Hailing themselves as Manchester’s number one casino, my review of Manchester235 will be putting this provocation to the test. I journey into the belly of this northern city to witness firsthand and then try my hand at the games of this gambling empire. The name Manchester235 is actually written as MANCH235TER on the building. Now, you might be thinking, ‘Oh, that’s clever, the building number must be 235’. Well, it isn’t. So where 235 comes from is a mystery yet to be solved. 

In this review, I check out the games offered up by Manchester235 Casino. I also try the food, assess the quality of service, and look into what benefits (if any) are given to members and non-members at Manchester235.

Will this casino live up to its own hype and claim that number one spot? Let’s find out.

The Manch235ter Casino is at the address of 2 Watson Street within the historic Great Northern Warehouse. This is right beside the Manchester Central Convention Complex and off the corner of the Great Northern Square. Now, what I found was that Watson Street is a blink-and-miss-it type of road. It's more like a side alley which would mainly be used for delivery vans, and the casino makes full use of its own entrance off to the side of the building here. While harder to spot, this separation between the Manchester235 and the rest of the complex is a welcome one.

First and foremost, Manchester235 describes itself as a Vegas-style casino – yet it most certainly isn’t from the outside. The property is a very generic ‘warehouse turned casino’, nothing special about it sticks out when it comes to the exterior architecture, even if it is befitting of this industrious city’s history. It moulds into the surrounding urban fabric and if you didn’t know where it was, you might never find it. So don’t expect to see the words ‘casino’ emblazoned on the Mancunian skyline or anything like that.

So, what can you play at the Manchester235 Casino? For one, all the classics are here. As you’d expect, the gaming lineup includes roulette, blackjack, three card poker, punto banco (you might call it baccarat), 28 electronic roulette machines and an array of slot games for real money. So what stands out?

Impressive Poker

That’s right. This casino offers up one of the most impressive poker rooms I have been in. If you like your poker, then I strongly recommend you give this venue a go.

The poker experience at Manchester235 is elevated even further by their ability to host tournaments. Weekly tournaments take place with returns of up to £10k on the table. There are also the Big Wednesday tournaments and the 456 PLO tournament that crop up monthly. Manchester235 also hosts poker cash games, which is a first for me. Alas, this didn’t start until 6:00pm, so I never got to experience it. But I hear good things.

Slots and Newcomers

If you aren’t about table games, there’s a decent selection of 20 slot titles to choose from. Some of the top developers provide their gaming cabinets to Manchester235, including Novomatic and DoubleDown - names you'll no doubt recognise from some of the best slot sites in the UK.

If it’s simply that you’re not yet familiar with table games, then the casino does offer experience packages. Among these is a Poker Experience package, which gives you a two hour private tournament with an assigned dealer, who’ll show you all the rules and tricks of the trade as you go along.

VIP

Manchester235 does come with VIP areas. The Icon VIP Lounge is host to luxurious invite-only experiences, which is why this area offers salon privé blackjack and roulette. Tables can be privately hired right across the casino, but only up till 9:00pm each day.

Every game here is top-of-the-line. The gaming here is immaculate, and it isn’t just because Manchester235 is a new casino – it’s far from new, even among casinos alone. This is only added to by the fact there are plenty of events going on, which includes live music on a Friday and Saturday night. You can also enjoy a Burger, Beer, and Bet day out which comes at a price of £15 and does what it says on the tin. Your £5 bet chip can be used at any table. 

Some of the casino games are streamed live for an online audience. So if you can’t make it to the venue, you can still enjoy the games from the comfort of your home – or even use this to scope out the place before a visit. It’s called MLive and allows you to play roulette via the MetGaming online casino. This platform see Manchester235 twinned with the Empire Casino found in London, and like that venue, this casino also supports the Met Card. 

Manchester235 doesn’t provide any accommodation for overnight stays either, though it’s not like you’d have to look far afield in this central location. 

If you want to spend more time in Manchester and require a hotel, then the nearest options are The Edwardian Manchester, one of the two five-star Radisson Hotels nearby, The Hilton Manchester Deansgate, and The Midland. All of these are at the more upmarket end of Manchester’s hotel offering, which is a reflection of the area the casino’s in. But budget options are available a little further afield.

So I arrived at this self-described Vegas-style casino at 2:00pm on a Tuesday. It was quiet; I counted just five fellow players once I made my way into the first-floor game area. I have to say the staff were very pleasant from the get-go. Perhaps they were bored and simply dying to interact with someone, but it impressed me nevertheless. I was also offered a tour of the casino since this was my first visit. It’s an offer I declined – I prefer to show myself around – but it was nice to have been asked.

Because of the hour and perhaps the day, not all gaming tables were manned by dealers. I looked to see if they were on a smoke break, but it transpired the smoking area was outside of the front of the casino. There’s no dedicated smoking area such as a terrace within the venue.

Food and drink: When it comes to eating and drinking, Manchester235 does have a very impressive selection. The option that stands out most here is the restaurant belonging to celebrity chef James Martin. This eatery purports to serve stunning British cuisine at prices that won’t have your bank call to say suspicious behaviour has been detected on your account. Take note however that the James Martin Manchester restaurant is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Bummer really, because this meant I missed out on testing the food. 

