The Milton Club

Made to feel very uncomfortable by the bouncers before entering the club and this continued throughout the night. Although we had a prepaid tab £800. We was small group of 5lads with a large group of girls out hoping to celebrate our friends 21^st birthday.
The booth was booked for 16people, it couldn’t fit nowhere near. When you book for 16, you expect 16 people to be accommodated for.
One of my friends left her bag in the booth when we left and wasn’t allowed back in to get it. A member of staff said she will go and get it for her. She came back to us and said she had checked the booth and it wasn’t there. The bag had her iphone, house keys and purse in it. She tracked the phone and it was at the Milton club over night, until 130pm the next day. It had then moved to Gorton. Clearly a member of staff had helped themselves to it.
After numerous attempts to contact the club through different channels, they replied once we had posted it on Twitter. Eventually the bag was returned days later and the cleaner had taken it ‘for safety measures’. Although the phone was without the SIM card, and the purse was without the cash.
We was asked by the club not to post this review until they had investigated the matter. They did their investigation and offered to come in and enjoy a bottle of champagne. How kind and thoughtful? But will definitely be leaving any valuables at home…

Not really my cup of tea. I have heard that celebs go here (probably soap stars??) — maybe its because its a members only club. However, the membership is free? According to their web site, this is what members get:
Members can enjoy many benefits including priority reservations, discounted venue hire, guest-​list places and invitations to parties and selected events. We can also offer a concierge service to our guests including car collections and reservations with partner venues.
When I got to the front door, there were 3 bouncers I think. Made it seem really «exclusive». The staff at the cloakroom and front desk were nice and friendly. I then entered the actual bar/​club and it was all a bit «meh». It wasn’t helped that it was so quiet and hardly anyone there — admittedly it was pretty early. But even when it got busy, it was lacking. As Natalie said, its basically just a large black room.
I was told afterwards that there was a smoke machine. I didn’t realise but it explained why the mens toilets were a bit smoky!
So I am not keen on the venue but the staff were nice and friendly.

Milton Club… hmmm, a private, members-​only club. What a concept, just what Manchester needed, right? Probably not, methinks.
I happened to attend a social event/​party at Milton Club which was a Unilocal Manchester and Social Circle joint event. It was scheduled for a 730 PM start, on a Friday night.
First up, the bouncers were clueless and I had to ask them to do a bit more research about what was going on. Somehow one of the suited, less bouncer types walked up with a guest list and confirmed my presence on that list, asked me to show some id, get photographed and walk in.
The idea of a members only club is great and can be a fascinating experience if executed properly. Unfortunately the execution is where this particular experiment fails. Yes, it is a members only club. But, by the looks of it, anyone can sign up. For free. So, what’s unique about their members-​onlyness?
Most members only clubs have a certain clientele, a certain kind of an audience, be it the martini quaffing james bond type or the manhattan slipping gordon gekko type (you get my drift). Having been to members only clubs in a few countries and cities in the past, I had nothing to establish a baseline about Milton Club. I didn’t get any idea what kind of a client base they were trying to attract or why exactly they were calling themselves members-​only.
Yes, I like a few cocktails, yes I like to take my wife some place nice for a few drinks on a weekend, yes I like a good place to chill with my friends over a few drinks and feel good doing all of thhe above. But, I have a feeling, what I want and what Milton Club seemed to offer may not be the same and therefore I doubt if I will walk through those doors again.
I must, however admit, that the bar staff were friendly, courteous and polite.

