Eight Manchester cocktail bars, led by four from the UK’s Top 50

Schofield’s makes its own dry vermouth with Asterley Bros, from English grapes, and the reason to sit at its bar is the Martini it goes into, £13.95. That bar came sixth in the UK this year. Four Manchester bars made the 2026 Top 50 Cocktail Bars list, voted by more than 200 bartenders and drinks experts, and they are numbered here in its order. Four more follow unranked, each for a specific drink or plate.

How we chose: the 2026 UK Top 50 Cocktail Bars for the ranking, then the Michelin Guide 2026, the Manchester Food and Drink Awards, a Guardian review and Skiddle’s October guide.

1. Schofield’s Bar

Joe and Daniel Schofield, who are brothers, run a classics bar in the art deco Sunlight House, and the autumn menu (its 23rd edition) keeps the list short and exact: Negroni £13.95, Old Fashioned £14.95, Penicillin with a Lagavulin float £15.50. Order the Martini for the house vermouth, or take a bottle of it home for £25. It is card only.

Little Quay Street, off Deansgate · Martini £13.95 · walk-in; book for groups

2. Speak in Code

On Jackson’s Row, Speak in Code came 14th in the Top 50 and was Bar of the Year at the Manchester Food and Drink Awards in January. Its drinks are numbered as “demos”, and demo 5 is the signature: Maker’s Mark with peach, miso and a vermouth amaro, £15.50. The soundtrack is hip-hop.

Jackson’s Row, off Deansgate · cocktails £15.50–£16 · open nightly from 5pm · book

3. Blinker

Drink a Blinker first: the bar is named after the classic of rye, grapefruit and raspberry. After that the seasonal list builds each cocktail from four ingredients in season. It came 23rd.

Spring Gardens · closed Mon · walk-in

4. The Morris

Up the stairs on Thomas Street, in a room done out like the 1980s, The Morris came 42nd. The current list, Funky Vol. 2, turns sweet-shop flavours into drinks. Its best-known is a Manchester Tart, but try the Pear Drop: tequila with Midori, Lillet Blanc and clarified pear, carbonated, £13.

Thomas Street, Northern Quarter · cocktails £12–£13 · closed Mon · walk-in

Bar Shrimp

Grace Dent reviewed the Higher Ground team’s seafood bar on New York Street for the Guardian in June and called it “one of the best seats in Manchester right now, if not the entire north”. Drink the espresso martini, made with coffee liqueur from independent distillers, and eat the devilled eggs with brown crab and trout roe at £4.50.

New York Street · devilled eggs £4.50 · closed Mon–Tue · walk-in

Bar Posie

The Michelin Guide lists Bar Posie on Marble Street for 2026, unusually for a place the inspectors call “drink-driven”. It is the sister bar to 10 Tib Lane, with more than 30 cocktails and natural wines, and the prawn toast with kimchi mayonnaise (£11) is the plate to share.

Marble Street, off King Street · prawn toast £11 · Tue–Sat only · walk-in

The Fitzgerald

Open only on Friday and Saturday nights, until 4am, The Fitzgerald on Stevenson Square has served the same house smoked rum since it opened in 2014. Order that, and come late.

Stevenson Square, Northern Quarter · Fri–Sat only, 5pm–4am · walk-in

Henry C

Out in Chorlton, behind a pink and orange shopfront on Manchester Road, Henry C does negronis above all, and its house versions start from a cardamom and thyme gin. It’s the one on this list for a Sunday afternoon.

Manchester Road, Chorlton · closed Mon–Tue · book

Checked October 2026.