I instead settled for the casino’s in-house alternative, the Vega Lounge. It didn’t serve plates so much as bar snacks, so I gorged on green olives whilst I sipped on my whisky and coke. Manchester235 also has an Icon VIP Lounge where cocktails are the primary order of the day. Now, if you’re hoping for free drinks like they do in Vegas, then Manchester235 will let you down. The only free things going are the entry and use of the toilets. But drinks prices aren’t unreasonable compared with what you’ll find in the area.

Interiors: I spent a total of two hours and 30 minutes inside the casino, and I couldn’t help but wander around observing how impeccably clean the venue was. It’s very plush here, and I was in awe of the original brickwork of this former warehouse. What’s nice about Manchester235 is the mood lighting. Yes, the décor is mainly modern, but the lighting tones make the floors more elegant and classier - the exact mood you want of a high street casino. I was very impressed.

Accessibility: The casino does have wheelchair access and there are disabled toilets that are clearly signposted. There is lift access to all gaming floors, so no experience will be missed. 

ATM: If you find your pockets are short of cash, ATMs are available across all three floors of this casino.

Security: it’s not until around 8:00pm that there is security at the doors. When I arrived, it was just a receptionist at the front. Throughout the three levels, exit signs are very clear and there are two main entrances and exits.

Those attending with wheelchairs can use the wheelchair-accessible car park; there is a wheelchair-accessible entrance, lift, and toilet facilities. 

So, what is the Met Card? This is a membership loyalty programme that provides benefits like exclusive invites to events – among many othet Met Card promotions. You collect Met Points as you visit participating casinos and play there, all while you receive discounts on food and drink in return. Now, this is not operated directly by the Manchester235 Casino, but it is a partnership, and the card is well integrated here. Through the MetCard App you can even book events and make table reservations in the restaurant. 

What about when it comes to direct promotional bonuses from the casino? Well, they’re non-existent. We should be used to this by now, but high street casinos up and down the country just aren’t into rewarding players who attend their venues in the same way that the most popular online casinos do.

The closest Manchester235 comes to rewarding players is through their exclusive poker tournaments. One example is their Race to Vegas poker tournament, which gives players a chance to win a travel package and play balance to the WSOP (World Series of Poker) in Las Vegas. This being the mother of all poker tournaments, to be fair.

From the outside at least, there’s little about this casino that wows. The building is a typical warehouse conversion the kind of which you’ll find right across northern cities, and it would merge with its surroundings entirely if not for the neon MANCH235TER sign out front, but even this hardly commands the street. Step inside, though, and everything changes. The warehouse comes alive, and spectacular brickwork and uplighting make this a very special venue. Suddenly that unflashy warehouse setting feels like its best asset, with a sort of character on the inside that brand new casinos could only dream of.

The place is wonderfully clean and for a casino that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Keeping it that way must be some task, especially given there are three floors to this casino. 

The ground floor hosts the poker lounge. You then have elevators, stairs, or lifts to move up from this entrance floor. The first floor is where you will find the slot, electronics, blackjack, baccarat, and roulette tables. Towards the back end of this floor is the lavish James Martin restaurant, which I did make a beeline for before being abruptly disappointed. The sports bar and events stage are also on this floor but tucked away to reduce noise, which seems right and logical as I never felt the former to be a distraction. On the final and highest floor, you can access private dining and gaming areas, along with the Icon VIP Bar. 

I have to say that all areas were in a very impressive state and I’m strangely quite glad it was quiet enough for me to explore the casino. It really gave me chance to take in its merits.

Manchester235 was very impressive. In fact, it was a slightly bitter pill to swallow given their incessant bragging of being the city’s number one casino. But credit where credit is due. This is one of the few casinos in Manchester I've been in where all fronts of a classic casino experience were delivered on. Grand, luxurious, plush, clean, and with very polite and welcoming staff. 

At the outset of this review, I stated that if you blinked, you’d miss it. The location felt a little odd to me from a business sense - but now I’ve been and seen, with it being off the main thoroughfares, it adds a mystique to the place. Like something you find through word-of-mouth. And if I were to return to Manchester I would pop in again. So, is it the number one casino in Manchester? Well, so far on my journey, I would have to say their boastful brag is highly credible. 

The challenge of today's land based casinos is to offer something the online experience can't. And put up even against the biggest digital games libraries or the best payout online casinos, Manchester235 is more than enough to tempt me away from my device screens.

If you want an idea of what Manchester235 offers and looks like, you can access the casino's main website and social media channels via X, Facebook, and Instagram.

Getting here is best done on foot, but you can get buses to drop you off either on Deansgate or on Peter Street. The nearest national railway station is Deansgate Station, a relatively trouble-free six-minute walk away. If you’re local or stopping over elsewhere in the city, you might also want to make use of Manchester’s Metrolink tram network. Most lines run through the St Peter’s Square stop, and the casino is just five minutes’ walk from there.

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