Dive

My first time in this new basement bar and it’s great. Loads of space, great urban interior, cheap beer and wine (£2.50 a pint or glass). It has booths, tables, mingling space and great music that still allows you to talk. It’s the funkiest most affordable city centre venue with real character. And the name just calls you in!

Love Dive. Good vibe good people and I like the place when my boyfriend drags me out to watch the sports, it’s a bar I enjoy sitting in, even if it is for the football

Dive are definitely rocking up the Northern Quarter! I’d heard lots of good things about this place so I had to go & try it for myself.
It was quite late on a Saturday afternoon & me and a few friends decided to grab some food & drinks. On arrival we were greeted by Allen who made us feel more than welcome.
Once seated & with a drink in our hands, we couldn’t decide what to eat so we chose to order practically everything & share.
The food came extremely quick, considering the amount of people that was in the place.
I couldn’t fault anything, it was all hot, fresh & delicious. The pulled pork sliders were a particular favourite of mine. I could of eaten a lot more of them!
Once we’d eaten, we decided to stay in the place. It’s quite infectious once you get in there. So infectious in-​fact, that we ended up staying until 5am!
It’s safe to say the hangover was real the next day but we would definitely come back. The music was a mix of everything so we just danced the night away… literally.

I love the atmosphere in Dive, it’s warm, comfortable and everyone is genuinely very helpful and friendly.
Unfortunately I had the worst salad I’ve ever encountered in my life… When the menu said ‘chicken, sweetcorn and avocado salad’ it was literally a tin of sweetcorn tipped in to a dish with half and avocado chopped up over it, a couple of cherry tomatoes and micro-​herbs and a chicken thigh. Mercifully the chicken thigh wasn’t overlooked but I think I could have got more flavour out of a soggy dishcloth and they could have at least drained the sweetcorn properly. No dressing/​seasoning of any kind so I took it up to the pass and asked the chef for a sprinkling of black pepper. Underseasoned, overpriced, won’t bother with the food again as I can make far superior food at home for a fraction of the cost. My boyfriend was initially brought the wrong drink and his dinner choice (he went for the sticky beef salad) was ok… Definitely not worth the £9.50 menu price tag. Thank goodness it was 55% off or I probably would have refused to pay.
Long story short it’s a nice place for a drink but there are plenty of better places for food.

I visited Dive twice in row, below are both experiences:
Day One:
Now Dive is odd before you’ve even entered, its almost like they don’t want you to know its there, which may well be the point. We head in the back, or maybe the front, we still aren’t sure.
First impressions, is this place open, its immaculately clean, and there is nobody at all there, its almost like a set from a film, which I think is actually where they have got the ‘American’ theme from.
Fairs fair though, we do spot a bar man who asks us if we are eating, and we are given a pick of any seat by our bandana wearing waitress. We immediately order 2 ‘Franciscan Well’ beer’s on her recommendation.
Off to a good start, but then a down turn as we are told there are no sliders on, or chilli beef tacos. They must have had a shortage of cows.
I go for the Nachos (large) and chicken tacos, El Food two picks the Philly Steak sub and fries, we don’t ask what the steak is made out of.
At £8 for the tacos, and £7 for the Nachos, and £9 for the sub, with £3.50 for fries, its not a cheap lunch without the discount. Although they do have lunch deals starting at £8.50
tacos and nachos
The food arrives promptly, which when you are the only ones in there, isn’t a great feat. The nachos are cheese heavy, and come with a generous amount of dips, but not much else. By the end I leave a lot of dry, chees-​less, joy-​less nacho chips whilst I finish up the quite spicy chicken tacos, there are bit lettuce heavy though. ⁶⁄₁₀
From El Food twos side, the sub seems pretty decent sized, and the fries are nice looking skin on deals. Nothing spectacular though.
We leave fairly satisfied, but I think this helped by actually being served, and the hefty discount. Dive need to do more to stand out, as we leave we only spot one other table of dinners, open till 5am on the weekends, it might be a good place to get a quiet nights sleep.
5 out of 10 bandanas
Day Two:
Its eerily similar to yesterday, but we are met by a different waitress this time, no bandana, its lost points already. Maybe she’s a stunt double.
We order 6 lots of sliders, its cheaper to do this than order 2 lots of 3, there is no reason for this, 2 lots of fries and a couple of ‘Wells to wash it down.
Our bandana-​less waitress returns to tell us they are ‘shit out of sliders’. There is a £12 burger though, but this does not gain the 55% discount, this is bullshit.
We order 6 lots of the chilli beef tacos instead, again these are cheaper than the 2 lots of 3, and again we do not ask what the chilli beef is made out of.
Compared to the soft tacos of yesterday, today we have hard shell tacos. These are bullshit, they break into an infinite number of pieces after one bite, and you have eat with your face an inch from the plate. The fries are as fry-​y as yesterday. At £15 in total for the tacos, and £3.50 a piece for the fries, its again not a cheap eat, but the 55% sweetens the deal.
We do notice one other table of dinners today, so maybe things are hotting up for Dive.
Overall: 2 lots of 3 sliders out of 12 tacos

