Time Out has teamed up with tastelondon to offer you a fantastic one month free trial
-
Electric Bird Cage
-
-
-
By Sharon O’Connell
The distinctively theatrical hand of bar and club designer Shaun Clarkson - responsible for Covent Garden's Denim, La Pigalle and countless other opulent interiors - is strikingly evident in his latest bar design. The Electric Bird Cage is clearly intended to be a style destination per se, rather than just a watering hole and its decor - a mix of contemporary Chinoiserie and Jeff Koons-ish kitsch - exudes the kind of idiosyncratic taste that has become Clarkson's trademark.
Visitors are greeted at the entrance before being ushered in to the main room, which is dominated by a dramatic, black and cream carousel bar beneath a high and elegant red stucco ceiling and featuring matching banquettes and cushions ranged around the matt black-painted walls, plus glass-topped turquoise tables with companion wicker stools. Guarding the entrance to the elegant, larger rear room (closed on quiet nights, as when we visited) are two huge, snarling panthers cast in black polymer, and beyond them, a display case full of painted wooden birdcages.
On a relaxed Monday evening the staff outnumbered the customers, but there was Barbara Windsor: downstairs in the women's toilets, her youthful monochrome portrait in a triptych that looms over two turquoise seats cast in the shape of upturned hands.
The drinks menu - which offers everything from green tea to beers, wines, champagnes, premium spirits and exclusive cocktails - is as imaginative as you'd expect of such a classy joint. Alongside the classic mint Mojito, there's also a coriander version, while the Frozen Vanilla Honey Bee (Absolut Vanilla, Kahlúa, Bailey's, honey liqueur Bärenjäger and vanilla ice cream) proves the venue's eccentricities aren't restricted to décor. To eat, there's a mix of oriental nibbles and dim sum. The sole sour note is struck by the music, a grisly (if mercifully quiet) mix of Café del Mar-style 'chill-out' and Chinese coffee-table pop. Even Babs would know that's far from hip.Time Out London
Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.
|
|
Advertisement
Details
- 11 Haymarket, Piccadilly, SW1Y 4BP
- Area: Piccadilly
- Tel: 020 7839 2424
- Category: Bars & Pubs
- Travel: Piccadilly Circus tube
- Times: Open Mon-Wed 12noon-11pm; Thur, Fri 12noon-4am; Sat 5pm-4am
Map
Most viewed bars & pubs
Date of the day
fialka
The clever kind girl searches for friends, and the love can also. I a lot of time was lonely. And so I wish to find the prince. Write to me...
|
|
More ways to enjoy Time Out
-
Weekly London newsletter
The best of London in your inbox
-
Time Out Widgets
|
|
Hello I went to this club and it was lamus.
Don't even bother going here. It's just a waste of time - the staff here are on a power trip - even the cloak room attendant has an attitude. I've never seen such miserable staff at any other club in London. With our economy being so bad at the moment I believe they should try and encourage customers to come back. There are so many better places to go to in London so please don't go here, it doesn't deserve our money!
I have to agree with all the other 1 star reviews. This place is terrible, and seem to deliberately seek to employ bar staff with a bad attitude, who seek to make problems for the sake of making problems.
The sort of place that makes me just want to say to the bouncers, "You were bullied as a kid, weren't you."
This is a horrible place; rude, jumped-up, self-important door staff; preening, 'look-at-me' clientele (mostly perma-tanned wannabe WAGs who look as if they're likely to spend a good part of the night in the loos, chucking up the calories in the mediocre cocktails they've consumed); overpriced drinks; in a nutshell, a tacky, characterless, cramped little bar - the Jordan of the bar world, if you will.
The place is full of cliches and caricatures - stick-thin women wanting to be seen and throwing dirty looks at anyone they consider better looking, gangster-wannabe men, grinding with hapless girls, bouncers who think they're professional boxers, and cloakroom staff who are so rude, you do wonder if it's all a joke and you're on candid camera.
All in all, a hideously pretentious place, full of people who are trying to convince themselves that it's great to be spending a Saturday night paying through the nose to be treated like dirt. I fail to see how anyone with any self-respect or powers of judgement could enjoy themselves at this hole. Avoid if you value your free time.
wowowowo nice place!!
The drinks are not that spicy cocktail verrrry good.
Ill go back 10/10
Who would go to this kind of bar on a Monday night? Many places do unusual nights Mon-Thurs, this is hardly typical of a Thurs/Friday/Saturday night.
Fantastic! Amazing decor, heavenly cocktails, great music and DJ's. All a perfect night. Definately a 'Classy Joint'.
Just awful, don't go. I have to agree with the comments about the staff especially the bouncers. They are appalling to the point of comedy. There are so many other good places to go nearby, just don't take the risk here. hopefully it won't last long. I wish we'd vote with our feet and not allow places with such bad service to stay in busness, you just can't be so rude and stay in business in London today - surely?!
Pretentious. The interior is now dated and gave me a headache. It also looks a little worn out/ scruffy now. Nice bar staff though.
Please Please Please do not waste your cash /time on this place. I booked my sisters 30th birthday party 7 weeks in advance . 5 days before the party they confirmed the guestlist to only be told the day before they could only allow 10 people from my guestlist of 25 !!. To make things worse the manager Yassin would not return my calls to explain why they did this to us the day before !. Do not trust this place with your booking.