Panacea November 2, 2006
Panacea Manchester - 14 John Dalton, Manchester, M2 6JR map
- Panacea is an award winning restaurant and cocktail bar in the heart of Manchester. A basement bar below The Restaurant, Bar & Grill, the door policy is extremely selective and as a result, it’s very popular with the rich and famous. This is a great hang out to do a little celeb spotting whilst sipping an amazing cocktail, admiring the beautiful interia and soaking up the rich atmosphere.
- Cocktails
- Food
Hotels near Panacea Manchester
The Top 10 best bars in Manchester
More bars around Manchester Town Hall
| Bar managers improve this listing | Notify us of any changes |
Submit your reviews below…
What a difference a day makes!! Came here on a Friday night and had an excellent time of it - no queue to get in and enjoyed the buzzing atmosphere - lots of beautiful people and great decor. Came back on a Saturday, queued for half an hour only to then hear the bouncer say he did not know anyone in the queue and therefore no-one was getting in. What a let down. Avoid this place, people!
Please remove the CCTV footage link from your website. This is not the appropriate way to promote manchester if that is what Manchesterbar.com is for.
I don’t think that the owner of Panacea was thinking about promoting Manchester when he decided to beat the crap out of one of his customers and leave him unconscious on the pavement.
They aren’t really promoting or putting Manchester in a bad light, just showing that Panacea may not be the best place to go if you want to stay away from this sort of thugary.
ManchesterBars.com offers independent reviews of bars in Manchester - including those that pay for a featured listing. Being Mancunian’s, we try to ‘tell it like it is’ rather than fall into the PR & Marketing world of similar websites. We’d argue thats what makes us the most popular Manchester bar guide.
It’s obviously the hot debate on most Mancunian messageboards whether the place will keep its license and whether or not the celebs and the rest of us will continue to spend their money in a Joe Akka venue. By linking to the CCTV footage (on the Manchester Evening News website) we believe it allows potential Panacea customers to make their own minds up whether to spend their money there or not.
As regulars and fans of Panacea ourselves, we’re not going to comment on whether or not we will be revisiting. We would say however that this is not a pro-Akka or anti-Panacea messageboard and, like with all our pages, we will remove any messages that are not seen to be anything other than an honest bar review.
And in answer to your comments about this not being a good way to promote Manchester. We disagree - there’s over 300 bars to choose from… many of which have received more votes than Panacea as ‘Best in Town’ and none of which as far as we aware, the owner is in prison for almost killing a customer (whatever the circumstances of the night were).
Interesting debate and fantastic reply from you guys.
I was a huge fan of Panacea - it’s the closest to a chic New York or European cocktail bar I’ve found in Manchester. The cocktails are wonderful and the design of the bar is superb.
You are right to publish the video as I for one will not be returning. Especially as Joe Akka has a previous record, I refuse to give my money to such a thug whilst there are alternatives in town - Circle, Cloud 23, Obsidian, Cocoa Rooms to name but a few. Chances are, those that are defending Akka on all of these websites are the ones who’d be holding their ‘heavily abused’ nostrils up if it was the owner of Brannigans, Squares or Teasers who’d done the same.
If you’re not really interested in who gets your hard-earned money (or credit card debt), then I’d recommend Panacea - it’s a great bar and wonderful for people watching. And after all, it’s bound to be a safer place to visit whilst the manager is locked up in Strangeways!
Great comments. I was really close to booking a couple of booths for my birthday, but will probably look elsewhere. Places that operate door policies that allow small minded bouncers to decide who takes their fancy, are in a word pathetic. Brasingamans in Alderley Edge did a similar thing and are now in liquidation.
Sadly Cocoa Rooms is being refurbished at the moment, but I will check out the other suggestions.
Many thanks
Rick
Funny you should mention Brasingamens.
It’s just been bought by none other than, erm…
Joe Akka.
You may want to contact Cloud 23 at the Hilton as a great alternative. As long as you’re dressed smartly, door policy is not as picky, however expect to queue as it’s table service…
See http://manchesterbars.wordpress.com/2006/11/07/cloud-23/
Brasingamans in alderley edge is actualy now turning into a panacea!
chavy people in the queue , chave doormen.
overpriced cocktails (too much ice btw). so disappointed.
I have read the above comments and must say it does give me a little concern that the owner of a bar would do this to one of his patrons, but this is a purely independant view of a bar which i have only visited once and i must say it was a pleasure being in there. This bar managed to pack in celebs and well known faces from sport, televion and music without the air of pretentiousnes that sometimes follows with a bar of this type. It was a very relaxed atmosphere inside and happily drunk away the night chatting to anyone that would hold a conversation with me. This bar would definately be on my return list and in fact i am toying with the idea of spending my christmas eve in there. All that said it really is a shame about the owner/manager doing what he did.
I have read what people have to say and i have watched the image and i will not be going to Panncea.
I am out in manchester on Sat 15th Dec with my freind and we were looking for somewhere different, but after reading all the comments i can say i WILL NOT be going I do not want to give my money to a THUG!
yep, i saw the small chavvy bouncer hold a man to a wall below the stairs while the other chavvy bouncer punched the man. then they laughed about it. We were disguisted.
After reading all of the above l will add few comments, firstly my boyfriend and his friends went to Panacea for a night out and for some unknown reason to them, a number of the door staff decided to drag one of them out and repeatedly punch him outside whilst the other door staff watched.. Please ask yourself, if this is how the door staff act, then what would happen if a REAL fight broke out (l think they would love it and watch in glee), no-one in my eyes is safe in the place.
How is it possible for Joe Akka to be able to manage this club and not only that take over another and manage / own that as well??
Please do try the Sky Bar in the Hilton, l read a lot of mixed reviews but decided to try it myself in September and enjoyed it a lot. I tried to book a table but theres a long waiting list, so went on a Friday at about 6pm after a couple and a bite to eat in the Living Room. We waited no longer than 10 minutes at the very most and was taken up by the only lift for the bar and sitted. Prices are a little expensive but nothing totally shocking, beer is about £4.50 a bottle but wine and spirits a lot more. One point - if your meeting people in there and they are waiting downstairs, you just tell a memeber of staff and they get to queue jump.
So - yes l will also be staying away from Panacea and spending my money in places like Living Room/ Sky Bar / Press Club, rather than funding what seems like a place that gets you to spend your money and you get a smack on the nose for your trouble.
P.s - when you watch the CCTV footage, have a look at the lad stood in the queue who for some reason is getting OFF on Joe Akka punching the customer yet the females stood there seem to be some what mortified… So with people like that stood in the queue, it speaks volumes of what sort of venue Panacea is!
Me and a friend popped in here one evening after a ball thinking we could treat ourselves as we were very dressed up! Ugh what a horrible place, most of the women looked cheap and nasty. complete wag wannabes and as for the men, they all seemed to be wearing hidious shirts in some shade of pink and a spray tan! Not my kind of place at all, if you want plush surroundings and nice mix of people i’d reccomened room everytime!
I am planning on going to Panacea next thursday with some friends from out of town. They have heard a lot about it and want to check it out. Will it be crowded, do I need to get on the guest list? If so, how?