This place was hard to resist. with it’d neon intriguing sign, armies of billboard people patrolling Oldham Street. and 50% off food.
The gang decided to take advantage of this offer. So just after Xmas we booked a table for the six of us on a Saturday night. Even with full intentions of going there we were still provoked by the Dive army on the streets to go.
Flyers in hand we walked down the steep steps into a clubby atmosphere. The bar was full of tasty things. like Blind Pig cider. anyway to the right cordened off area lay large booths for the dining area.
Once seated we looked at the one sided menu. which had the worst confusing layout ever. after dechipering it, we chose to order EVERYTHING… YES EVERYTHING.. so corn dogs, sweet potato, pulled pork, chicken tacos, x3 nachos. Veggie, pulled pork ones, chicken, shrimp skewers, breaded prawns, mushrooms, fries. Sweet potato wedges and Mac n cheese balls. They had stopped offering the sliders, nor did they have mozzarella sticks.
Flicking through the photos on Unilocal I was looking forward to plentiful Mac n cheese ball’s…however for the 3 portions we ordered, we were dissatisfied to receive 3 balls on each plate.
The nachos were good, served on mini crates but not £7 worth (I know we were only going to pay half of that but the whole idea was to showcase their food).
Again everything was average. the only winner being the massive sweet potato wedges. the loser being the watery breaded mushrooms.
The waitress was tolerant, and had been precise ordering the mountain of food. I requested a 3 wise men cocktails half way through which was strong JD honey tasting.
However what grated on me was that considering this place was empty. despite the Dive army abducting people, offering half priced food and it being Saturday night… we were still asked to hurry up and leave the dining area… I would have understood if it had been busy.
Anyway it was a good evening because I went with a large group and it worked out as a tenner each. So my advice is take advantage of the cheap food if you are holding a large get together. As the offer only runs until the end of January.
However there is no way I would pay full whack for such Iceland frozenesque food. especially for the those tiny portions. I see this place taking a dive.

