One of Northern Quarter's many appealing features is its own quirky vibe!. Majority of the bars have personality, great staff and a cool laid-back individual themes. Whether its Odd's oddness or Hula's tropicalness there's uber cool music paired nicely with each venue. Unfortunately Noho is arguably the exception to that rule.
Having been here three times at the weekend, I have to say the aggregate score isn't great. Admittedly the first two times were fairly pleasant with a few friends. We came to the place early on (between 10-11pm) so perhaps the atmosphere was more chilled. The last and most recent visit however left a lot to be desired.
Now firstly, I'm not overly familiar with the intricate details of the door policy at late night bars. But, I'm fairly certain it's NOT to let anyone & EVERYONE in, cramming the place so full that you involuntarily do tango with 10 people before you've even reach the bar. The music was also fairly great, if you were at an U18s disco!!
Don't get me wrong, I was a fresher once and who doesn't like Britney Spears "I'm a slave for you" played twice (too many times) in the space of an hour, but there's a time and a place. In fact, I'll go as far as saying music was fairly dreadful. Think an iPod shuffle playlist from 2001, from a chav at the back of the bus on loudspeaker!
To add insult to injury, I watched in horror as the door staff let in two guys who were blatantly way to drunk. The two gentlemen (who thought the entire world was against them) then proceeded to barge into random guys (on purpose) clearly looking for a fight. Yes, they were kicked out a few minutes later unceremoniously, but allowing them to enter in the first place displayed a blatant disregard for punters. Luckily this time nothing happened but I've previously (in a different bar) witnessed one such bloke walk in pick a fight and bottle a random innocent bystander for no apparent reason. So it could've been a lot worse as far as I'm concerned. All stemming from a very basic schoolboy door staff error.
I'm fairly certain I'll pop back into Noho at some stage as I'm a forgiving soul. Alas it probably won't be at the weekend, or at night for that matter. I sincerely hope they fix the raised issues because I actually like the decor and the large screen playing old movies. It's just a shame the door staff and DJ were extremely poor on the night I was there.
You know on a night out when something happens "outta nowhere" well it doesn't. It's probably down to a few bad choices. So in short to avoid one such bad choice, if it's 1:30am on a Saturday night, I'd probably goto Cane & Grain, Hula or even Blackdog ahead of Noho. read more