We travelled to the bar on purpose, to see how the hype and reputation for ourselves. Amazing job taking what must have been a far out disused shop into such a highly ranked cocktail bar. That story I would like to hear more about. But.... The bar has a daily menu, a blend of house specials and classics. Almost 30min total. Hint: less is more. The menu is hard to read and hard to chose from. Simply having 12 seasonal drinks (or monthly if you m ust would be more than enough. And this long menu mens the cocktails end up being not that special. The room is nice, eclectic, without any particular style. Would we come back? No.
Krisbyman
Recommended by another waitress at another bar, the "bar staff's favourite bar". We went late, we were still given a table, nice & chilled vibes, bar staff & waiting staff were very friendly, everybody in the place was cool no pretentiousness, we had a couple of drinks & said we'd definitely go there again.
Georgia Blackburn
Far too loud, sat right next to other folks practically in their personal space and unable to hear anything, music did not fit the vibe and was far too loud, the server kept making sly comments as we hadn't been there before and the candle kept going out...kept coming over to constantly refill our water and rearrange our table. All of the drinks were very boring and uninventive, also portion sizes were disappointing considering the price and wait time, after 1 drink we decided to leave as we were extremely uncomfortable and this was made difficult by our server as if it was impolite, I explained we aren't much of a drinker and were only visiting but that clearly wasn't good enough.Seriously do not recommend this bar for anyone, even if money is not an issue, its not a good venue and you would be better suited literally anywhere else.
Joe Gleave
Cool and quirky cocktail bar. The decor and atmosphere is great, as are the drinks. The two times I have been however there have been issues with service where we made an order and they forgot to bring it until we chased it up. The staff were nice about it though, I think they just honestly forgot because it was so busy and it was bad luck. Usually very busy here because it is understandably popular.
Harry King
Amazing staff, amazing service and amazing drinks. Popped in mid week and the bar was absolutely buzzing. Managed to get a seat at the bar and spotted Sipsmith on the back bar which I absolutely love. I mentioned that I love a Gin Martini and Emilio proceed to pull out a bottle of Sipsmith London Dry from the freezer to produce the finest Dry Martini. Easily had the best seat in the house to witness Emilio and the team provide a world class service to all customers. Their attention to detail and commitment to delivering a quality service is unrivaled. 10000/10
Charlotte McCann
This is a hidden gem! Accidental find and was amazing! Service was excellent, atmosphere was great and cocktails were out of this world. Two very talented mixologists who could be working in any bar in the world.
Vee
Maybe I just had too many expectations for this spot, after a rec from another London bartender and its ranking as #1 on the list of London's 50 best cocktail bars (all issues with that list aside, it can be a rough guide starting point for the curious drinker).I'm not entirely sure why this is London's best. Nothing about it was particularly creative or outstanding. They just rehash other people's cocktails.The one female bartender was super nice; the others seemed entirely indifferent to everybody.The menu, which allegedly changes daily for some reason, is pretty lengthy, so I'm sure there's something for most everybody. To me, there are just too many options and seems needlessly long, especially if it changes daily. So many of the options seem very basic, and none are created in-house. They are all existing cocktails easily found online. Not even riffed on. Just taken straight from online recipe databases. Not a signature on the list.I, too, can steal an online recipe from Diffords or Imbibe and put it on my menu.Truly embarrassing and lazy for a cocktail bar with such a reputation to be doing this so brazenly and shamelessly, and not even bothering to do it well.After having a few drinks prior to coming here I decided upon a long drink as they're generally a lower total ABV and also, if a bar can make a long drink really unique and still taste the spirit, to me it's the sign of a solid mixology/bar program. So many long drinks just taste like watered-down juice. My go-to is normally (twists on) traditional cocktails or short, spirit-forward offerings but I am always open to any drink, long or short if it's made well.Sadly, the cocktail I chose, despite having promising ingredients listed, ended up just tasting very generic. If I hadn't read the spirits in it, I never could have picked them out by taste alone. It was somewhat bland. No oomph to it, and certainly no wow factor I would have expected for a bar that is ranked Number 1.Mediocre cocktail aside, the vibe was... hipster. Totally expected for this place, even though it is quite far from the trendy Shoreditch area. Same sort of crowd as there. The music was obnoxious. I don't mind a little hip hop but this was... I don't know. I guess I don't get it. Nothing about the venue, decor, ambience, or menu screams "exclusively playing extremely loud hip-hop!" I don't think I saw a single person of colour in there either. Again, pretentious hipster posturing. Typical Shoreditch.I liked the space otherwise, and it has a nice enough backbar and staff seem to know what they're doing, but it was all rather lacklustre and something about the overall vibe just wasn't hitting the right notes for me.The fact they have basically no signature bar program and all their drinks are yanked from Diffords guide online is ridiculous. And fair play if they want to just make classics and existing cocktails but do them WELL. But.. they haven't even managed that. The only selling point here is that for London, the prices are very reasonable. But then, if I'm getting a drink that tastes like it barely has 30ml of spirits in it, maybe it's not so reasonable.Maybe stop focusing on the novelty of changing a massive drinks menu daily and focus on building some unique and interesting, and lasting, cocktails instead. I can only assume that the bar manager/bar team doesn't know how to develop cocktails. Or even put a twist on them.This is a completely average bar serving completely average drinks with completely average staff in a completely average venue. I didn't dislike it. I just was not impressed, and I really should have been considering its reputation.It's a shame. Why this bar has such a high ranking or good reviews is an absolute mystery to me.
