The Printworks

The Printworks is a lively entertainment complex with a huge Odeon with IMAX, A few bars and restaurants but i would pass on these due to better bars being in the neighbouring area of the the Northern Quarter, The cinema is great though.

The Printworks is a venue in Manchester that will be familiar to all Mancunians, it is in the city center within walking distance of near enough everything within the city center too!
The Printworks is mainly known for its’ cinema, having a rather large ODEON with an IMAX screen, as well as this it has many eateries, some places here (for example Hard Rock Café) has their only branch in Manchester located here.
The Printworks is quite a big place, and it is totally different from the arndale and is reasonably dark inside, with signals being hard to get in certain places, especially when you go right to the end of certain restaurants like Nando’s
Selection of good here is very good, with a large variety of food cuisine being available, however it is mainly chain restaurants, so if you don’t like chains, this really isn’t the place to go for you!
The Hard Rock (American), Harvester (British), Papa G’s (Mediterranean), Nando’s (Portuguese/​Chicken), Wasabi (oriental), Chiquito (Mexican), Waxy O’Connors (Irish), Peachy Keen (buffet) just shows that they is many places in The Printworks for various cuisine, they is even good selection on the gluten free department, with Nando’s (although not the nicest branch), Chiquito and The Hard Rock Café catering for coeliacs.
It can be easy to get lost in the Printworks, especially though getting lost as it does have various entrances but still that shouldn’t be a big deal, as no matter where you come out, you will be in Manchester’s vibrant city center.
The Printworks is quite a nice place, although it isn’t perfect with some branches here (Nando’s for example) not being the best of branches in the chain, or even in Manchester, and this place is a little dark, which I think makes it less family friendly, and more of a «night out» venue. Signal here can be hard to get (at least on O2) so that is another downside, if you want to communicate with people, you may be trying to meet for example
The Printworks is somewhere to see while in Manchester and has been sold on 2 occasions for around 100 million pounds but still it looks quite unusual from the outside, and it isn’t the best of places to see in Manchester, so unless you live here or you want to watch a film while in Manchester, it isn’t somewhere I would recommend going on a short trip/​city break, but I still think it warrants 3 stars.

I Came here in the summer to see a free starwars convention.
being quite a big starwars fan!
It had lots of people who took the time and effort to dress up in
some really good costumes, there were lots of people walking around and
you could have your photo taken with darthvader
or a number of boba fetts.
chewbacca was a favorite with most people
as you had to wait in a queue to take a pictue with him.
my favorite was R2-​D2 there. must of been someone in there !
They also had lots of starwars memorabilia of magazines and figure.
It was a great free hour to take your kids or big kids if you were
passing by and am sure i will go again

This place is close my home and has lots too offer from restaurants and bars site. Medium expensive and always great atmosfer.

Good place for when it’s raining with a variety of bars and restaurants and cinema. It is child friendly and good prices too try out The Seven Stars or the Beer Keller in evenings

The Printworks is made up of restaurants and bars as well as an ODEON cinema and Gym. Here is where you’ll find Hard Rock Café, Chiquito’s, Harvester and lots of other restaurants. Unfortunately I was trying to take some photos and I was asked not to by the security as it is private property, so unfortunately there was only one photo that I could post. Apart from the choice of food and bars there is also cash machines. Just outside there is a small co-​op store.

Although quirky as it is, unless you want a bar, food or the cinema don’t bother coming here. As the smokers are allowed to hover at the entrances, the smell blows thru the wind tunnel inside space!
Oh and don’t get out your camera, the owners ask you DONT take pictures because its a private building… Not sure where they stand legally on that one but would like to know!

I feel sorry for Mancs sometimes. Everyone thinks that you are all absolute twats because the bars that are recommended to outsiders by taxi drivers and others are places filled with the worst that Greater Manchester has to offer. I know people who have a very negative image of Manchester simply because of this place. If I was to leave in a taxi at Piccadilly and ask the taxi driver the best place to go for bars, he’d drive to the flippin’ Printworks!
This place is a zoo. Seriously. The lemurs, lions and meerkats at Yorkshire Wildlife Park are better behaved. You will find everything you hate about Greater Manchester in here:
Chavtastic and tantastic girls wearing close to nothing in the highest heels they could find in The Arndale necking alcopops like its water, rowdy and absolutely drunk stag and hen nights in fancy dress (ever wanted to see what Woody from Toy Story looks like getting thrown out of a club?), females with attitude who think they are made of gold simply because they have a vagina and wearing gear from Selfridges, absolute bellends in v-​neck tops who have finished their shift as ‘gym douchebags’, chavs from the deepest parts of Oldham and Wythenshawe fighting over one orange slapper or because a Budweiser was spilled on their Nikes by accident and Bouncers who think they are gods who only let women in.
All I need to say is that there’s a Tiger Tiger here too. You know what to expect when you see that place. I have experienced Tiger Tiger in Leeds and wish to never have to never experience Manchester’s. I wish they’d let a real tiger in here to cause carnage.
The only good thing I have to say is the Odeon Cinema has lots of screens.
Other than that the Printworks makes me wanna run to Liverpool. Throw out time in this area is the most depressing thing you’ve ever seen. Women puking whilst holding their shoes and smelling like a mixture of sick and greasy kebab, stag night people crawling out with whatever’s left of their costumes, couples arguing, people fighting over taxis…

Obviously, fantastic as a meeting point. Everyone in Manchester I spoke too knows where the Printworks are.
There’s a wide choice of venues in there to spend your time — the Hard Rock, Waxy O’Connors, Chiquito, Norwegian Blue — one of them must float your boat.
It seems like it would be the kind of place that gets really busy and rowdy later at night, so if that’s your kind of thing, head on down here. I was there early evening and it was just starting to pick up. Given that it’s all enclosed, under cover and generously air conditioned, it’s a great place to bide your time if like recently, it’s a heat wave.

