Experimental Cocktail Club

The door staff have so much attitude and arrogance and this means I'll never go to this bar again. I had birthday drinks here and despite emailing to explain there would be 12 people coming they didn't let half my friends in so we went elsewhere. That didn't make me feel great!

Also, we were told that the owners were going to be there that night so they would want our table and we'd have to move - what happened to the customer comes first.

A horrible place! I hope it closes down.

Great venue, good cocktails and nice crowd!
You should go...

Found this place to be disappointing and not that far from the experience of any other bar . To be honest ... It's not even that far off The atmosphere of a weatherspoons.

Came on a Wednesday at 11:00, my friend and I were allowed straight in. At the top of the stairs we were told there was a charge of £5 per person, despite asking for this to be added to our tab, I was told this wasn't possible. After paying and looking for our own table, we discovered there wasn't one. We joined two friends at their table. And were suprised to find that no one took our order at the table. After waiting more than 5 minutes at the bar , someone took our payment and we sat down and the drinks were delivered. For the price, the cover charge and the atmosphere I would stay well clear and go to Freud on Shaftesbury avenue or The Night Jar on Old st.

Wanted to have my birthday party in style - it turned up to be a hell of a party. Couldn't get my friends in as they wanted to keep customers capacity to a minimum, even though it was empty by 9 o'clock on a Sunday.

Claire (from the reservation) she knew about the whole situation and she could have prevented me to experience this humiliation.

The waitress asked me hundred times to open a tab, because it would be easier for her not to take one by one payments....Fair enough!! but they really need to understand customers needs. Plus she doesn't seem to be professional!!!

When two of my friends approached the bouncer and mentioned my name, the bouncer seemed to be irritated as I was bringing too many people (15 people all together) and both parties were arguing. Obviously he didn't let them in and I had to move the party somewhere else.

HUMILIATING!!!!

The doorman is a bit of a fruit loop, but I guess that is deliberate. Felt like I was in the middle of Catch 22 when trying to establish whether I could go in to wait for my friend:
"Well I can't guarantee your friend will get in".
"Ok so I'll get him to call me so I can come down".
"Yes, but if I don't have capacity when he turns up he can't get in".
"Errr, I'll save him a seat".
"How do I know you've saved him a seat".

It was worth it though, great cocktails, super friendly bar staff, great music & atmosphere. We stayed all night, loved it.

We visited at the weekend, having booked a table in advance via email to Claire who was friendly, helpful and efficient in arranging our booking. The bouncer was nice and welcomed us. It transpired the second floor bar was closed so the first floor bar was crowded and there were no tables. We were greeted by the masseuse who was welcoming and friendly and were acknowledged with a glance and ignored by the bar staff as we entered. We were led to the waitress who was flustered and busy, she told us to go upstairs as our table was not available in the main bar. We happily complied, one of our party did not want to squash amongst the busy bar area and stand so we did not enquire why our table was not reserved for us, although personally I did not enjoy being in an empty bar upstairs. Having come directly from the Light Bar, we expected a book of cocktails and instead were given a piece of paper with a selection of 4 I think. We ordered the Ramos de Cuba which looked rather fabulous when it arrived but which contained very little rum! Our friend who was driving asked for an non alcoholic cocktail and explained to the waitress he could not drink orange jouice. The waitress seemed to think this was a strange request and was bemused as to how a cocktail could be made without orange juice! Our friend had to suggest other juices (there are so many!) and was made to feel awkward. It was the same reaction when our friend inquired about having some nibbles, he was told there's a meat platter and he wanted to know what it contained. I think this waitress was struggling to cope on her own but there was no excuse for her attitude. I doubt I would take more friends here, I can excuse a one off performance of an overworked waitress but the cocktails did not measure up and contained very little rum. I have had better quality cocktails at many other bars. We wanted to experience a different level of cocktail making but this was not the case.