J G
Best cocktail bar I've been too in London. Excellent customer service and an amazing atmosphere. Highly recommended especially if you have a date.
RPH81
A great experience! The menu is terrific and changes daily. The bartenders make clever and tasty cocktails. They’ll also make your traditional favorite, hoping it’s the best you’ve had. The Manhattan is great, but be sure to try others. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable. The interior is kind of whacky, which makes this place great. Enjoy!
Aïdid Elmi Djibril
Great neighbourhood bar in East London with a great selection of drinks. Great service and hospitality too
The drinks are delicious, the atmosphere's great, the friendly and professional staff know their stuff. It's on the main road but the shop front is unobtrusive, and so it feels nicely secluded and off the beaten track. Far better than your corporate bar chains. Very much looking forward to coming back.
JC1991x
The drinks are delicious, the atmosphere's great, the friendly and professional staff know their stuff. It's on the main road but the shop front is unobtrusive, and so it feels nicely secluded and off the beaten track. Far better than your corporate bar chains. Very much looking forward to coming back.
Joe Burton
Incredible, the most welcoming staff, incredibly knowledgeable and accommodating bartender, delicious drinks, the nachos were really good too! SURPASSES the hype :)
Will Lamb
Great little bar. The menu changes super regularly and seems to be a mix of classics and signatures. Impeccable vibe. Very reasonably priced at ~£10 a cocktail + service.
Stephanie S
Came here after hearing how great it was and it did not disappoint. Great service. Fantastic cocktails and the little hummus board was banging! Will definitely be back :)
We travelled to the bar on purpose, to see how the hype and reputation for ourselves. Amazing job taking what must have been a far out disused shop into such a highly ranked cocktail bar. That story I would like to hear more about. But.... The bar has a daily menu, a blend of house specials and classics. Almost 30min total. Hint: less is more. The menu is hard to read and hard to chose from. Simply having 12 seasonal drinks (or monthly if you m ust would be more than enough. And this long menu mens the cocktails end up being not that special. The room is nice, eclectic, without any particular style. Would we come back? No.
Recommended by another waitress at another bar, the "bar staff's favourite bar". We went late, we were still given a table, nice & chilled vibes, bar staff & waiting staff were very friendly, everybody in the place was cool no pretentiousness, we had a couple of drinks & said we'd definitely go there again.
Far too loud, sat right next to other folks practically in their personal space and unable to hear anything, music did not fit the vibe and was far too loud, the server kept making sly comments as we hadn't been there before and the candle kept going out...kept coming over to constantly refill our water and rearrange our table. All of the drinks were very boring and uninventive, also portion sizes were disappointing considering the price and wait time, after 1 drink we decided to leave as we were extremely uncomfortable and this was made difficult by our server as if it was impolite, I explained we aren't much of a drinker and were only visiting but that clearly wasn't good enough.Seriously do not recommend this bar for anyone, even if money is not an issue, its not a good venue and you would be better suited literally anywhere else.
Cool and quirky cocktail bar. The decor and atmosphere is great, as are the drinks. The two times I have been however there have been issues with service where we made an order and they forgot to bring it until we chased it up. The staff were nice about it though, I think they just honestly forgot because it was so busy and it was bad luck. Usually very busy here because it is understandably popular.
Amazing staff, amazing service and amazing drinks. Popped in mid week and the bar was absolutely buzzing. Managed to get a seat at the bar and spotted Sipsmith on the back bar which I absolutely love. I mentioned that I love a Gin Martini and Emilio proceed to pull out a bottle of Sipsmith London Dry from the freezer to produce the finest Dry Martini. Easily had the best seat in the house to witness Emilio and the team provide a world class service to all customers. Their attention to detail and commitment to delivering a quality service is unrivaled. 10000/10
This is a hidden gem! Accidental find and was amazing! Service was excellent, atmosphere was great and cocktails were out of this world. Two very talented mixologists who could be working in any bar in the world.
