Sirocco Sports Bar

On one of the more popular strips for London nightlife, shaftesbury avenue plays host to top notch theatre venues, tourist style restaurants and one or two clubs. Sirocco is a sports bar with a dark interior, built on two floors with a bar at one end. The venue charges for entry after about 10pm, the happy hour finishing an hour before this, but within it offers a selection of different heighted tables, some comfortable looking booths and the sort of crowd that had planned on a big night out but hadn’t realised that most London bars and clubs expect a dress code. Heading to the bar, we soon discover that although the cocktail menu is vast, it is also clear that the staff cannot make a cocktail to save a life. Within half an hour so many mistakes have been made with the service, from forgetting ingredients, to providing the wrong beverages, to freely giving out other customer’s card details to perfect strangers, this bar feels scarily under-managed and an evening out for those that still think its £5 price tag for a drink is a little on the steep side.

Apparently it has come under new management recently but if dancing the night away in front of a selection of plasma screens which as displaying golf, untrained bar staff and a club-like atmosphere, separated from the bustle of London outside by Venitian Blinds, is how a bar should be, then I really should get out of this game - 3/10