Bada Bing! Strip Club

In the US mafia TV show of the Sopranos, one of the main hangouts for Tony Sopranos and his crew of hostile cronies is the Bada Bing strip joint. New Jersey’s finest, rather subtle looking topless venue where private dances can mean a lot more than abusing the no-touching rule. Tony and his crowd constantly wander round the venue conducting business and looking pretty bored at the site of the same old girls twirling their hips to the sounds of metal and rock.

Overall the Bada Bing doesn’t seem like a particularly exciting venue, the place is quite bright for a strip club but the girls are stupid and clueless and rarely play a part in attracting the punters for repeat visits, dropping to low levels for the good of the world of underground crime and dodgy activities - 4/10

Golden Lion Pub

The Golden Lion is another of the many traditional pubs in Shoo in central London. It is closer to the Shaftesbury avenue and Old Compton street end of town but draws a more mixed crowd. The place fills very quickly of a Friday night and although set on two floors the venue can begin to get cramped. Unfortunately the venue closes around midnight but access and service to the bars both upstairs and downstairs is fast and efficient. There is seating available and there is a pretty good variety of drinks behind the bar. The main complaints are the lack of space, the slightly high prices, the lack of a smoking area and the attitude of the bar staff which is rather mean-spirited, grumpy and irritated by the sheer number of people in the venue.

Overall the venue is nothing particularly special, the bar staff could be a little more friendly and the prices a little lower - 5/10

Loft Bar

A keen basement bar and disco in the centre of chester. The place has burned to the ground before but on reopening the venue is lit up with neon green lighting behind the bar and has a dark and twisted feel with industrial piping about the place. During the party season the place can get quite busy but it is never heaving and more often than not gets a reputation as a bit of a student hangout. There are only a handful of staff but they are almost always looking down in the mouth and bickering among one another. I am not sure this is the place I would stay for more than one drink, the selection behind the bar is pretty dire and the atmosphere rarely seems entertaining

Overall a generous 4/10 for what is simply a bar trying to be an itsy bitsy club.

The Grasshopper Bar and Coffeeshop

The grasshopper is a mammoth coffeeshop, bar and diner, lit up in a ghostly absinthe green in the heart of Amsterdam, just a minutes walk from Central station. Outside there are a few tables for cigarette smokers. Downstairs is the coffeeshop (mind your head) where one find a counter serving in most professional layout, soft drinks from a fridge behind and other greenery - a selection of which is on show behind a darkened glass display case. The smoking room is a large glass cage with comfortable raised booths and smaller tables dotted around the place. The venue gets quite busy all week long because of its location but the dark interior, although attractive, makes dropping and scrambling for things a little awkward. Upstairs loud music and drinking is on the cards although prices are sky high and the place is a trap for tourists too frightened to make their way in the red light district.

Overall an alluring venue for obvious reasons and a landmark without a doubt but not really my cup of tea - the bar staff are rude, the prices are far too high and only the mood inside is anything close to cool - 5/10

The Taps Bar

Hidden away, left at the intersection in the middle of enfield town is the Taps pub, an over 25’s drinking establishment which resembles an old pub except that the building is sandwiched among other less desirable shops. Inside the crowd is loud and boisterous, the ceiling is low and drinking goes on up until around 1am, later than many of the other pubs in Enfield mid-week. The staff are strict to let people in only that fit the age barrier and drinks are priced in accordance with the area with nothing particular special behind the bar, expect beer on tap, ciders, wine and spirits with mixers. The place gets so crowded at night that its hard to see what the clientele are like and one can forget trying to squeeze down to the back of the pub to find some comfortable seating.

