Bars & Pubs

Moose Bar
By Richard Ehrlich
I can't imagine anyone not liking this place. The latest venture from the Vince Power Music Group, opened late last year, is a rarity in the West End: cosy, reasonably priced, and with décor that's simultaneously eccentric and inviting. There are two spaces: a small ground-floor bar and a much larger downstairs bar with DJs six nights a week. The decorative motif is that of a ski lodge in the Canadian Rockies, big pictures of which grace the walls. Antlers adorning the ceiling lights and cowhide on the seating downstairs complete the rugged, rustic look. At 7.30pm on a Monday both rooms were pleasantly quiet, perfect for a pre-dinner drink.

We stayed upstairs and drank a pair of cocktails that were fine, in the case of a daiquiri made with three-year-old Havana Club, and excessively vermouthy, in the case of a Beefeater martini. But our charming bartender offered to make a new 'tini when told of the fault. And we had no complaints about pricing. The extensive cocktail list is £6.50, or £8.50 for champagne cocktails, and happy hour from 6 to 9pm offers ordinary cocktails at a delightfully cheap £3.75.

The food menu was being changed at the time of writing, but it will feature a few pies plus finger-food items served until 10pm. The attractions make the Moose a beautiful beast, whether for a late-night thrash on the dance floor, or just an early-evening libation at bargainissimo prices.
Time Out London Issue 1912: April 11-17 2007

See also
Late-night bars and pubs in London

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Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.

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Posted by Gareth Barber (registered user) on 13 Jan 2008 01:29
There are no words to describe how bad this bar is. Do not go there. The bar is ridiculously understaffed, and its nigh on impossible to get served. The bar staff are generally quite good and they try their best in difficult circumstances (i.e. two bar staff in the downstairs bar on a saturday night and 100 people trying to get served). What really kills this bar though is the bouncers. We reserved a part of the bar for a birthday party and brought over fifty people into the bar. In spite of this though, we were treated terribly by the bouncers. They had given us a designated area, but no matter where we stood in our area we rudely pushed and cojoled bouncers (despite standing in the area they had assigned to us). I will never go back and would warn anybody else about going there. Rude staff and expensive drinks are not a good recipe for a night out.

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Posted by Andy Smith (registered user) on 01 Nov 2007 23:05
Pretty small poxy bar really. Amazed it achieves such high scores from other users. The upstairs area is very small and people have to constantly push past to get to the downstairs area which is bigger, but not much.
DJ tunes are intrusive upstairs (even though the DJ is downstairs) and tables are mostly reserved.
It feels poor, with little spent on the interior. The photos on TimeOut are very generous.
The atmosphere is the worst part. Not a good relaxing place to chill out which is what I was expecting given the reviews/ratings. More of a pre-club type place that's going to come alive much later in the evening.

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Posted by Fiona Collett (registered user) on 02 Oct 2007 19:01
I went to the Moose Bar Last night and their Happy Hour on a Monday is now 5pm - 11pm...doesn't get much better than that!

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