Barre Noire Montcalm Hotel

After spending a thoroughly romantic day in London with my better half there is the always the allure of having a drink in the hotel bar before retiring to bed and the Montcalm hotel was no exception. The Barre Noire Bar is rather a spectacle. Inside the venue is very quiet but the draping dark fabrics, up-lighting and intimacy of the venue is very rarely captured with such quality and it certainly sets the mood. At the empty bar, exotic cushioned bar stools sit, unattended. One other couple in the corner of the venue are the only other faces present on this Saturday evening and we are pleasantly surprised to get the nod from the bar man to take seats and recieve table service from him as he built complex cocktails behidn the shimmering bar. Now comes the part in the tale where I tell you about my only celebrity sighting to date in a bar. On this rainy autumn evening the next entrants to the bar were Charlotte Church and Gavin Henson, deep in concentrated discussion and heading for the table next to the one we had selected. I shut my mouth to let my girlfriend overhear the best of their conversation which honestly broke the romantic mood of the venue. A little star struck by the entrance of a a music celebrity of journalistic recognition, we pay little attention to the high quality of our drinks, as the couple storm out again some twenty minutes later.

I wasn’t actually hugely surprised to see a famous couple in a venue like this - the drinks are priced to reflect the quality and I almost felt suited to wearing a new suit of manners just to be present. In that way the bar was uncomfortable and with so few people on a Saturday evening, not for those that are looking for a good night out - 7/10