The Alchemist

I last came here on a busy, sunny Saturday so competition was fierce to secure an outside table. I struck it lucky as a group were leaving just as I arrived so I swooped in. The waitress was pleasant enough, my friend and I ordered some drinks and they arrived fairly quickly so all was good. I hadn’t seen my friend in over a year so we had lots to catch up on so the drinks remained fairly full, the waitress kept hovering asking if we were wanting more drinks and we obviously weren’t! When we said we were OK for drinks she brought over our bill. We weren’t thrilled at this since we still had drinks and were planning on ordering more once we had finished. I felt rushed and unwelcome which is never great so we drank up and moved on.
The drinks were delicious in their defence, I had the Strawberry Colada which was icy and refreshing, perfect on a hot day.
Not great overall, service left something to be desired.

I have eaten here many a time and it’s always been lovely good with good service. My only reason for not 5 stars is the price for quantity. It’s well worth a trip and the cocktails are amazing and very inventive.

I got the Honeycomb and the Happiness in a flask. The Honeycomb was mad heavy, my friend told me it was super strong. If you order one of the drinks that come in a flask, it’s all £12.50 and you can keep the flask. So I kept the flask because it was really nifty with their emblem engraved on it.

I really like The Alchemist but very rarely go to New York Street since I work near the original. Both have the same sort of vibe: corporates during the week and a smarter/​dressier crowd at the weekend.
My latest visit was a couple of Wednesdays ago when I had a week off work and I met a nurse friend for a long lunch.
I had the sticky beef salad accompanied with Malbec. My friend had the special fried chicken wrap accompanied by gin. We didn’t go for dessert, instead opting for a more liquid option. Had three glasses of wine in the end. Well, it’s not every Wednesday I’m able to have three glasses of wine at lunch!
Overall, we paid £20 each which is pretty good value. We get 20% off food with the dining club.
I will be back again, I’m sure.

Very good service, reasonable pricing and — importantly — great design. Oh, and the food was good (but so good I ate it before being able to take any photos!). The room was decorated well, dark wood with glad and pale walls, mostly up-​and-​down lighting, with a few features (including Christmassy ones).
I had a steak sandwich with Persian salad. The former came with a fair amount of gravy in (but not too much!) and a few onions. It worked well, and came with more gravy on the side, as well as fries. The salad was… interesting. Good, but not what I would call particularly Persian. Essentially it was a crunchy salad with a very light dressing with tortilla chips on top. The Aussie red (Shiraz/​voigner) topped things off nicely.
My second Alchemist visit in Manc, and not disappointing.

V. slow service we visited on a Sunday evening not very busy at all, as we had a meal booked at another place so we only had about 20 – 30 mins for a drink, because of this we thought we would give a cocktail a miss as i understand when they are decent cocktails they take a while to make so we ordered a pint of larger and a glass of wine, from ordering to paying it took over 10 minutes. There was 1 guy on his own and he started serving about 4 other people at the same time which delayed everyone. The guy also spent half the time talking to his friend at the bar rather than concentrating on serving the customers.
Shame because i love the look and atmosphere in the bar.

Popped in here for lunch before flying home, and what a treat this place was. The interior is great (though we sat outside, which was also quite good), the service was really fantastic (despite their being hit with a rush) and the food was excellent. A varied menu of top-​rate dishes, great drinks, and the prices were actually not that bad. I’d come back next time I’m in town.

I’ve visited here for cocktails a couple of times now and have yet to be disappointed. I love the décor — the various styles of seating help the space feel open yet intimate. I’ve stopped in during off-​peak times, so I’ve been lucky to be seated and served right away. Cocktails on average run around 7.50−10.00/each. My personal favorite is the smoky old fashioned, an oak smoke-​infused maple whiskey treat. The Bubble Bath is also tasty as well as visually appealing. The menu includes a variety of spirits to suit diverse tastes. Food menus also available.

