Time Out rating:
<strong>Rating: </strong>5/5
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<strong>Rating: </strong>3/5
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Time Out says
Tue Aug 14 2012
Opened in 2009, together with the Mark Hix-operated restaurant on the ground floor, this is a destination in its own right. It’s a subterranean speakeasy with plenty of style – low zinc bar, tin ceiling panels, comfortable Chesterfields, bar billiards table – but with precious little attitude.
Former Hawksmoor bartender Nick Strangeway celebrates the seasons on his fascinating, history-minded cocktail list, with a similar emphasis on ingredient provenance to that restaurateur Mark Hix preaches in his restaurant upstairs: you might see drinks made with the likes of Kentish redcurrants, sea buckthorn and rhubarb. Historically revived mixed drinks also feature heavily: step back to the golden age of bartending with a Criterion Milk Punch, a Scoff Law Cocktail or a Pegu Club.
The conditions of the licence mean drinkers have to order some food, either selections from the restaurant menu or lovely bar snacks (pork crackling, fennel sausage, posh fish fingers).
A second, Belgravia branch of Mark's Bar opened in February 2012 within a hotel, but closed within months.
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