Relaxed atmosphere and almost deserted on a Saturday night. Perfect place to relax after visiting some quite busy and nosisy pubs. Great selection of Holts on bottle and a few hand pumps.

Joseph Holt pub with a fairly full range of its ales on pump and tap, but also plenty of their own bottled beer is used to decorate the area behind the bar. Their two lager brews are also available on tap as well as some of the other main lager and cider names. The pub itself is on a busy road in the city centre close to Albert Square. It’s traditional inside with tile floors and plenty of open area rooms and booths for a quiet drink and comfortable enough. Food is available.

A Holt’s pub with the standard four hand pumps – all Holt’s beers. The Ape and Apple is quite striking from the outside; with its globe lights, it’s reminiscent of a theatre. Inside it retains some original woodwork and etched glass but essentially it’s been knocked through. I imagine it was once a warren of little cubicles. When I visited early one Monday evening it was festooned with plastic union jacks. It was very quiet in the sense that there weren’t many customers – mainly lone men reading their newspapers – but the music was loud and a little intrusive. Service was slow but I was impressed that when a pugnacious man strode in and expected to be served ahead of me the barmaid was very assertive in putting him in his place. (Visited 18 June 2012).

Holts IPA and Bitter on cask. Nothing interesting on taps. Bar was almost empty on Friday night which was quite a surprise. Some experienced drinkers were enjoying their lagers. Small patio upstairs.

Centrally located Holts pub. Only Holts beers on handpump and some bottles. Not an impressive range, but if you’re not from the area, you might find something new. Nice and friendly service. Mainly inhabited by locals. Dining room upstairs serves good pub food in generous portions during lunch time. Hardly worth a journey, but worth a vist if you’re passing by.

Adult clientelle, fast service, wide range of Holt beers ensuring a few scoops for most of us. The beers are up and down, some of them very decent. Cheap beer.

Welcoming Holt’s outlet. Cheap and dead-in the city centre. Quick and efficient service. Chatty locals. A bit hit-or-miss depending on the crowd I guess, but I found the place enjoyable.

I’d not recommend fresh-faced young raters go here - it’s a rough old place (although it’s actually not that old physically) with some right dodgy customers and the usual Holts crud on draught at prices which make it uneconomic for them to brew anything worth drinking. You’d do better with the brewery tap - the Derby Brewery Arms - on Cheetham Hill.

Downtown Manchester pub is a great place to get your fill of Holt's. Not because it has the best atmosphere in the world - it's a yuppyish downtown after-work type of place, but they have all the Holt's brands (something many homelier Holt's pubs do not). This includes a surprisingly large bottled range and even some lagers, which you'd be just as well to do without. Like all Holt's pubs, the real ale is dirt cheap and tasty.