Dock Bar

Visited the dock bar on what should have been a dry warm july evening. Alas this being 1) the UK and 2) Manchester it was a cool damp July eve! There is a nice outside area over looking a green garden area, but as it was a bit fresh we trundled inside.
It is situated in the media city part of Salford Quays just near the BBC and is housed in the bottom of an office building. The bar has an industrial feel to it, has a mixture of low and long tables, sofas, high tables and hosts some guest ales.
I went here for a bite to eat and considering it was a Tuesday it was pretty busy. They have a limited food menu but its all good value and served on enamelled plates and trays. I went for the burger topped with bacon, bbq sauce, and red cabbage slaw. It came served with fries and in a brioche bun. At £5.00 you can’t grumble at value like that you can upgrade to 2 or 3 patties for a few quid more. They do a range of pies, salads (look out for the blackboards on the bar detailing the days choices) and sandwiches.
Great place to catch up with friends or for a pre/​post Lowry show meal — will visit again.
Check out the boards for their daily specials from £5

The weirdest thing I’ve come across in a while — very Christmas market-​esque!
The first thing you will think about when coming across this is — shipping container? That can’t be good inside. Well, you’re wrong, very very wrong.
This is the funkiest thing I’ve seen in a while. Forget the Christmas markets with their wooden log builds. Get a shipping container like this and see what they’ve done! Log fires, chairs with sheepskin (faux?) throws, big furry rugs, coffee tables and it’s got patio doors to keep the heat in! Outdoor seating is available for the smokers and the full bar is open outside.
The only reason I have rated this 4*‘s is because it closes at 8pm on a Saturday. I understand it’s in Media City which is still building itself up but I wish it had been open for longer when we visited it.
Very cool, snazzy idea — a shipping container! Whooda thought!

Having worked in Salford Quays for several years and with a significant number of other ‘young professionals’ around and about, we were in desperate need of a decent bar. Yes there’s Lime Bar near the Lowry Mall, but that’s more for grabbing a drink before you eat there.
When Dock Bar first opened, the novelty of it consisting of four shipping containers (one as a bar, the other three as a roomy lounge) had me worried it was just going to be a flash in the pan. The fact it’s still there and thriving (I’m hoping!) means it’ll thankfully remain as a permanent ‘temporary’ bar for us local beer lovers. FYI the Chocolate Marble beer from Marble Brewery in Manchester is a particular favourite of my drinking buddy and I — buy it!
I think MediaCity UK missed a trick not having included a few more drinking holes in their masterplan, to keep staff local when they sign off for an evening, but if Dock Bar is all there will be for the foreseeable future, we’re not that badly off in my humble opinion.

This is a handy little bar for us workers of the concrete jungle that is Media City and Salford Quays. It looks like it started as a pop up and became a permanent… pop-​up. It’s basically a couple of shiny shipping containers.
In the summer, the MediaCity plaza is all yours to enjoy a few bevvies after work. In the winter and cool evenings, you can find refuge inside the main container (doesn’t that sound dodgy) and kick back like we did last night, near a wood fire.
The choice of drinks is clever, all the spirits you want with crafty cocktails (I think, I haven’t tried them) and a small but decent selection of beers. The staff are usually ok, not overly smiley but they’re working outside in a most of the time empty bar until 5pm kicks in. Spare a thought for the cold nights they’re about to face.
The prices are a bit high for my liking (£4.50 for a Tatton ale) but it’s a convenient place near work to go to… as they are NO OTHER bars in the area. Well there is the Harvester in the Lowry but that doesn’t quite cut it.
The main issue though is the lack of toilets… or maybe we can use the BBC’s?

Dock Bar is a great little addition to Mediacity, much needed too!
It’s right in the centre of the piazza surrounded by the BBC buildings, there’s a big screen (great for watching Wimbledon last week), they have deck chairs for sitting outside in the sun, a cosy lounge inside of a shipping container (doesn’t sound too cosy does it? But it is) and they serve food, BBQ style similar to Oast House (no hanging kebabs as yet :-(). There’s also a homemade ice cream place there too which I keep meaning to try.
It’s a great location for anyone visiting the quays but they also have a great entertainment programme going on over at Mediacity too, last week Gok Wan was filming his ‘Stripping for Summer’ show there, each week they have screenings from the Royal Opera House on the big screen… add them on facebook to keep up with what’s happening, last week they had a little tennis camp going on too teaching people to play.
Drinks and food prices are moderate, there’s not much competition around there so it’s not expensive really, the tram drops you off right there and runs pretty late so it’s easily accessible and it’s also a good place for some celebrity spotting if you’re into that.