Fab Cafe, Manchester

I love this place, happy atmosphere, cheap and fantastic for a saturday night out with your mates.

Fab cafe is filled with with memorabilia, games machines and people watching shows on the tv, tnmt and thunderbirds anyone?
Highlights include sitting next to a life size dalek on quiz night, eating refreshers and drinking beer and dancing wildly to 80s music. Can’t go wrong.
Friendly bar staff and crowd, it’s quieter in the week but gets busy at weekends.

When this place is full its Epic. Cheep Beer, Song Requests with the DJ and beautiful people who u dont see in other run of the mill bars in Manchester!

There is a full size Dalek in this bar.

I don't think I need to say any more.

A FULL SIZE FRICKEN DALEK.

**

This is *the place to take your geek friends. Board games, slammin' DJ, great drink prices, and did I mention the Dalek? Go, your basement dwelling buddies will thank me.

There's something wonderfully reassuring about Fab Cafe's presence on Portland Street. Seeing as I've been coming here since the tender age of fourteen, it always gladdens my heart to see that it's not been replaced by some fancy pants new bar. Or that - in the fifteen (?) years it's been open - it's not changed much. At all.

It's a gaudy, lurid, cheap and cheerful place, filled with kitschy tat and sci fi paraphenalia. There's always some kids TV show from the 1980s or B-Movie playing on the TVs situated in each corner of the bar (when I was in there the other day, they were playing that well known film classic, 'Flesh Gordon') and they have a propensity to serve up huge multi coloured (and seriously alcoholic) cocktails for the change you'll find festering away at the bottom of your purse. Oh - and if that wasn't enough, they also serve Summer Fruits Kopperberg too, a cider which tastes just like an alcoholic version of Robinson's Mixed Fruit Summer Barley water.

Being the kind of place that loves a bit of cult TV, you'll often find talks being given here by the great and the good of Sci Fi and old British television from the 1980s. The actor who played Mr. Bronson in Grange Hill used to regularly come in there to give talks prior to his death. And whilst you're enjoying their tales about their glamorous lives, you can tuck into a bowl of smash, or potato waffles served with beans and HP sauce.

For me, Fab Cafe will always be full of brilliant memories of my misspent youth, and the many happy nights I spent here with friends dancing away to silly music in even sillier outfits. It's a real Manchester institution - and I hope it always stays that way.

Really great atmosphere for a night out. Loved it.

Less lumbered with dweebs than you might expect for a place packed with who/70s/trekkie oddities-good for a long drunken chat in interesting surroundings.Not been in this year but I'd hope they still offer the bizarre and comforting bar menu.

Devoted to cult film and TV, Fab is a place where Tom Baker, Richard O’Brien and Gerry Anderson are King! This underground bar has a cool 60s style interior, crammed with ace memorabilia, retro games machines and TV screens, which flicker day and night with cult horror, fantasy and Sci-Fi, from zombie films to David Bowie’s Labyrinth. The bar itself is pretty cool too. While the drinks it offers are standard, the retro kids sweets you can choose to accompany them with are not. Refresher bar, anyone?

Fab doesn’t just appeal to my nerdy side, though. I also like going there because it has a late license that goes on until way past all the pubs are closed. So it’s perfect if you’re meeting a friend and know you’ll end up chatting until the wee small hours. It’s a good place to go for a dance too. Most nights have a DJ playing classic Indie, punk and new wave. My favourite is Dawn Acton – Coronation Street’s original Tracey Barlow!

However, it is worth saying that years of being one of Manchester’s most beloved cult bars have taken their toll on Fab. In recent years, the place has started looking a little rough around the edges, particularly the toilets! Still, when I was in there at the weekend, it looked like they were starting some refurbishment. So it could be back to its former glory already!

Many a fab night has been had in fab cafe, always a good one when meeting a mixed crowd of people. Generally a brilliant atmosphere, friendly crowd, friendly staff, top music and a bonkers backdrop which is entertaining in itself, really where else has a dalek in a bar

What is there to say about Fab Cafe?

Well, for a cheap night out - and a late one at that - it's pretty tough to beat.

