Boozy Lunch at Pen and Pencil Bar and Restaurant Northern Quarter Manchester

Located right in the heart of the Northern Quarter in Manchester is Pen and Pencil Bar and Restaurant. Famous for its bottomless brunches and after work drinks, its a place I was familiar with but hadn’t been before. In an effort to tackle this problem (its a hard life, right?!) I roped in two of my gal pals to combine both of these elements and try a boozy brunch at the Pen and Pencil in the Norther Quarter, Manchester. 

The Pen and Pencil sits on the corner of Hilton and Tariff Street so is super easy to find, ideal if you’re hopping off a train at Piccadilly station ready for a night out or if you’re walking in from Marker Street after a spot of shopping. The interior is cool and quirky as you would expect from the location. I absolutely love the bare brick and tiles that gives it a rustic look, and looking out over street art really adds to the experience.

After starting on some soft drinks of lemonade and iced lattes, we swiftly moved on to try some of Pen and Pencil’s famous cocktails. Some particular hits (from top to bottom) were the Apricot St Clements (a dead give away with the apricot chilling on the side of the glass), Summer Cup Spritz (a new take on a prossecco based cocktail, pictured alongside a classic white wine spritzer) and I believe a Ray’s Grapefruit Spritz. All the cocktails we tried were £8 each which is a pretty average/reasonable price for cocktails in Manchester right now and they were all delicious.

For food we tried to pick three dishes, one more unusual, one from the breakfast menu and one from the lunch menu to get a little bit of an idea of what Pen and Pencil is about! From the breakfast/brunch menu my friend went for the Cheesy Sausage Egg Sliders (£7.50) which were definitely the most photogenic of the bunch and just as delicious as they looked! From the lunch menu, I couldn’t resist the Halloumi Burger with sweet potato fries (£9) – a great vegetarian option and sooo tasty that I haven’t stopped thinking about it since! My other friend went for something more unusual, the Beetroot Falafels (£9) created from beetroot and chickpeas, making it a good vegan option too.

Over all, we had the most lovely relaxed and delicious boozy lunch at the Pen and Pencil in the Northern Quarter, Manchester, and will absolutely be taking a trip back. The interiors were beautiful, the location was ideal and the food and drinks were delicious, all with lovely friendly staff. In fact, we are looking into booking ourselves into their next bottomless brunch as we speak!