First off I really have to say that the Milton Club isn’t really my scene at at all, anywhere that has more bouncers than punters for the first couple of hours it’s open doesn’t fit in with how I like to live my life. So for some people this place might be their idea of heaven with a kind of feeling of exclusivity and a battle to get in but I’m much more comfortable in places that seem welcoming and where you can be yourself (this is a private members club but from what I worked out, anyone can sign up and attend)
I was down here for a party I was appearing at with another social network in Manchester and in advance the party planner Joanne was excellent, friendly and easy to deal with.
As I was more of a punter later on and it was rammed I experienced the chaos of staff running around trying to serve people desperate for a drink, even just paying my tab seemed like a mission.
I thought the beer selection was pretty tame and with Sam Adams being their best beer it shows that not much thought has gone into the selection as it’s all a bit dated. In fact the whole bar and menu had a massive feeling that I was stuck in a 90’s time warp (it was quite apt that 90’s popstress Gabrielle was doing a show at this bar later on…)
It is what it is — but I doubt I’ll ever have the desire to go back unless I have a severe personality transplant.

I think the Milton may suffer from an identity crisis. This isn’t necessarily a down side, it is a nice place, let me try and put a little meat to that comment.
It’s Friday night, we’d gone to a couple of drinks before hand we didn’t want to get there early, I mean really who turns up early, it just wouldn’t do. At 8.30 we wandered over we thought that was a reasonable time not too early, not too late that we’d drunk so much elsewhere we’d have made that fateful decision of ‘Shall we just stay here n carry on drinking’. As we came up to the door we walked down the little roped off part in front to the doormen, explained we’d booked, they queried how many of us there were, an understandable question you don’t want too many people in your exclusive club it would spoil the atmosphere.
As you enter the Club the expectation of what is inside is reinforced by the entrance, the large wide stairs, tall stone archways, roomy airy like you expect when walking into Gangster Chicago times. At the reception they scan your ID (Maybe I hang out at the wrong types of place, but I’ve never had that before…).
There are suggestions of exclusivity through membership but it doesn’t fully commit, in that anyone can apply for a membership and it’s free, plus there doesn’t appear to be a limit to their members list (we saw the members list awaiting for people who hadn’t picked up their cards yet, and it was needless to say, expansive).
Also just to clarify I have been lucky enough to enjoy some members clubs down in London so a little experience of what to expect.
So it’s not reeeally a members club in the true sense of if say you were to a members club down in London City, but there are hints that, that’s what it wants to be.
Once we’d got past one of our party not having ID on him but having an exceedingly complicated name (not a problem, just quite comical when they asked for his name), they showed us through to our table.
Inside the décor suggests it wants opulence but doesn’t ‘quite’ exude it, I can’t put my finger on it exactly, it may have been the smoke machine.
As we sat at our table we looked around, this place certainly was exclusive… so exclusive that there weren’t any other patrons, it felt a little like if you’d ever been the first kid at a party, a massive room and you’re wondering if your Mum dropped you off at the right place. Obviously it wasn’t completely empty, the staff were there. In fact so much so, they outnumbered us.
Drinks were ordered and brought, can’t argue with a bit of table service.
Drink prices, beer standard city centre 3.9−4.50 so no surprises. Cocktails I saw some for £8 I think some others went upto £12 again standard. Spirits from what I saw on the menu would only be ordered by the bottle? Not sure if I twigged that right, but the average for a bottle of spirits was about £145, again standard if ordering spirits by the bottle.
Fizz was on the upper end of the scale on pricing, as a rule of thumb it was double 50−100% more than what you’d pay elsewhere.
One MASSIVE plus for the Milton, its staff. They are of the quality I’d expect from a London members club. Attentive, polite, never a grumble, smiles on show very very good. Infact if I was basing this review solely on the staff we’d be a 5 star, I’ve never had the pleasure of being in such good staff in Manchester, in fact in most places I’ve ever been.
So do we remember I mentioned we walked into an empty venue further up, yes?
One of the girls with us pointed out no one comes here this early, it’ll pick up later. It almost felt like a ‘It is known Khaleesi’ moment, so we continued to enjoy out theoretically private club until others showed up about 22.00… 2 people. Don’t fret this isn’t going to go completely south, more people did turn up from about 22.30 onwards but it never got packed, so for future reference I now know if you want to be in this place when it’s busy then you go late (and it’s open until 4am so you can go really late if you want).
What does beg the question though is, if it’s known people don’t come to this place early, why open? Open your doors at 21.00 O’clock save yourself some cash.
Ultimately Milton reminds me a lot of Panacea in terms of the type of patrons it wants to attract. Am I chomping at the bit to get back to this place… probably not, HOWEVER! I’ve not written it off either, I can see its benefits. I probably will apply to be a member, maybe they’ll look past my regular salary (you need to put your income on the application) and I can become a member, which gives you the benefit of free entry later in the evening (there is a little bit of uncertainty, but late at night we weren’t sure if it was £10 or £20 you had to pay to get in).
And sometimes on a Friday night, I’d actually just like to go for a drink and be able to get to the bar, rather than looking at whatever packed bar your in and having to decide whether by the time you got served would it be kicking out time.