Really cool bar, nice bottled lager at £6.50 a bottle, £11+ for cocktails so not the sort of place you could stay too long at unless you have cash to burn. Very friendly and polite staff, bouncer included. The negative reviews appear to be from the sort of people that these kind of places want to keep out... If you're the sort of person who would take such offence from a 24 hour response to an email that you feel the need to vent your anger online then this place is probably not for you.

As below, extremely arrogant, rude service received. They take over 24 hours to reply to a simple email and no one answers the phone number given to make reservations. If they keep turning people away when wanting to book they will end up with a half empty bar. Go to Nightjar in Shoreditch instead, amazing cocktails and brilliant service.

Attempted to make a corporate booking for 15 people and was declined due to saving space for walk-ins. I laughed out loud. Extremely arrogant and short-sighted within our current economic climate to turn down a first time would be customer who is a. wanting to spend money and b. would bring return business on both a personal and professional level. Bizarre really. Clearly the staff are not commercially minded AT ALL. Funnily enough I approached Milk and Honey just up the road and they were delighted to take our business. EPIC FAIL ECC

Favorite bar ever!! Drinks, people.... just love love it!

So good!!!

If you can get past the door (the 'list' actually doesn't mean much) and get inside this place really isn't worth it. Late night drink would be better enjoyed in McDonalds than this massively overrated joint.
Sure you really won't be able to find it for much longer.

Beautiful bar and amazing innovative cocktails! They lose so many points on their appallingly rude door man, hosts and bar staff. The attitude seems to be that they are actually doing you a favour by even letting you in.

As we were leaving, the doorman was berating a poor girl for not arriving with the rest of the group and not being on the list (even though the site says they reserve 50% of their capacity for walk-ins)

tisk tisk...

Love this venue! Drinks are very good, music very different (from our mainstream places) and beautiful crowd. Sorry Xanthe if you had a bad experience but I think it s only the beggining of a long life for this bar.
Marty

The best thing about this place is that it won't be around for long. Surly doorstaff that lack a basic understanding of maths may work well in Paris but with the plentitude of welcoming innovative bars in London a bar with this sort of attitude is soon forgotten.

GREAT!

Really good first time experience. Welcoming, and more than helpful staff. To watch the cocktails being made is in itself fun alone. Only criticism (if any) was that they could possibly do with extra hands behind the bar - as we had a dinner reservation elsewhere, and waited nearly 15 minutes for our first round.....hence no 5 stars. The cocktails were however, excellent!

Not a fan at all. Been about four times - once during the opening month, twice in the intervening period, and unfortunately once again recently. It has admittedly got better, but it's still dreadful. The first time I went I had a drink in which the ingredients had split in the martini glass, it was watery and quite disgusting. I'm all for new cocktails, but they do have to taste nice. Since then, they've been a little better, but frankly the attitude is that they've got a set up which Lab used to have when it first opened its doors; they do not. They have a large crowd of dull media types only one step up (but boy do they love it) from the "ooh, can I have another Mo-jee-toe perleese" type in a room which has about as much charm as any of the other establishments on Gerrard Street, and substandard drinks at grossly inflated prices. Needless to say, I left very quickly the last time I was there having managed to convince the friends I was going to meet to up-camp and shift to the Charlotte Street Hotel... I'm happy to spend £80 on a round of drinks if they're good, but I won't get that here.

We had a great evening, very good music and incredible drinks.
The venue is very hidden but you may see it because of the line up waiting in front.
Dress smart and o for the Saint Germain cocktail, a must!

If you're going to go to this place make sure you book. We tried to get in at 6pm on a Wedesday evening. How it could have been 50% full by then I have no idea. The door man was incredibly rude. Not exactly creating the right impression. We won't be going back.

Awesome venue and very cool crowd!
Drink the Old Cuban hmmmmmmmmm ;-)
K.

Brilliant place. Went there on monday, an unexpected trip out and despite being Halloween with most bars overly packed, this was brilliant. The Albanian doorman was great, cocktails great, decor & ambience perfect!