Ok, so I have a love-​hate relationship with Printworks — I have several reasons to love it and equal number for reasons for the extreme other.
I am a fan of Odeon because I love movies, though I have to admit I am more of a Cornerhouse and AMC girl but then there are some big budget Hollywood films which you just need to watch at IMAX! And Odeon screens some of the popular Bollywood films as well (not all of them are about people dancing in colorful clothes, trust me!) which is good because I get to find out what is happening in my lovely country! I am a big Hard Rock Café fan too even though this one is a bit disappointing when it comes to live music but nevertheless I just like their burgers and rock music — takes me back to my teen days. Wasabi and Wagamama are two places I can just go everyday and not be bored, I have a theory there are two kinds of people — sushi lovers and non-​sushi lovers and I tend to get along with the former! And how can I even forget Nandos — ahhh the tender chicken, the pri pri sauce and the creamy mash… mmmmmm
Now lets get to the part which puts me off completely— Teenage girls wearing shorts which shows their bum cheeks, Men with V neck, tight teeshirts and shiny hair, Hen Parties, Rude Mancunians and the bouncers of all the clubs inside who think they own the world! Well, the clubs inside printworks must have been incredible when it started but now the standards have definitely fallen more than regular! Definitely not my cup of tea (read glass of wine).
Verdict: I hate you, like I love you; I hate you like I love you, love you, love you! (This is a ridiculous song I heard sometime back: p)

Expensive. Over Crowded, but what a selection of bars, cafes & restaurants!!!
Decided to give this place a try one Friday night with a friend who was down from Preston. We needed up walking through trying to decide where to eat, as their was a great selection of places to eat and drink. We ended up doing drinks at the ‘spoons and it wasn’t half bad. Cheap, and crowded more than a mini with 11 clowns in it!
Even with this amount of people, we were still able to find a seat and it was very enjoyable. We got a few nibbles and drank the night away. I would certainly come back mid week, when hopefully their is less people. However, even if there is the same amount of people, I’ll give it a go!

A happening hub in Manchester and great meeting point, the Printworks is cool as a cucumber inside and also DRY (I visited on a day where it rained for about 10 hours straight).
Bars and restaurants are the order of the day, along with a gym and cinema.
Hit and miss on the bar scene (see Norwegian Blue for a big miss), where you have the likes of Waxy’s and Hard Rock Café for great pre-​gig warm up at the MEN Arena.
Believe!

Dear lord, where do I start… okay, I shall begin by dividing the Printworks into a list of pros and cons to show just how divided one can be upon a visit here.
Pros
Wasabi, Wagamama, Nando’s, great cinema, Henry J Beans and Hard Rock Café for junk food and cocktails, Papa G’s, a little fish and chip shop, a newsagent that’s open until stupidly late
Cons
Hen parties, Waxy O’ Connors at the weekends, Opus, hen parties, Opus, Pure, Café Rouge, shaven-​headed oiks in shiny shirts, hen parties, Opus, over-​zealous security guards, coming out of the cinema sober when everyone around you is drunk, Opus.
The Printworks looks impressive, we can’t deny it. It’s interestingly put together, if a little Trafford Centre-​esque fake. It’s meant to be a Mecca of entertainment but the fact that so many of its clientele are less than discerning kind of puts a dampener on it for me, so I pretty much duck, dive in, get the stuff out of it that I want and ignore everything else. I adore the cinema here and always feel weird going to any other one so I have to keep coming back. At least with Wagamama you don’t actually have to enter the Printworks itself to pull up a bench and slurp some nice noodles.
And I’ve only just realised that Becca’s review matches mine exactly — I promise I wrote this before I read it. Great minds!

I love the Printworks I think it’s an ingenious creation.
Ignoring the fact that it is a blatant and poor attempt on London’s Piccadilly circus, think of what it offers to the decent people of Manchester. Where else in Britain do they have what is effectively a cave, full of whirring arcade machines, flashing neon lights and loud and pointless noise, designed specifically to attract the chest beating bottom dwellers of Greater Manchester, thus keeping them out of sight and out of mind every weekend?
My only worry about the mighty Printworks is that it may one day lead to the closure of both Chester Zoo and Knowsley Saffari Park– so extensive is it’s selection of wildlife.

Ahh, The Printworks. Most of the time it’s ok here. There’s a great Odeon with loads of screens and some nice mainstream restaurants like Café Rouge and Wagamamas. If you’re looking to watch some football at the weekend and can’t think of where to go in town, then the pubs in the Printworks always seem to be showing the games.
Generally, the Printworks is a good place to go if you want to have a nice, mainstream, uneventful time.
But I would seriously advise avoiding it at night. Like the others have said, it’s absolute carnage at kicking out time. Just horrifically under-​dressed girls who have just been sick into their shoe eating kebab whilst smoking a cigarette and kissing a spotty chav who’s nicking her purse at the same time. Really, it’s quite terrifying and mentally scarring. Especially when you’re sober and hundreds of people around you are wasted.
Avoid it at these times!