Detroit Bar

So I went on a night out after work one fine Friday evening fully intent on visiting the best bars in London, so imagine my surprise to find online that fifteen minutes away from my office was one of the best bars in the world (according to one unmentioned website), I simply had to see what the fuss was about. Actually it took a few laps of Covent Garden to find Detroit bar, most of the other bar basement conversions around here do look just like this from the outside but with baited breath we edged down the steep stairs into the world below. Through heavy double doors, Detroit beyond them is a fluster of decor, stain glass windows in one corner with low table seating, booths at the far end and tunnels leading to (our eventual perch) of a submarine-like interior playing catchy ambient dance music lightly in the background. The bar is clustered with all-sorts - strange ciders, a whole cocktail menu for the absinthe influenced drinks, fridges at the bar built into the rock of the walls and a vast selection of drinks which to glare at become intoxicating. The bar staff are not too fast but then there is no queu here to speak of, the unknown den of this place reveals itself when I look round and see local drinkers, suited types and those in casual wear - no-one breaking any fashion rules or shoreditch-like charismatic crust, just simply local folk having expensive cocktails in an obscure but dare I say, tasty environment.

If this is one of the best bars in the world then I had best keep my eyes open, Detroit was pretty hard to spot and it remains largely unknown even in a place as upmarket as Covent Garden. I would eagerly go back, perhaps with more cash next time, since the experience requires it but really…something else (although I will add that a smell of dank urine hung in the air at the back of the bar and spoilt things s little) - 8/10