Barrio Central ("BC") is good for a chill night with friends but more for getting your drink on and not so much if you wanna bust a move.
+ Amigo Hour from 3-8pm (3-7pm on Fridays & Saturdays) with £4.50 cocktails
+ High bartender to bar space ratio = quick drink service
+ Table service for no extra charge
+ Reserve a place in advance for no charge and get queue-jumping privileges
+ Staff are very friendly and helpful
- Little floor space in the "club" for dancing
- Toilets are tiny and dirty
- No mobile phone signal in most of the place
Drinks brought to me = Awesome
A plus point was the availability of table service even though the bar was just beyond our area. I personally hate queuing for a drink as it takes away from time with my friends (which is damn precious) and then you are faced with that slight problem of how to carry everything back through the crowd. Luckily, the lovely waitresses at BC take care of all of that for you. If you start a tab, they'll give you a little square card with your table number that you can use to order your drinks rather than shouting out a name and risking others using it (it's happened before!). Minor problem is that the card is pretty damn small which means you gotta be careful or you'll lose it.
Drink Deck Suitability
Slight issue at the start as the wait staff was not familiar with Drink Deck and had to seek out a manager to get approval. We also had a bit of confusion as we were initially told that the discount would be applied to all the drinks for the night. When I went to pay at the end, I learned that BC actually intended it to be for only one round but the manager graciously agreed to apply the 30% discount to the full bill. (Note: Drinks ordered during their Amigo Hours won't qualify for the Drink Deck discount - this is noted in the Drink Deck terms as it says "not to be combined with other offers")
We had reserved the "Porch" which was at the back of the street level and fully in character with park benches, Astroturf, and a skylight ceiling which let us enjoy the sunshine to the very end. It may be a squeeze to fit the 20 people advertised, but the 15 of us managed without a problem.
The Grub, the Booze, and the Other Stuff
Food is served all night provided you've snared yourself a table. It's fairly standard Spanish/Mexican fare with the chorizo and quesadillas being the most favoured in our group. The seafood smelled a tad dodgy but not sure if that's because there was anything wrong with it or it just wasn't our thing. As one mate of mine put it, "it smells like cat food". Take what you will from that, but I won't be ordering it any time soon.
Ah the drinks. Happy Hour drinks seemed to be a little light on the booze but were very tasty. We also made our way through a selection of the main menu as the night wore on. Overall, the drinks are well conceived and tasty but the alcoholic content seemed to differ depending on which bartender you had. Those that really stood out for me were the Barrio Zombie, the Bahama Mama, and the Yummi Gummi. The biggest let down, drinkswise, was the American Pie (much like movies 2-7 of the never ending series).
The Barrio Zombie is the signature drink. Those familiar with Zombies, flaming or otherwise, know it's a potent beverage consisting of variety of rums and little else. It is served in a luchador head mug (think Nacho Libre's mask) and is big enough to give even the most die-hard American college frat boy a good buzz. At £20, it's the most expensive drink on the menu by far, but just being able to walk around and sip out of a head makes it good value.
The Bahama Mama is BC's take on a Piña Colada with dark rum, coconut rum, a bit of coffee liqueur, and finished off with citrus. Served with a pineapple garnish, the sweetness of the rum and slight bite of the coffee liqueur make this a truly tasty libation. I also got hints of caramelized pineapple which were absolutely brilliant and to top it off, this drink is served in a barrel! Yep, definitely my favourite of the night.
The Yummi Gummi is a sweet rum, pear, and lychee mix but the real draw are the handful of gummy bears used to garnish the drink. Why don't more bars use gummy bears as garnish?
I had high hopes for the American Pie but it let me down. First off, it was served in a mason jar not a metal cup as all good Juleps should be. Second, it had a small tree worth of mint plunked on top with made it taste less like whiskey and more like Colgate Total. Finally, there was so little actual alcohol and I think it actually rehydrated me and killed the buzz more than anything else. Epic fail here, BC, but your other drinks make up for it.
Overall, I liked BC and will keep in mind for a Soho haunt. I'd say it's more a place to start the night and get warmed up before going out dancing but for a Thursday night (with the specter of work the next day) it was a perfect choice. read more