James B., are you sure you passed the idiot test you describe? The Oxford is so-called because it's on Oxford Road. I went to Manchester University because it was my first choice, not because I didn't get into Oxford. The Oxford isn't 'old and pub-like', and it doesn't pretend to be. And for your information I spent my student days drinking in the Oxford and came away with a first class degree. Sorry everyone, rant over. The prices here are good, and even cheaper if you can find your loyalty card stuffed away in your wallet with your V-card and Yellow Card. Most of the bar staff are quite friendly, but once I decided to strike up a conversation with one who shared my name. She didn't seem quite so thrilled to be chatting to a fellow Kirsten as I did (come on, there aren't that many of us!). The quiz nights are good and the Sunday roasts aren't too bad either (on a par with a Wetherspoons roast). They are very strict with their ID policy, and once turned my Kenyan friend away as they thought that his Kenyan ID card was fake. They won't accept student cards as proof of ID. I guess this is fair enough as they probably get their fair share of teenage My Chemical Romance fans on the quest of a pre-gig drink. Talking of gigs, this is a perfect place for a pre- or post-gig pint as it is open until midnight every night. read more

Oxford - Pubs Near Me - Manchester, XGM

Great pub close to the University & Manchester Royal Infirmary Amazing selection of beer both hand-drawn and pressurized Good reasonably priced & good selection Looks like a great place to watch sports with a friendly student crowd read more

Walk in and you'll sort of melt into the warmth of this cosy pub. It competes with the best of locals, but in my opinion has an edge. It's far more in touch with the student populous. Drinks are cheap, the fires are roaring, there's a good selection of ales and what have you coupled with students staffing the bar. Not a bad spot at all then, add to this Wi-Fi can make this an escape to take note of for those work sessions you need to cram in; after you've wandered around the main library looking for somewhere to sit for many an hour only to eventually turf yourself out onto the streets. The foods good for what you pay for, £3 breakfasts see this place full of medics after their mad evenings of working in the hospital up the road. Upstairs are the sofas which are cosy if you can get one. Good for pre drinks before heading onto a gig at the academy. read more

Oxford - Pubs Near Me - Manchester, XGM

Thought I'd just do a quick one of The Oxford, even though its been reviewed to death. Basically you fans of The Oxford, though you seem to feel its not the best place ever, may be interested in the new BARRY card scheme that they run. Basically you buy a BARRY card for £2, and this entitles you to a number of deals that make the pub really one of the best value places around. One of the things you can get is a burger and chips for only £1.99! You can also get a pint of Heineken for only £1.99! You also get a little booklet with it that entitles you to a load of free things and deals that you can only use one (whereas the card can be used infinitely). These include a free desert, a free shot, some cheap corona and some 2 for 1 pints. Also, for this month only, Scampi and Chips is a mere £2. The food and drinks are really cheap, and you won't find cheaper with the levels of quality that they uphold here. Especially this month, so get down there! read more

The Oxford is a regular haunt for me as a student at Manchester University - I often go there for a quick, cheap lunch, quiet drink, the weekly pub quiz or to watch the football. Its atmosphere varies but its custom is largely from students, with locals only really emerging when the sport's being shown. The food menu is well priced but the quality can vary, and the fact that they regularly run out of ingredients can be a pain. However, considering the prices it's hard to complain, and the service is friendly. Drinks are cheap but good - my friends and I usually take advantage of their offers on cocktails - meaning the Oxford can be a winner for day or night. The setting is what you'd expect from this type of pub. We usually head upstairs to the slouchy sofas and pool table, but there are also tables and chairs more suited to dining. I will probably always like the Oxford, warts and all, for its good value and convenience for students. read more

Ahh, Oxford pub. A student classic. Great deals each night of the week for the kids to eat cheap, and an impressive amount of TVs to watch the football. I really do enjoy how the pub has two levels, with a cosy mezzanine of couches and armchairs to sit and enjoy a pint with a friend. It's definitely a solid meeting place for a night out, as their regular beers on tap are fairly cheap and there's a good amount of seating. However, their casked beers can be pretty pricey and warmmmmm they are. Also, I got this monstrous burger on one of the promo nights but the bread was completely stale and crumbled at the touch. Though the burger itself was meaty and filling, there was absolutely no way to hold it by its crumby exterior. read more

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Cheap drinks, and cheap eats...especially if you purchase their card. The ambience isn't really my style: lots of TV's with sports games and not much artwork or anything on the walls (or at least none that I can remember, so equal to it not being there :P), but it's clean and inexpensive so I can't complain. When there is a game on, be wary that you probably won't find a table, or even a chair for that matter. Oh, and if you'd like a cheap latte: they have them for 99p. Perfect for a break between classes! read more