Of course, with that comes a few drawbacks. Notably, the beer is not great but that's not an issue as such because really, a night in Fab is all about dancing to everything from Madonna to The Smiths. Take that as you will.

The decor is the most striking feature of the place, set just below ground level on Portland Street. It's filled with sci-fi models and cocktail arcade machines from the '80s.

It also shows cult b-movies and space flicks from the past and basically, everyone just goes there to get drunk and dance.

It's a no-frills night out that is great for groups of friends with disparate tastes in music. It's a little bit grotty but don't let that stop you.

It's mindlessly fun.

This has to be the strangest bar in Manchester, but in a good way. Decked out in sci-fi and B-movie paraphernalia, its definitely unique looking.

The vibe is very friendly, never had a bad night or experience in here. The crowd is very mixed, although it does attract some quite eccentric types. The music is….well it could be anything on really! The staff are very friendly and the prices aren’t too dear. Well worth a visit

Fab Café offers a slightly different take on a Manchester night out. Gone is the glamour, pretension or smarminess, but instead you are given a dorkified geekfest – which is actually rather nice! The décor is random, the crowd are random, the music is random – whats not to love about a night which is so contrary to so many other Manchester hotspots?

The clue is is the name. It’s not the kind of place you’d take someone for a swanky night out, but by christ it’s fun. Without fail you will come across someone dressed unsuitably in an anorak and a top hat, and no, he will not be doing it for a dare on a stag do. Rather, he will call himself a silly name and propose to you within about 20 seconds, but there will be no smarminess or malice about it and you will go away feeling bemused, rather than harrassed. Yes, such strange things do occur in a place with a dalek for decoration, but do not be afraid. If you want to dance to 80s music and scream to 'Livin on a Prayer’ without feeling ashamed of yourself, this is the place for you. Fab indeed.

Absolutly gorgeous place.
Everyone there looks like they have just come out of starwars world. The place is small and cute with a big disco ball in the middle, people are standing in groups and some are looking at the james bond movies on the tele’s
the bouncers are friendly and the drinks are cheap … try it.

Brilliant city centre bar if you like your establishments a little more 'alternative’.

Fab Cafe is like taking a trip back to your youth. There aren’t many places* where you can have a beer, sit next to a Dalek whilst watching Thundercats or Joe 90. Later on, why not have a go on the old 80’s vector graphics Star Wars game?

The original and still the best, Fab Cafe sell drinks at reasonable prices and is a great place to either start off an evening or spend the whole night there!

*There is one other place, but that’s contrived copy TV21 in the Northern Quarter which is far too try hard for my liking!

The Fab Cafe is located on Portland Street, just outside Manchester City Centre. It is a kitschy, retro bar and night club which has different themed club nights on different days of the week and a film night on Sundays.

The decor in the club is very retro with futuristic seating and lots of vintage TV and film memorabillia on the walls. They also have some retro arcade games just outside the loos.

The crowd in Fab Cafe is varied with many different types and age ranges. This creates a good vibe becase you don’t need to conform to any particular style to feel like you belong.

The place to go if you want to meet cool cult TV folks while having a good cheap pint. The staff are friendly, the clientele are warm (if mostly full of young student types) and you can gawp at the geek toys and films on offer. Or the huge gold Dalek by the DJ.

The Fab Cafe in Manchester is located on Portland Street. It is a fun and quirky place for a night out. It has a great atmosphere and the DJ plays really cool, classic music from the 80’s. They have a full size figure of a Dalek in there, which is pretty random, and lots of kitsch memorabilia around the club. My favourite memory of the Fab Cafe has to be watching The Moomins and Button Moon on the tv whilst on a night out with friends! The drinks are a little pricey but average for the city centre.

Fab Cafe is probably my fave place in Manchester. Shamefully I’ve never been here in the daytime but this place comes alive at night.

There are an amazing mix of people here, old and young and gay and straight. The bar stocks a fabulous range of drinks, none of which are overpriced.

The only word to describe the music in here is eclectic. Fab cafe is the only place I have heard RATM played straight after Mack the Knife. This place really does get going when a Manchester band is played though.

I love fab and its fabulous quirkyness. Old school cartoons on screen, old arcade games, sci-fi models - it is literally out of this world but also a good setting for a quiet beer with mates!