a quirky décor that is common to the odd chain of bars.
It offers a good selection of real ales as well as the more common draft beers as well as a fine selection of spirits, ciders and fruity drinks.
I often include odder as an after work venue on fridays due to the awesome food offered here, the prices are very reasonable and portion sizes are healthy. I fully recommend everyone trying a burger and chips from this place as in my opinion you won’t find a better burger in the city although i do wish they would put their red cabbage coldslaw back as a standard side with the burgers as that stuff was awesome!
Overall a very good establishment although if you want to get a seat on friday/​saturday night i suggest booking a table booth

One of the cooler places to grab lunch or a drink on Oxford Road, Odder is the twisted middle sister of Odd bar in the Northern Quarter and Oddest in Chorlton. Not straying far from the tenants of the trades description act the bar is decorated in an odd style, with mounted buffalo heads, coloured vinyl padding and a plethora of clocks. A decent selection of wheat and fruit beers (including the very girly but very tasty Fruli), a pretty good range of wines and spirits (including the lovely J&B whiskey, one of my personal favourites) and a cracking selection on the jukebox make this the ideal place for a drink and a catch up.
The food here is of a pretty decent quality and their lunchtime offer of homemade stonebake pizza and a beer for £5 is well worth taking up and will sustain you through whatever toils the afternoon has in store for you.

When Odder opened up on Oxford Road we were all rather excited about the prospect of another little charmer coming being closer to home, but although good it’s a totally different atmosphere here.
They seem to be trying to be a bit too ‘odd’ and have really played up on the whole eccentric image, including wacky décor that consists of all sorts of weird and wonderful things hanging from the walls. It’s attractive though, with rich colours and generally interesting paraphernalia adorning every surface for you to gaze at in a drunken haze.
As it’s in the stretch between my house and our city friends we’ve met here for a pre-​night out drink. It’s lively and the booths are good to sit and catch up in so I can’t fault it too much. the only shame is that the Odd ‘independent’ concept is creeping towards a bit of a sell out with the more branches that they open.

Odder bar. What’s gone on here then? How can Odd bar be so good and this place be so average? How is this possible?
The food is kind of similar to Odd, except for here they bost of their fantastic Pizzas, which in reality aren’t that fantastic. Thye have offers available all the time.
In thoery; the food and atmosphere should be great; especially as they have such a thriving student market to pry on. Sadly; in reality Odd Bar just doesn’t quite work here.

Odder Bar sits comfortably on the Oxford Road and tries to attract some good crowd while they walk up and down this famous street of Manchester. It has more of a student crowd than the other counterparts of Odder like Odd and Oddest.
It has the right spot being just near the Oxford station and of course very near to the university buildings. It is mostly busy but all great places are busy. They do really good lunch deals at £5 for a drink and a main dish which is remarkably cheap and filling and not to forget tasty!
But with many pubs like Thristly scholar, font and subsapce, Odder obviously has stiff competition and has to always come up with creative attractions! If you’re an Odder loyal, you are sure to never get disappointed!

Its not particularly odd, i must say. In fact its just like a lot of trendy bars in Manchester. In fact, Odd, Odder and Oddest (these are the three bars in this chain) are actualy really typical Manchester-​trendy names for bars. So they arent odd at all on the naming front, their predicatbly alternative, like a bunch of teenage goths.
I will however, follow that hostile opening with a decent review. The place is pretty nice, with plenty of seating and some cool décor including some huge vases that are probably worth a few quid. It is also tempting to put a small person inside one.
They do a good range of drinks too, with the full range on the beer front, from an expensive Hoegaarden to a cheap bottle for £1.50.
Food is alright too with some good homemade pizzas available on a deal with a beer. Sounds good to me because I am a lad.

If you ever fancied falling down the Rabbit Hole, then simply walk into Odder Bar. The décor is some of the most abstract, and interesting of any bar in Manchester.
The walls are bedecked with clocks of all shapes, sizes and styles, mirrors, enormous gilt photo frames and odd pieces of furniture and foliage. It is a slightly disorientating experience, but an extremely satisfying one. The furniture is equally mismatched, my favourite items being the enormous sofas in the upstairs bar. The sofas are big enough so that if I, being 6′ 2″ sit with my back upright against the back of the sofa, my feet are about a foot off the floor. Such Luxury!
The bar offers a wide variety of drinks, and, more notably, serves a fantastic range of freshly prepared food. Odder Bar food is amazing, and I often dream about the chicken schnitzel sandwich. Chicken Schnitzel sandwich and shoestring fries is one of the best lunches ever. Try it and see. Saying that, the hangover burger is one of the best brunches around, and fantastic value for money.
The only quibble I have with Odder is that the upstairs bar area quickly becomes packed in the evenings with the ‘background’ music is played far too loudly to be able to conduct a decent conversation with the people you are with. Aside from that, Odder is well worth a trip, and ought to be visited more than once — if only to try multiple items on the menu!