We went to The Alchemist for our team Xmas do at work and honestly I couldn’t fault it for the purpose. Four of us ordered from the set Christmas menu and the fifth ordered from the main menu due to dietary needs, which the staff were more than happy with.
For my meal I chose prawn salad; salmon; and a chocolate torte. I won’t pretend this was the finest food I’ve ever eaten but it was all really tasty, with nice touches that elevated the whole meal.
The prawn salad was light and zingy with lots of ginger, garlic and soy flavours. The crispy noodles on top seemed odd to begin with but went well in the dish.
The salmon was cooked so perfectly I could have eaten a whole other portion of it. We asked for lemon to go with the fish and they fetched over slices of lemon as well as some sort of lemon butter sauce which was ace. Vegetables and potatoes came for the table and were lovely.
The chocolate torte was incredibly delicious and cake with a spoonful of what I thought was ice cream but was actually thick, decadent, luxurious cream.
Obviously one of the main selling points of The Alchemist is the cocktails. And we certainly had some cocktails. The caramelised rum punch was so good, I’d go back just for that. Sugary and fruity without being sickly, with a nice strong but not overpowering rum flavour. I also had a Bubble Bath which arrives at your table foaming away as though you left the taps running. I remember that it was nice but honestly can’t remember what it tasted of at all — not very memorable after the delicious rum punch.
Service was great — attentive, professional, chatty. It did take a little while to get the bill but we were having a good time so it was no problem. One waitress even stood by happily while we played a round of rock paper scissors over the last glass of prosecco and the waiter who brought the bill didn’t even flinch when we broke out in an impromptu round of All I Want For Christmas.
I’d be really happy to come back here for another event like a works do — it wouldn’t be my first choice personally but everything was great.

I’ve been to The Alchemist on New York St a good few times, usually with work colleagues or with some girlfriends as they offer a fantastic cocktail menu.
It’s a larger bar than the Alchemist in Spinningfields which is a plus, lots of seating and a bigger bar — the outdoor, heated, seating area is lovely in the summer too.
The staff are knowledgable and friendly and can make you something that isn’t on the menu if you ask them.
For me, it isn’t the type of place that would be your local bar — the cocktails are delicious though and it’s always busy, even on a Wednesday night when I visited last.
I have some favourites here — if you have a sweet tooth and love cola bottles (the sweets) then try the Cola Bottle Libre!
The Colour Changing one is also fab if you like to get involved mixing up your own.

Really like the Alchemist and definitely prefer this one to the one in Spinningfields because it’s a lot bigger and not as crammed at the weekend. The cocktail selection is superb with lots of interesting concoctions to try. The cocktails also keep to the theme of the place with ones that smoke using dry ice in conical flasks. I have also found that the staff are very helpful here and will accommodate a large group without any problems. I visited on Thursday with a group of friends. We ordered a good selection of cocktails with the French martini definitely being my favourite. It was made to perfection and I loved the cream foam on top. A great place to go to with the girls.

Met a friend for lunch and ordered the fish finger sandwich with an upgrade to the Salt and Pepper fries. I never wanted them to end, so delicious :)
The service, atmosphere and food were all amazing. A little pricey for a lunch time but we all deserve a treat now and again :)
Need those Salt and Pepper Fries in my life again soon :)

OK there are 2 sides to that review.
On one side, it’s just not my sort of place. I can’t associate with its offering, its ambience or its crowd. So in that respect it was always gonna be a tough call on me.
But there are times when a group of people do go to this kind of place because it makes sense at the time. Last Tuesday was one of them.
Late Tuesday night, around 11pm, a few punters but really quite quiet. No joking, we spent 10 mins at the bar before being noticed. I know they’re making cocktails but come on, at least acknowledge customers. And if you’re cocktails are taking that long to make and serve there’s room for improvement somewhere.

I ‘m sure people will be absolutely amazed I’ve rated this place 1 star. And to be honest I am total shocked I have to rate it this. The barmen should visit Gorilla and take some tips from the barstaff there. The guy who served us was VERY rude. He was more intrested in getting back to the Hen Party that was mid cocktail glass with another few staff there. The cocktail was lovely, I had a strawberry cup, however because of the horrendous barman, it really did put me off… As I typed this, maybe I am being harsh with 1 star. I will up to 2 star. I do feel that you would definately get a better service from one of the smaller cocktail bars who actually care about the customers not just the bit of skirt sat within a few meters of them :)

Really cool bar! part of the Blackhouse group who own loads of other cool places in Manchester including Grill on New York St etc, Its a huge place with really friendly fun bar staff, by the looks of it, its mainly a place for cool cocktails mainly made by blow torches, really cool, theres loads of couches and bar stools around the bar, one half is the cool bar and the other half is the restaurant which was packed!
i loved the design of the place. very trendy but not pretentious at all!
Theres also seating outside with the heat lamps.
I love the Alchemist!

