Aqua Bar and Restaurant

Aqua is one of my favourite London Venues. The entrance is a red curtained hallway, rather inconspicuous on Argyll street near Oxford Circus station. The lifts at the end of the hallway go up to the fifth floor where customers are met with a greeting from several hostesses before being led into a large busy room with booths and a circular bar serving up truly exotic cocktails. To the back of the room is a huge Japanese dining Kyoto with a Tokyo experience I have not seen elsewhere in London to date. To the left, a rather exciting hidden automatic doorway and beyond, a reflective floor and walls in black with a sculpture of a lion at the end of the corridor. Turning right open out in a posh dining tapas restaurant with rooftop bar and lounge outside and another for private parties around the the end of yet another bar and to the left. Rather a maze to navigate when trying to find the toilets, Aqua is reassuringly expensive and world renound for more an experience than simply a great night of drinking and dining. In particular, overlooking regents street on a summers night is enchanting.

Don’t show up later than about 7.30pm in the summer as this place gets pretty full with an after work crowd and I wouldn’t even attempt a look in at the weekend. Overall a wonderful treat, best reserved for making an impression or for true birds eye, plush cocktail decadence - 9/10