Last night after an amazing trip to the Greenwich Union (see my previous review) I met up with my best pal from my childhood to celebrate his birthday with a little bit of food and some drinks .
As we went on a Monday night it was absolutely dead inside there was just our table (around 10 people) and two members of staff, Although I had eaten earlier I was still hungry! When I arrived I went straight for the menu, which I have to compliment as it was very comprehensive with about 4 pages of cocktails and quite an extensive range of beers (quite hard to find decent beers in bexleyheath so points there for Zingara) so first off I ordered an Estrella and I asked for the bartender to come to the table as they offered their own type of ice tea but I hat wanted a stirred ordinary Long Island which he was more than happy to do and seemed to really want to engage in conversation about some drinks offering his recommendations ( I have to be honest a he seemed rather over-qualified to work there) I then went on to order an appetiser of fried calamari and a main of paella. I was just leaving my seat to go for a cigarette when the waitress came over to inform me that they were out of Estrella ... I wasn't to bothered I understood as it was a Monday so maybe they were hit hard over the weekend as Estrella probably is the most popular beer they have to offer so I asked for her to surprise me with any other "decent" beer they had.
So I'm outside in their smoking area , unlike most bars of this style their smoking area is out front but it's not in a bad location and who doesn't love a little bit of people watching. The whole area is fitted with powerful electric heaters and in the middle of the wall connecting to the inside there is a fire covered by a glass screen which maintains heat brilliantly, although I was bemused by their use of half of a bathtub with a cushion fitted inside as a sort of sofa and a tombstone as a table but it was different, which is always good.
When returning from my smoke I was greeted by a 10/10 quality Long Island ice tea, a beer named "modelo" and a friendly bartender who seemed rather proud of his work. Shortly after sitting down a waitress brought over our appetisers. I was a little disappointed by my plate of around 5 fried calamari I've never seen a portion so small but I assumed the taste would make up for it... But it didn't. They tasted suspiciously of "brakes" or "3663" style food so I was very disappointed as far as starters were concerned. From this point I'm gonna jump straight ahead to the mains ... 8 dishes were brought out so myself and my friends sister were left without a plate in front of us which we questioned. The waitress came over to inform us that my friends sister's food was coming but what was much worse was that she had to admit to me that she forgot to even order my food and that if I still wanted the paella it would take 45 minutes so I settled for a Tennessee burger instead. The bartender brought over a small bowl of about 8 complimentary chips to make up for this mistake which to be honest really wasn't a make up gesture at all as most places wouldn't charge for the replacement meal or offer an entire complimentary round of drinks for the whole group but instead I was offered a tiny handful of chips. When the burger arrived it was very mediocre jut a standard wetherspoons style burger, there's not really much to say about the burger other than that as with most "spoons" style food it was pretty tasteless and dry.
All in all the venue is brilliant and wonderfully decorated , but I have to be honest and recommend that they stick to being just a bar offering just a small snack menu or something containing just simple bar food such as olives etc. I would definitely go back but only for drinks and the scenery.
Sorry there are no pics but to be honest it was very dark inside and my phone battery was low as I had been out for the entire day. read more