Due to its central to student life location, I seem to keep returning to this place, yet have never left feeling satisfied. For a place aimed at students, the pub does well on price and probably suits most of its visitors. On my visits however, they always seem to run out of the most basic of items. A one off would be excusable, but in a student pub, at lunch time, running out of the following (on different occasions) *Chips *Curry *Pepsi/Coke The above are probably their most sold items, and you wouldn't expect these to be unavailable during their busiest times, or to be told their is a 45 minute wait for them. As for the food, there are few places that fall below Wetherspoon's quality, and this is one of them, at seemingly more expensive prices. I also find the interior quite depressing and dark, certainly not somewhere to relax between lectures. Even if you do choose to eat here, finding a seat can be difficult with the masses of students here for the cheap food and drink +Cheap drinks +Central to university area +Cheap food -Awful reliability of service -Food Does not taste good -Over 1 hour waits for food sometimes -Depressing building read more

Went here last night for some cheap food and drinks. They have unbeatable deals when it comes to food like 2 meals for 7£, two for one dessert, or burger and a pint Tuesday's for 3.99£! A house wine is about 3£ and cocktails 4.45£. I figured I'd include some prices to give you an idea of the price range...something important when you're a broke college student wanting to go out! The burger itself was pretty bad. They were those super thin over cooked prefrozen patties. I didn't try anything else but the wings did look pretty tasty. I might go for those next time. Anyway overall rating: food? Blahhh one star, but four stars for value and atmosphere....that's what you're going in for with prices that cheap. Meh I'd still go back for those wings and a cheap pint! read more

It is cheap here, very cheap - especially compared to its only real immediate competition, Big Hands. It will, however, sap the life out of you - I'll go in for a quick pint and some eats and end up biting down on the thick end of an existential crisis. I honestly don't know why this is - the place looks fine, the music isn't too loud or irritatingly quiet, I usually visit with likeminded friends of a sunny disposition but it always gets me and before I've finished my first pint I will feel my soul sliding into an abyss. Then the food will arrive and that won't help at all, as I said it's cheap but you absolutely get what you pay for here - warmed through sub-scream bar pub meals. And yet I keep returning and keep ordering the scampi. Why? Still, I suppose if you're going to suffer a minor personality meltdown it may as well happen somewhere where the wine is under £6 a bottle. read more

Not a usual venue for me but close to where I was eating. This is a packed pub popular with students and justifiably so with affordable drinks, curry nights, late hours and sports screens. Inside is a bit too bright for me but it's large, close to public transport and on the university strip so will continue to be popular. My taste though is for somewhere with a little more character and atmosphere read more

Oxford - Pubs Near Me - Manchester, XGM

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I've yet to visit a city that doesn't have a pub called the Oxford in it's student area, but it's only recently that this has begun to annoy me. I think it has to do with the shamelessness of the Manchester version. Yes it's a lame attempt at somehow linking their student area with that well known university that none of us got in to but at least all other Oxford pubs have the decency to be old and pub-like! Manchester's looks like some kind community centre or doctors surgery- and no, before you start, that doesn't make the place good for what ails you. It's a tacky and cheap ignoramus of a building which I'm sure the universities must have had built to act as some kind of idiot test. I'd be interested to know the percentage of people who chose to spend their student days drinking in the Oxford that came away with thirds or lower. read more

For a while last summer, the boyf and I went to The Oxford every weekend, because it was theonly pub that was sure to be showing West Ham games. Perhaps the manager is part of the claret and blue army? Who knows. The Oxford is alright. They do good solid pub grub very cheap (around £5 a head) and the selection of beers and whatnot is totally standard. The wine is gross but it always is in these places. If you're going in for a pub lunch, my tip would be the cheese and bacon burger. It is ridiculously naughty, and made even better if you add curly fried (Jamie Oliver would cry blood!) for an extra 50p. Yes, you feel like you've committed carb'n'cheese suicide, but it's so worth it for a dirty treat. For night times drinking, The Oxford is at best a stop-off or starting point, not a destination. The drinks offers are attractive, but this place lacks the atmosphere to make your evening. Be warned, too, your food will take forever to arrive during term time. Like, an hour. So if you're starving and need a dirty burger treat, there's a Maccy D's practically next door. read more

I was only here this week in order to help out a friend (the lovely Vickie S.) and cover running the quiz for her, but I was very glad I was there as I had forgotten just how lovely a pub it is! It's aimed at students with regards to the prices and such, though they also show lots of sport (they had the football on whilst I was there), do cheap offers on pub grub, which I am yet to taste but the portions look well decent, and there is a lovely friendly, chatty atmosphere. The quiz itself, being my main reason for being there, was lots of fun. There were around fifteen teams taking part, which created a nice level of sporting competition, and the prizes were pretty decent as well; £30 bar tab for the winning team, £15 for those who came in second. Not bad when it only costs a quid to enter, eh? There was a really decent mix of quizzers there as well, young and old, students and non-students, pub regulars and those just there to check out the quiz! The way in which the building is set out lends itself perfectly to lots of different stuff happening at once, as it is split over two and half floors which meant that my booming quizmistressing was not too much of an inconvenience for those there to only watch the footy, or play darts, or just have a couple of pints and a chat. They have a cracking beer selection, sold at cheap prices (well, they appear cheap to my Northern Quarter-pockets!) and the staff were all very friendly and eager to help. The food menu does appear to be very similar to chain pub grub, i.e. not a huge selection of vegetarian food, but cheap and cheerful Sunday roasts and offers through the week. But at the super cheap prices (I believe I saw an offer for two meals for less than £7, which is bloody awesome!) it seems unreasonable to complain really!! I intend on returning to The Oxford soon, so I will update youse with my food-munching and non-working opinions in due course!! read more

