I'm a regular customer at Niko's and it is a non-pretentious bar, indeed. If you like shisha, its the best bar with shisha in Bristol. A good selection of flavours and I hear they're getting new flavours in too.
STAFF: when you're their friend they give the best service in the world and make you feel at home there. But from what I've seen, disrespect them or the rules in the place and you could end up just getting kicked out, barred for good. Still I don't see any reason to make a fuss in such a nice place anyway.
INDOORS: Nothing fancy regarding decor, but that's what makes it non-pretentious. Various Persian, Indian, Pakistani, and other eastern...er...things adorn the walls. Plenty of seating in a spacious long room, and even a couple of bean bags and a rug you can sit down on. They could do more with the lighting and paintwork though. The bar is a bit too small on the busier nights too, so you might be waiting a while to get served.
SHISHA GARDEN: A small garden which is packed on weekend nights. You may have to wait your turn for a shisha on weekends cos of such high demand, and this wait could be up to half an hour! They will ask that only 2 people sit to 1 shisha because of the high demand for shisha and the limited seating. They will also ask you to move back inside after 45 minutes. I assume it's the only way to get as many people who want to get a turn. Oh, and you'll be asked to smoke ciggy's out front when it's this busy too :(
If you don't like waiting or being asked to move, or to rearrange your seating so as to squeeze more people onto tables, then don't go there for shisha. If only the garden was the size of indoors.
MUSIC: is awesome, though. Overall, I can only describe it as "world electro-folk fusion" with genres such as dub, reggae, house, lounge, hip-hop all being played too. more chilled in the week and upbeat on the weekends. No pop music, yay!!!
DRINKS: drinks are cheap for city centre. Do go if you want cheap spirits. But don't go if you want real beers or ales cos it's a bar. Plenty of fancy and foreign bottles of lager. They also do fairly cheap cocktails, though the quality pretty much reflects the price anyway as always with cocktails.
OVERALL: positives - Non-pretentious, nice staff, good shisha flavour and quality, wicked music, and cheap drinks.
negatives - little bit empty indoors sometimes, garden on weekend is not as relaxing as the weekdays, cocktails are very much earthly and not at all out-of-this-world. read more