Maybe I just had too many expectations for this spot, after a rec from another London bartender and its ranking as #1 on the list of London's 50 best cocktail bars (all issues with that list aside, it can be a rough guide starting point for the curious drinker).I'm not entirely sure why this is London's best. Nothing about it was particularly creative or outstanding. They just rehash other people's cocktails.The one female bartender was super nice; the others seemed entirely indifferent to everybody.The menu, which allegedly changes daily for some reason, is pretty lengthy, so I'm sure there's something for most everybody. To me, there are just too many options and seems needlessly long, especially if it changes daily. So many of the options seem very basic, and none are created in-house. They are all existing cocktails easily found online. Not even riffed on. Just taken straight from online recipe databases. Not a signature on the list.I, too, can steal an online recipe from Diffords or Imbibe and put it on my menu.Truly embarrassing and lazy for a cocktail bar with such a reputation to be doing this so brazenly and shamelessly, and not even bothering to do it well.After having a few drinks prior to coming here I decided upon a long drink as they're generally a lower total ABV and also, if a bar can make a long drink really unique and still taste the spirit, to me it's the sign of a solid mixology/bar program. So many long drinks just taste like watered-down juice. My go-to is normally (twists on) traditional cocktails or short, spirit-forward offerings but I am always open to any drink, long or short if it's made well.Sadly, the cocktail I chose, despite having promising ingredients listed, ended up just tasting very generic. If I hadn't read the spirits in it, I never could have picked them out by taste alone. It was somewhat bland. No oomph to it, and certainly no wow factor I would have expected for a bar that is ranked Number 1.Mediocre cocktail aside, the vibe was... hipster. Totally expected for this place, even though it is quite far from the trendy Shoreditch area. Same sort of crowd as there. The music was obnoxious. I don't mind a little hip hop but this was... I don't know. I guess I don't get it. Nothing about the venue, decor, ambience, or menu screams "exclusively playing extremely loud hip-hop!" I don't think I saw a single person of colour in there either. Again, pretentious hipster posturing. Typical Shoreditch.I liked the space otherwise, and it has a nice enough backbar and staff seem to know what they're doing, but it was all rather lacklustre and something about the overall vibe just wasn't hitting the right notes for me.The fact they have basically no signature bar program and all their drinks are yanked from Diffords guide online is ridiculous. And fair play if they want to just make classics and existing cocktails but do them WELL. But.. they haven't even managed that. The only selling point here is that for London, the prices are very reasonable. But then, if I'm getting a drink that tastes like it barely has 30ml of spirits in it, maybe it's not so reasonable.Maybe stop focusing on the novelty of changing a massive drinks menu daily and focus on building some unique and interesting, and lasting, cocktails instead. I can only assume that the bar manager/bar team doesn't know how to develop cocktails. Or even put a twist on them.This is a completely average bar serving completely average drinks with completely average staff in a completely average venue. I didn't dislike it. I just was not impressed, and I really should have been considering its reputation.It's a shame. Why this bar has such a high ranking or good reviews is an absolute mystery to me.
Best cocktail bar I've been too in London. Excellent customer service and an amazing atmosphere. Highly recommended especially if you have a date.
A great experience! The menu is terrific and changes daily. The bartenders make clever and tasty cocktails. They’ll also make your traditional favorite, hoping it’s the best you’ve had. The Manhattan is great, but be sure to try others. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable. The interior is kind of whacky, which makes this place great. Enjoy!
Great neighbourhood bar in East London with a great selection of drinks. Great service and hospitality too
Restaurantji Recommends
The drinks are delicious, the atmosphere's great, the friendly and professional staff know their stuff. It's on the main road but the shop front is unobtrusive, and so it feels nicely secluded and off the beaten track. Far better than your corporate bar chains. Very much looking forward to coming back.
The drinks are delicious, the atmosphere's great, the friendly and professional staff know their stuff. It's on the main road but the shop front is unobtrusive, and so it feels nicely secluded and off the beaten track. Far better than your corporate bar chains. Very much looking forward to coming back.
Incredible, the most welcoming staff, incredibly knowledgeable and accommodating bartender, delicious drinks, the nachos were really good too! SURPASSES the hype :)
Great little bar. The menu changes super regularly and seems to be a mix of classics and signatures. Impeccable vibe. Very reasonably priced at ~£10 a cocktail + service.
Came here after hearing how great it was and it did not disappoint. Great service. Fantastic cocktails and the little hummus board was banging! Will definitely be back :)