Okay, so… After checking out Dive NQ for their press launch, I’ve since been back as a paying customer so I thought that would be a good time to review my review. I’ll try and not double-​back on stuff I’ve already covered, so feel free to read my previous review also.
We found our way to Dive as we needed to pass some time before getting the train out of Manchester, and wanted somewhere a bit more comfortable than the station seating. As it was around 5PM on a Thursday, the venue was pretty dead when we got there but that’s not unexpected as people would still be in work. We picked a table and a waitress came over to take drinks orders, which I wasn’t expecting as we weren’t in the signposted food service area. Nonetheless, we ordered our drinks and they arrived pretty quickly.
I managed to sneak a peek at the food menu this time around, and whilst I didn’t order anything from it as I’d been sampling my way around the Christmas markets all afternoon I have to say I was somewhat underwhelmed by the offering. I got to sample some of the food on offer at the press launch, and the full menu seems to be more of the same — it’s all along a street food, snack item type of theme.
Price wise, you can get three «sliders» (mini burgers, essentially, which are referred to as «Grabs») for £9.50 which puts it in the same, if not slightly higher, price range as other NQ institutions like Almost Famous for a «main» item. There’s also a «Bites» section featuring things like the mini corn dogs (£8), and mac and cheese balls (£6) but I have no idea what the portion size on these are. All the sides, things like fries or onion rings, are a flat £3.50 each. There is, however, a daily lunch deal on the food where selected mains with a side are discounted — things like tacos, etc.
We did, however, take advantage of the Happy Hour which runs from 5−8PM during which time there are discount draught beers, bottles and wine on offer. It’s not your pick of the bar, though — the discount bottles are things like Budweiser and Corona, the wine is either the house white (Chardonnay) or house red (Merlot), and the only two cocktails included in the offer are the Mad-​hatten and the Fruit and Nut-​case. I went for the Fruit and Nut-​case, as I was curious, and received a decent cocktail with a chunk of chocolate on top.
As one of our party was from the US, and Dive have really tried to go for the Americana theme with their interior styling, it was very interesting to get her opinion on the place. In short, she summed it up as «they’re trying too hard», but I still have to say that I like the feel of the place.
The only downside to the visit really has to be the staff. It’s not that they weren’t friendly and helpful like they were last time, or even that they got anything wrong, but there were just some little points where they dropped the ball slightly and that let them down a bit. For instance, if an initial drinks order is being taken from the table I don’t think it would be unreasonable to expect that someone would check in occasionally to see if you wanted anything further. I ended up in the somewhat odd situation of making several trips to the bar for subsequent drinks, and then having to actively track down someone to take payment for the first round which were on a tab for the table. I’m not sure whether this is a «teething problem», as they haven’t been open very long and so might not have fully decided whether it’s table service just for the food area or not, but it was still awkward. The staff behind the bar, though, were sound.
I would still go back, as I like the vibe in here and if I was looking to knock back a few bottles after work I’d definitely be in for the £2.50 Corona’s, but I think I’d treat this more as a watering hole rather than somewhere I’d actively go for food unless I was going during their lunch deal times.

Very well made-​up new bar — they’ve stuck to the theme well, even the toilets are covered in graffiti! Nice to have Blue Moon on tap as well. Lovely staff and really nice décor, we haven’t struggled to find a seat either when we’ve popped in. Fab little addition to this part of town! Plus the very long happy hour is sure to tempt the locals after work :)

I didn’t set out to come in here. But walking back from Dry, we noticed this was still open and no queue, so thought we’d have a night cap. It was about 2.30am I think, though can’t be sure as I was pretty drunk.
It looks good and has a big bar and there’s nothing that wrong with the place on the face of it. But to me, and this is why I’ve gone for 3* not 4*, it doesn’t feel very Northern Quarter. It feels a lot like Bluu (which I tend to avoid at weekends) because the crowd were more the Deansgate crowd that you’d see in places like Living Room/​the Locks etc. A little pretentious and really didn’t get the same vibe as I get from other NQ favourites like Dry, where I’d come from.
The music was RnB, garage type, again that I’d associate more with other areas of town. I was really drunk so I did have a bit of a dance.
I think I need to come back here on a Tuesday or Wednesday and see what it’s like in the week. But I wouldn’t choose to come on a Friday or Saturday again.

I popped in for an after work to meet a friend and it wasn’t busy at all so we took a seat in a nice booth (everyone loves a booth!). The drinks between 5−8pm are really cheap, I paid £2.50 for a bottle of corona so you can’t really go wrong! The music was good and the staff were pleasant, everything was good but I wasn’t wowed. They did absolutely nothing wrong and I will definitely go back to take advantage of the deals after work but I’m not raving about the place. They have a good food menu so I would like to go check that out at some point and also if your a football fan they had a good screening area and loads of screens to catch the game.
All in all, not my cup of tea but not a bad experience!