I love the Odd in the Northern Quarter and I love the Odder on Oxford Road. Odder is in the best location for all to enjoy a bit of the Odd family and this one hits the spot with all the students it seems.
Odder is the bigger version of Odd, spanning two floors, with two bars and plenty of tables and chairs to balance yourself, your mates and your food and drink on. There’s always something going on at Odder, with DJs and quiz nights and live music nights to indulge in with beers from around the globe and quirky décor. They claim if you don’t get your food within 15 minutes between 12 – 4, then it’s on the house? Odd gesture but works.
Do you like mirror covered stairways, giant lizards, huge vases and loads of clocks? Odder asks and I’d agree, I’m a very strange person indeed, but I love Odder so.

Walking down Oxford Street and spotting Odder Bar, out of context of Odd Bar, and not knowing that Odder Bar is related somewhere along the line to Odd Bar, can initially seem, well a bit of an odd, that was poor, unusual name to call a bar. Certainly out of place.
Where Odd hits the Northern Quarter’s wine bar cool and trendy crowd, Odder definitely hits up the student market.
The one thing you can’t help but notice in the day is all the ruddy clocks, somehow they unnerve me, reminding me of the time i’m wiling away when I should be more productive. But there are more than clocks to amuse you in Odder’s collective of furniture.
Food in here is not bad either, cheap enough for what you get and cheerful too, not spectacular, but better than what Wetherspoons have to offer in terms of microwaveable cuisine.
Quirky and chilled without being arsy and forced.

Odder bar, the retreat of those who love odd items such as clocks, strange furniture and mirror covered stairways. The place has a nice vibe and lots of diversity in what it does, weekends are filled with DJs and the rumour of the occasional superstar playing the secret guest set (Mark Ronson cough), they have cinema nights with free popcorn and free popcorn. The drinks can be exotic (cherry beer?) and the food is good, with pizzas to sausages and mash.
The nature of odder means it’s full of alternative kids who are fans of the quirky or downright weird, on a Sunday grab yourself a roast (all made on the premises) for £8 perfect for when you feel the need for going home to the parents for the Sunday roast but your train ticket costs more than £10. Nice spot have a gander.

From the second you pick up the menu and see the words ‘Odder Fodder’, you know you’re in for a treat with this place. I mean, any bar that uses the word ‘fodder’ is a-​OK in my book.
Odder is a funky little place opposite the BBC, with a list of beers as long as your arm, and a heap of charm to boot. As with many places (including its older Northern Quarter sibling Odd) the watchword is ‘quirk’, and Odder delivers this with flocked wallpaper, mismatched mirrors and a massive clock. Oh, and a huge komodo dragon carved from mahogany, which also acts as a seat for the particularly drunk and conspicuous. They also display an ever-​changing selection of local artists’ work, which is available to buy. The downstairs is furnished with the usual suspects; chairs, tables, sofas, y’know, furniture. Upstairs, however, has cute round booths and massive grey sofas that are really more like beds. And the dragon, too, he lives upstairs.
The food here is great, if a little hit and miss. Me and my boyfriend are both of the opinion that the Odder burger, at a bargainous £5.95, is one of the best burgers in town, and they’ll usually substitute the shoestring fries for sweet potato wedges if you ask nicely. Other honourable dishes are the fry-​up (£6.25) and the Towering Inferno; a 3 tier tower of fajitas and all the bits and bobs, for only £9.45 for two sharing. These are always safe bets, and you won’t be disappointed. Their Sunday pies, despite sounding great, are a little on the bland side, with lumpy mash and below par pastry, while the Sandwiche a Trois, a club sandwich of chicken, chorizo, cheese and salad, is dry and actually quite lean on the fillings. An annoying hit/​miss scenario here is the marinated olives; sometimes they’re big fat juicy things in a herby marinade, sometimes they’re little salty things in brine, clearly just out of the jar. I’m sure that this is probably down to them occasionally running out of stock and having to run to Tesco, but it’s annoying when you can’t rely on the olives being nice, especially if you love olives as much as I do. They also offer a crecit-​crunch lunch; a menu of a few good choices for £5, including a drink, guaranteed to be served within 15 minutes. The chilli I had wasn’t all that impressive, but you can get half a sandwich with a big bowl of the soup of the day, which sounds perfect for colder days.
As well as offering decent tucker and an impressive array of booze, Odder has club nights with free entry throughout the week, and its Quizimodo quiz night is well known for being great fun; offering ‘strange things’ and ‘respect’ as prizes. Also great is their film night, Filmonik, with free popcorn. The club nights are OK, but the upstairs really isn’t big enough to feel like a real club, which kind of impedes dancing, and I’ve usually found that people end up using the dance floor as extra standing-​and-​drinking-​space. They do hire out the upstairs, either half of it, or all of it, and I’d recommend it for a private party.
Odder is a great place to eat and drink, and the atmosphere is very comfortable. And I’ve got to be honest, any quiz night that offers ‘respect’ as a prize is pretty awesome.

Unlike Odd bar Odder bar has the capacity to hold the amount of people who are desperate to get in at the weekend. This place is funky, stylish and oh so right. Sitting with friends here I cant help feeling like we are the yuppy ex-​student types this place is happy to have drink their tipples. I particularly like the art here; for example the larger than life picture of the owner’s dog that takes up an entire wall.
Odder rightly won the industry’s BEDA Best Bar North & Best Bar UK Awards 2007-​08 and was also nominated Best Bar AND Best Newcomer at the Manchester Food & Drink Awards 2007 — and I am sure it will continue to gain many more. Well done Odd’s little sister… you made it BIG!