Don’t you just love going out on a school night knowing you don’t have to get up tomorrow because it’s a bank holiday!
Ok, so it wasn’t a late night, as I’m writing this now and it’s only 10pm, but there was food and cocktails so to me that’s a good night!
I love Alchemist as their cocktail menu is eclectic; lots of choice, crazy concoctions in odd shaped glasses and some old favourites.
I had a ‘summer of love’ first, which contains vodka, wine, black grapes, grapefruit liqueur and lemonade. It basically tastes like a high quality fizzy vimto and therefore I drank it far too fast so there’s no photo, sorry.
I was with a friend, obviously as I don’t drink alone in public… So we ordered food too. Being a traditional foodie I went for bangers and mash. Please don’t tell my personal trainer! It’s a simple dish, but a firm favourite, and they didn’t disappoint. Decent quality sausages, smooth mash, proper red onion gravy. Not bad for under £9.
Dessert came in the form of a ‘caramelized rum punch’ cocktail. It contains demerera sugar which is caramelized with an orange rum then blended with cinnamon and nutmeg, added to lime juice, Appleton VX, watermelon syrup and pineapple juice. I’m thinking the variety of fruit and spices redeems me with the PT… but I’m not hopeful.

I prefer this Alchemist to the original one in Spinningfields, despite it’s proximity to Portland Street it’s still a quiet enough reserved place to eat or drink in the week.
I went with a friend for a quick dinner on a Monday night; it was relatively quiet and seated easily enough.
I had the chicken in a basket which I had read was fantastic; I strongly disagree. The chicken was very dry, the fries okay and the coleslaw looked like it had been sat under a heat-​lamp for a while, congealed a little. I find the ‘chicken basket’ really intrusive; it doesn’t have a large enough opening to be able to eat properly and cut the chicken up if you need to.
My friend had the beetroot & halloumi open sandwich, which although isn’t my thing did look nice and she loved it.
Service was brilliant, I cannot fault that, but I’ll have to try some other dishes before casting a proper opinion on the food, so far I’m not impressed.

Love this bar but they are seriously short of seating for people just wanting to drink. The bar is not that big really so it can take a while to get served but the drinks are worth the wait. Their lychee meringue Martinis (see photo) are my favourite cocktail of all time.
We also ate here one night after deciding late on we fancied a meal. They had a table and the food was excellent, it’s owned by the same people as Gusto another of our favourites. The service was great and we were really looked after well.
A casual restaurant with great food, what more could you want?

Such a clever idea and some of the better food in Manchester. We went into The Alchemist at the recommendation from our hotel mainly because the name sounded cool — the décor is even cooler than the name and the drinks — don’t even get me started on the drinks. Just the drinks alone make me a huge fan.
First thing’s first: FOOD. Their Eggs Benedict is some of the best in Manchester, they make a mean hollandaise sauce. Which is what brought us back for dinner and drinks.
I ordered the ramen which on its own was tasty and worth it, but boy did they put on a show with dry ice for me! And then the drinks, we overspent just to keep trying the different drinks with the twirls, swirls and dry ice.
I highly recommend The Alchemist, its pricey but worth it for the experience.

Ventured back to The Alchemist last night for some drinks with work.
The atmosphere was completely different to my last visit; sparkly Christmas decorations all gone, the few fairy lights that remain add some glamour to proceedings, but when the after work crowd are in noone seems to care anyway. The bar area gets crowded quickly due to the separation between eating and drinking areas, with eating taking up the majority of the space. Perhaps the Spinningfields branch is more focused on the drinking crowd and this the eating, who knows, I just hope so. When we arrived it was very much standing room only but, eventually, we grabbed some sofas.
The group stuck to wine and beer — not sure the service could handle a few rounds of cocktails as there were only ²⁄₃ people behind the bar. This always feels a bit strange when you’re somewhere post-5o’clock; surely they know that they’ll get busy? We eventually got some nibbles later on due to a few members of the group flagging slightly. These consisted of hummus & pitta bread, potato skins, and nachos. The nachos were a shock to a few members of the group due to being of a very middle class proportion to the plate (i.e. there weren’t that many of them) but they were warm and cheesey, just what we needed. The potatoes were delicious, as fried potato always is, but I didn’t get my hands on any hummus.
Another nice enough experience at The Alchemist but I still feel something’s missing slightly. More seating? Less focus on eating? A recognition of the after work crowd? I’m not sure. Big brother remains supreme.