The all day breakfast is good and serves no matter day or night. The premise is too costy and only professors can afford the price lol. read more

I think that you could go for a year, doing a different pub quiz in Manchester every week and probably still not do the same one twice. My new favourite has to be the one at The Oxford pub on Oxford Road, every Tuesday. The Oxford is a very average pub. but it is cosy - with sofas and warm decor - and it is cheap. With a Barry card (£2) Sailor Jerrys and mixer, Magners, bottles of Bud and Jagerbombs are £1.50, and Heineken is £1.99 a pint. And if you can stay relatively sober after making the most of the Barry card, the quiz starts at about half nine. The Oxford has a good layout for a pub quiz; the quizmaster has a little platform set up halfway up the big spiral staircase, so people on both the upstairs and downstairs levels have a good view, and it's easy to participate wherever you're sitting. The quiz is made up of 8 sections, with 5 questions in each one. From what I can remember after all the Sailor Jerrys, the categories were General Knowledge, Geography, Science (easier than it sounds), Characters from Novels, Food & Drink, Music, and...I really have forgotten the others. To stop you getting bored, there's also a picture competition, in which the winner gets two pint glasses full of sweets, a Name the Famous Face section, and a Marathon Round, in which you lose all the points for the round if you get one question wrong. Finally, there's a round of Play Your Cards Right at the end, with an opportunity to win a cash prize. The quiz is a pound per person to enter, and the prizes are £50 for the winning team, and £25 for the runners-up. It goes on for a while, but there's plenty to keep everyone entertained, and plenty of nice little touches - such as a free DVD for the second-to-last team. Another plus about the Oxford is that it's open until 1am, so there's plenty of time to celebrate if you were lucky, or drown your sorrows if not. (We were seventh, if you must know - who knew that bananas were native to Asia?). read more

I will never buy a meal at The Oxford again. In fact, if I were ever to return to The Oxford, I'd have to buy two meals; one for me, and one for the man holding a gun to my head. A few awful eating experiences had made me vow never to eat there again, but it was Sunday, I was hungover, and I fancied a fry-up. "No one can mess up a fry-up", I thought, naively. What followed could only be described as culinary hell. My mates' meals arrived within five minutes, but after half an hour, mine was no-where to be seen. I have worked in hospitality for five years, know mistakes can happen, and will only ever be polite when asking a waitress how much longer my meal will be. So The Oxford waitress (who I had already clocked as the rudest waitress in town) snapping "WE ONLY HAVE ONE CHEF" before storming off took the biscuit. I then went to the bar and politely asked how much longer me meal would be, and the bar worker to her credit was polite and apologetic. She said it was on its way, and 15 minutes later (45 mins after ordering) it arrived. What arrived on my plate will be an in-joke between me and my mates for the rest of our lives. Famished, having watched all of them eat, I decided to start with the sausages. I couldn't seem to get any purchase on the sausage with my fork. Upon jamming the fork into it, I tried to bite through it, but I physically couldn't. It was vile. Everyone loves a bit of carcinogenic sausage that has been left in an oven for 45 minutes when they're hungover. It took my mate five minutes to saw through it with a knife and fork. It was like carving through wood. I politely tried to get the waitresses attention, who ignored me, and then frowned at me. The bar wasn't busy. Eventually she arrived, and on pointing out that I had been served with harder-than-diamond carcinogenic sausage jerky, replied with - and I'm not making this up - "I was wondering what that was". No attempt at humour, she was just wondering what my idiot mate was sawing through. No apology either, for food that would have poisoned me had I eaten it. Some replacement sausages arrived 5 minutes later, but by this point I had lost my appetite and felt mildly nauseous. I was too famished to muster the energy to complain, and left. In summary then, grumpiest, rudest waitress in town who is incapable of mustering "please", "thank-you", or "sorry", and inedible food that I wouldn't feed to my worst dog. Avoid like the plague. read more

If you're look for a cheap and cheerful pub on Oxford Road, check out The Oxford. It is student-budget friendly with £6 bottles of house wine and some excellent food deals. While nothing is of any huge quality, it does satisfy a hungry stomach at remarkably low cost. read more

The Oxford is a modern, contemporary pub near to Manchester Academy and the University. This used to be a regular haunt of mine when I lived in halls of residence nearby, unfortunately, when I returned more recently it seems that standards have gone down. It is useful for going for a few drinks there before or after a gig at the Academy, or a few drinks after university. Personally, I now prefer Kro which is a couple of minutes down the road. Standard pub beers and spirits on offer, food in the daytime which is fairly good value. They used to have a £1 drinks offer on thursdays but it is a shame that they no longer do this. read more