Our Story
A little corner of
Denmark on Oxford Road
kro/kʁoːˀ/ · Danish
A village inn: honest food, good beer, and a warm welcome for everyone who walks in.
KRO began when the Ruby family, originally from Jutland, took over the old Manchester Temperance Society building in the 1990s and opened its doors in 1999. Father and son are both chefs. One once ran Manchester's ground-breaking Danish Food Centre, the other cooked aboard the QE2, so the Danish cooking here is the real thing.
The Grade II-listed Victorian villa, restored by architects Stephenson Bell, keeps its all-glass frontage, wood panelling and communal tables. Beer gardens front and back, a room upstairs for gigs, and light pouring onto Oxford Road.
Café by day, lively bar by night. The Danes have a word for it: hygge. Cosy, unhurried and genuinely welcoming.
Established 1999
Authenticity, guaranteed by the family who cook it.
- A restored Grade II-listed former Temperance Society villa, with an all-glass front.
- Opposite the University Students' Union, perfect before a show at the Academy.
- A Danish kitchen alongside ever-changing local & continental beer, with a commitment to cask.
- An upstairs room that becomes one of Manchester's most intimate live venues.