Amazing cocktails and lovely staff inside but definitely gone downhill since it first opened due to the bizarre choice of door staff, all of whom seem to be selected based on their insatiable need for a power trip and their complete inability to string together a meaningful sentence. The guy who was on there last night defied belief! We left without paying for drinks because I spent the 30 mins I was in there running up and down the stairs to see why half my guests (for whom I had secured seats and ordered drinks) were not being allowed in. Apparently there wasn't room...funny given it was half empty and as a result lacked any atmosphere what so ever (we'd just been discussing how we hoped it would fill up soon!). The attitude of the guy on the door was irrational, insulting and in the end completely laughable - I have no problem being turned away from a bar if they don't want 'my type of person' in there but there's a way of handling it. We weren't the only ones left baffled, we saw at least two people with reservations turned away from a half empty bar. It's London, I love a selective door policy but it takes a certain calibre of peron to administer it. I spoke to the manager but it seemed he was subordinate to the doorman. An overwhelmingly unprofessional experience and completely uneccessary when you have so many places in London operating strict door policies while managing to treat their customers with courtesy and respect. Until they get rid of the amateur door staff and their manager grows a pair, AVOID!

!What a wonderful evening we had!

You will have to try the St Germain des Pres or Kota Ternate.
The Canadian waitress was very helpfull and took time to explain us everything and the different dj we had all night long where amazing too.
We will come back there soon and you should do the same :-)

Tania and Co.

I have to say that this bar is fabulous. The cocktails are outstanding and I find myself dreaming of their signature drink SainGermain. The bar staff and waitress are great. However they totally need to address the door girl. Like most london bars/clubs we all appreciate that there is a door policy and they have the right to decide which patrons they choose to let in etc. Not something we are all comfortable with but hey its Soho, its the world we live in. However the door girl who I am sure doesn't at all times have the easiest job is quite frankly the RUDEST and most OBNOXIOUS person I have ever had the displeasure of meeting. She talks to you as if you are an idiot ( I am most certainly not) and is so patronising it brought me to laughter. Because of her incredible rudeness and down right stinking attitude I will and neither will my friends ever be returning to ECC. Management need to address this horrendous attitude and deliver a firm when necessary but alway courteous door staff. Message to the door girl - thats all you are love. Treat your customers with some dignify and professionalism, ECC you have lost over 10 customers who made a swift retreat to Soho House. Loose the door girl, your one BIG downfall.

Don't believe the hype — avoid like the plague

The place itself is nice but the service is appalling. I booked a table on Friday night for six people (the maximum number of people they will let you book on Fridays and Saturdays) and have been told that other guests could join us but would not get a seat, which is fair enough.

What they did not tell me was that people would be denied entry if the bar was full. So half of my guests were turned away while there was plenty of room inside. I did try to reason with the predominantly French staff to no avail. Looks like they have much to learn about proper customer service in London.

There's plenty of amazing cocktail bars in London where you don't need to endure Chinatown or put up with French je m'en fous.

I love this place.
Service is great, venue amazing and cocktails very very tasty (but expensives)
It s better to go there during the week because the week ends are too busy for me!
Enjoy it...

I really wanted to love this place. After getting a taste for "speak-easy" cocktail bars from recent visits to New York and LA, I was looking forward to my first visit to the ECC. And it was all going so well. We sailed past the doorman, who scrubbed Helen's name of his list (my name isn't Helen so not too sure what that was all about), went upstairs and ordered our slightly unusual but expertly made cocktails. The bar was nice, but somehow seemed a little too try hard, and if you looked closely was a tad shabby. But I was in great company, had a delicious drink, so who cares? But I did care that after 40min, one of the waitresses came over and said she was ever so sorry (not very convincingly) but we had to vacate our table for a couple who had a reservation. Now maybe that's not too bad, but what I really didn't like was that although we were mid cocktail and conversation she expected us to jump up instantly. She "kindly" offered that we could stand at the bar (as if we should be grateful we weren't being kicked out!), and when I asked to settle our tab she insisted we should have been told this would happen (we weren't, in fact her colleague had offered us the table), and further we had to stand up before she took my payment. Frankly it just was really bad service from someone who clearly was looking down her nose at us (in that posh shop assistant way). Such a shame. Maybe you'll go and will be lucky and not bump into the waitress with attitude (although from the reviews it seems this sadly might be a common experience). But this bar just isn't up to expectations and doesn't ooze cool like it's American cousins (I would highly recommend Bar Marmont in LA or the amazing for employees only in NYC), so I'll be avoiding in future. And TimeOut you need to update your review!