The Milton Club was boring. It is just one room, which was a let down and definitely not worth cueing up for?!? The staff are friendly and we had good laugh with them. The drinks are pretty average and the music was okay, an interesting mix. The décor is not too nice and all seems a bit try hard really and. dare I say it… cheap!?! It shouldn’t be a members club because it really has nothing special.
It’s like another bar trying to be exactly the same as Panacea but failing. We went at about midnight on a Saturday and it was still quite quiet.
I can’t help but compare it to members clubs in London. Now those are worth it. I feel like the people that own this place think they can pull the wool over the Mancunians eyes with a very average nightclub/​bar but just put «Exclusive» in it’s description. Please don’t be fooled, it’s not, it’s just very average.
We wont be going back. It’s just not good!

The Milton Club is a members club but membership is free and I applied online. The staff on the door and the cloakroom are very friendly, which gave me a great initial impression. I’ve been there twice now and both times I took guests which wasn’t a problem.
Inside I was expecting to see lots of people but in fact it was quite quiet on the Thursday night… a little busier on the Saturday but still it’s a big space and it felt quite sparse. Having said that if you want to go somewhere where you can move, get served at the bar and actually have a conversation with your friends, it’s perfect.
We just sat at the bar but there are booths and private spaces around the edge which come with table service for a charge. The venue is an old building which is very spacious with high ceilings… gives it that grandiose feel.
The bartenders were very knowledgable and I had a delicious espresso martini as well as a Lady Grey martini made with egg whites– both were good. The menu is extensive so if you can’t choose, they’ll help you decide.

Overall I wasn’t crazy about The Milton Club. Staff at the door/​cloakroom were lovely which made a great first impression, but stepping into the club itself I wasn’t blown away. I would have thought if they were trying to sell themselves as a really exclusive venue they would have a very luxury feel but instead it’s basically just a large black room with rather unattractive painted over pipes etc. Another weird thing is that they had a lady working in the loo which is something I associate more with trashy superclubs like Oceana (not that I didn’t love Oceana) but then again I’m not exactly an expert on private members clubs.
Cocktails are pricey (£9 mark) and although both the espresso martini and Long Island Ice Tea were decent they were not amazing. Service is good, partly because there are an incredible amount of people working here. This was especially noticeable because it was practically empty. Booths I think are a £100 minimum spend which is probably a reason for this and the fact that the crowd were mostly over 30. More exclusive booths (with curtains etc) have a higher minimum spend.
The dancefloor area is also the main thoroughfare on one side of the bar (to the toilets) but as there weren’t many people there was plenty of room to dance. They really need a better DJ though, this one couldn’t mix, played a weird combination of songs instead of focusing on one genre for a few tracks to keep people on the dancefloor, and spent a lot of the night talking to some girl (this girl was also spotted chatting up a bartender and a bouncer which would have been unremarkable were it not for the fact that she was with only one other girlfriend who was therefore abandoned on a bar stool for most of the night, except when I forced her to dance with us. And she seemed lovely, so this was really not cool of the first girl. NOT COOL).
So, all the Milton Club needs is more plush decoration, more interesting cocktails, a better DJ and some customers, and it’s good to go.