Came here for the launch party. There are two entrances, one is in Oldham Street and another is on Tib Street. Cocktails are great — I had Gin and juice.
It has a very strong American theme, the staff wore plaid shirts and jeans. Some female staff dress very southern like Daisy Duke. American tunes, American drinks — like Bourbon, Root beers, etc.
There is one main bar and a smaller bar in the lounge area. A big dancing floor, live band and DJ area. A few big tables in booth style set-​up, and some high tables around the bar.
It was a fun night but the tunes were a bit off — live band was playing American oldies, DJ was playing was playing random American songs but I feel some rock or 80’s would suit things better.

There are two entrances to Dive (Tib St. and Oldham), but I came in through the smaller Tib St. entrance, which has a «grungier» sort of feel to it. Best way to enter into a place called «Dive» is through the seedy back door, in my opinion. Going down the stairs you see that seedy quickly turns to classy with awesome wooden interior with a slight Americana feel to it. It’s a cool mix of cozy and warm while being fresh and new, with an overall laid back atmosphere. Try to picture something being rough but varnished at the same time.
Spool-​style wooden tables and high chairs are all over the place, so there isn’t a lack of areas to sit and rest your drinks. If you want more of a lounge feel, there are a few alcoves — one with its own bar and big screen TV with leather red/​brown couches. It’s cut off a bit from the main area with a red curtain partially closing it off, so you can get a slight escape from the rest of the area.
The Americana feel isn’t overly-​apparent just by the decorations and atmosphere, but it becomes obvious that’s what they’re going for when you see the staff dress. Waitresses are dressed in a 80’s TV-​style casual southern belle fashion, while bar staff is reminiscent of lumberjacks or Rosie the Riveter, even accompanied with leather half-​aprons that look like they could double for a new style of utility belt.
Cocktails cost £7.50, and are pretty generous with the liquor — definitely not weak, even though they remain flavourful. I started with a Gin and Juice (Beefeater Gin, cloudy apple juice, elderflower), and moved on to ginger beer and Blind Pig flavoured ciders. Even the gin and tonic or bourbon and coke were pleasantly strong without overpowering things.
They’ve got great food to choose from, and good lunch specials if you’re wanting a bite without the evening party atmosphere. The macaroni and cheese balls are a cool take on an American classic, but be careful — they’re served hot! That’s a common theme with the food it seems; the crab cakes were delightfully crispy/​crunchy on the outside while the interior was a bit too hot, but creamy and full of flavour.
There was a live band the night we went, with Anna Sin playing 50’s and 60’s jams. Their opening song was Route 66, and they killed it throughout the rest of the night with classic hits. This definitely fit the atmosphere, but I was less enthused by the DJ music. The house music seemed to be an eclectic mix and fairly disjointed, but got better as the night ran on. It feels like it’d be perfectly suited to some jazz or blues music, or 50’s to 80’s classic American songs.
Dive is open until 5 a.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings, and while the phone reception is poor (usually cuts out as soon as you get downstairs), they’ve got free wifi so you can connect that way when you get in.
As a disclaimer: this is a review based on the launch party I was able to attend. That being said, I’ve got a strong feeling I’ll be back to give an updated review soon! Very tempted to come back for lunch to get a proper meal in.

Attended the launch with a few other Unilocalers last night, and would recommend for those seeking a NQ bar with friendly prices and a large dance floor.
Dive is located between aflecks and Sasha’s with entrances on both tib street and oldham street. It has a strong American theme, with wood paneled walls, lots of deep fried food on the menu’s, staff in plaid shirts and a few neon lights dotted around.
The house red is my top recommendation of the evening, swiftly followed by the deep fried Mac n cheese balls.
The evening kicked off with a live band with a big double bass and playing covers of some American classics! It was then followed by some great dance floor fillers.
I can really see this place becoming a good alternative to the likes of hold fast and gba at the opposite side of Stevenson square!