Bars & Pubs

It's a struggle to describe Gilgamesh, a Babylonian theme bar and restaurant so screamingly over the top that it makes Kubla Khan's palace look like a bouncy castle. Accessed by escalator from the market, the carved interior is reputed to have taken 600 sculptors six months to create - and that's not hard to believe. Every surface is embellished to a disorientating degree: bronze walls depict ancient battles, pillars are inlaid with polished stones, and ceilings shape-shift in the coloured spotlights. The restaurant's retractable glass roof and inspired pan-Asian cuisine is similarly unexpected, although by the time you've weaved a path to the lapis lazuli bar you'll probably be prepared for the cocktail menu: original recipe drinks are expertly mixed and rich in eastern promise. The Ziggurat (£9.50) is fresh watermelon juice, 42 Below vodka and chilli; the Anu (£9.50) muddles Absolut Apeach, Plymouth gin, peach purée and cucumber. Prophets of doom still wail at the gates, but there's no sign of this Babylon falling in the near future.

Time Out Bars, Pubs & Clubs Guide 2008/9