Overall a good place to get away from youths clogging up the likes of the George down the road but just as rowdy and menacing around closing time - 4/10

Route 99 Coffeeshop

Down a narrow alleyway is one of the more friendly coffee-shops of Amsterdam. Route 99 consists of a durable glass door frontage with the main counter in the basement and the seating and smoking areas on the first floor. Taking the stairs downward there is a long room witha low ceiling and a bar on the left hand side. The bar persons all seem to be a little grumpy, not particularly happy to serve anyone and (don not ask for the hot chocolate) at times, slower than a sloth. The toilets are at the very back of this floor asking for a key but almost always open for use by customers. The first floor smoking area consists of a variety of chairs with some high stools, some booths and a heavy, well polished table in the centre, there is also a communal table at the back suitable for a big group. The walls are decorated with clever Muriel’s of aliens, dead famous folk and strange landscapes, lit up by small Christmas lights and pictures of other planets on the ceiling. In the corners are small TVs and the computers at the back for the Internet are old and have stopped functioning.

Overall we found Route 99 to be one of the lighter more relaxed places to spend an afternoon, there is no sense of paranoia or particular unfriendliness despite being an Alley-coffee shop but the goods at the bar are better bought elsewhere and the drinks are nothing special either - 7/10

The Beehive Pub

A long narrow Wetherspoons pub on Brixton high street just a very short walk from the station down towards Brixton Academy. The service at the bar (which runs most of the length of the pub along the right hand wall) is fast and as with all Wetherspoons the drinks are very reasonable prices. Unfortunately the place gets so popular when a gig is on at the popular venue down the road that it can become impossible to move inside and the crowd begins to populate the road outside despite there being a beer garden at the back alongside the toilets.

Overall the Beehive doesn’t have an incredible amount of character, you get the kind of clientele that lives and works around Brixton without the largest amount of coins in pocket so not the place to drop in for a drink on a swanky night out - 4/10

The Blue Posts

Easily one of the most popular names for pubs in London, the one sits just behind the Ritz and Green Park Station. The Blue posts is full of after work drinkers come 6pm on a Tuesday which is when I conducted my review and found that there was only one table left to sit at inside. The bar, although busy was serviced very well and I got my beers and bar nuts in within a few minutes. The drinks are quite expensive but don’t break the bank. The venue has wooden flooring and has a good cheerful atmosphere within, that is until we watch one of the suited businessman take a tumble across several tables and the crowd surrounding him uproar in laughter. It quickly becomes clear that the drinking is well funded and as the noise level rises we take our leave.

Overall a popular after work hangout in a well-to-do part of London.The place has a traditional feel to it with beer pumps and bar nuts, almost a little gastro like but I dont think it would suit food or anything less that the binge parade of the surrounding businesses - 5/10

The Diner Restaurant and Bar

Well why did no one tell me about this place before? This bar restaurant combination is how an American Diner should be done out, there are booths, cheesy American music, big cocktails and best of all, proper fat American food. Burgers chips, milkshakes, hot dogs, the works. And yet the prices are not sky high and the venue is just off of the high street. In the summer it is good for a few tables outside and in the winter the place has a queue of any lunchtime on any given day for its sheer popularity. Down side include the fact that this place is not the best kept secret and that the staff are a little on the slow side.

Overall perhaps more of a restaurant than bar but it certaionly up there as one of the best places to stop for drinks or chips on a busy shopping trip around camden - 7/10

Freud’s Cafe Bar Gallery

Freud’s Bar is a basement venue along the end of Shaftesbury Avenue. It is not immediately obvious that it is a bar until you descend the metal staircase out front and make your way down the bar. On the left as the toilets, a large and dirty, smelly room with odd shaped cubicles and wet floors. On the right is the body of the venue and for a Friday night even my jaw drops to look down upon 6 or 7 person deep bar where the grappling of hands of the crowd of many looks like a frantic stock exchange. Knowing I will have little success in this swamp of folk I have a colleague buy a drink for me as I wait by the bar entrance. The place is far too crowded and with little seating available it really is a bare minimum bar. In fact when my drink does arrive half has been lost thanks to stray elbows and I learn that the drink is poor justification for the price.

Overall popular perhaps just because it sits on the feet of covent garden but on a Friday night there is little point in coming, it is a madness that only the most thirsty dare endure - 3/10