I really wanted to love this place. After getting a taste for "speak-easy" cocktail bars from recent visits to New York and LA, I was looking forward to my first visit to the ECC. And it was all going so well. We sailed past the doorman, who scrubbed Helen's name of his list (my name isn't Helen so not too sure what that was all about), went upstairs and ordered our slightly unusual but expertly made cocktails. The bar was nice, but somehow seemed a little too try hard, and if you looked closely was a tad shabby. But I was in great company, had a delicious drink, so who cares? But I did care that after 40min, one of the waitresses came over and said she was ever so sorry (not very convincingly) but we had to vacate our table for a couple who had a reservation. Now maybe that's not too bad, but what I really didn't like was that although we were mid cocktail and conversation she expected us to jump up instantly. She "kindly" offered that we could stand at the bar (as if we should be grateful we weren't being kicked out!), and when I asked to settle our tab she insisted we should have been told this would happen (we weren't, in fact her colleague had offered us the table), and further we had to stand up before she took my payment. Frankly it just was really bad service from someone who clearly was looking down her nose at us (in that posh shop assistant way). Such a shame. Maybe you'll go and will be lucky and not bump into the waitress with attitude (although from the reviews it seems this sadly might be a common experience). But this bar just isn't up to expectations and doesn't ooze cool like it's American cousins (I would highly recommend Bar Marmont in LA or the amazing for employees only in NYC), so I'll be avoiding in future. And TimeOut you need to update your review!

The door staff we fine to us but I heard the comments they made about the people that came in just after us which made me want to leave straight away. My friends wanted to stay. Nice decor but lacking in any real atmosphere. Better off heading down to Dalston.

Love it!!...best imaginative cocktails and great atmosphere...

Really nice place, hard to find but LOVELY. Great atmosphere and great cocktails!

Paris version is far far FAR superior, unfortunately. Been a few times now and the door staff alone keeps me from returning. All I can say is horrible, horrible people. Staff once indoors is lovely.. We ended up knowing the "guest" bartender and were greeted warmly, but it still doesn't make amends for how we are ALWAYS treated downstairs. Smug, rude and condescending door staff. Ruins it completely.

Exceptionaly great cocktail bar.
Highly recommended!

Yummy eleborated cocktails, funcky music and handsome experimented bartenders
The venue is great but it s true: hard to find and difficult to get in!

Ps: Open wide your eyes,dress smart and trendy that's my tip.

This is one of my favourite night time hangs. Great location in an area of town where actually there aren't a lot of other particularly exciting choices. The decor is stylish, the staff extremely friendly and the bartenders, with their Harry Potter potions, are the type of guys that appear to take genuine pleasure in their artistry. I would take half a star off if Time Out would let me because sometimes the cocktails can be so outrageous in their invention that they can miss the mark every now and then, however they still get an A for effort in my book and so deserve to get rounded up to 5 stars. Now, shhhh! Don't tell anyone about it!

Great cocktails, amazing music, beautiful crowd and friendly staff.
You are not in the pub so obviously you gonna have to dress funky and
smart to get in!
Only problem sometimes it gets too slow but it is maybe the price for a good mix.
S.

Oh and 5 stars of course !

This bar is so far the best I've been in Europe. I don't know why so many people complain about the door. The ladie and the door guy were just very kind with us and the other people around. Drinks are perfect and service amazing. A band was also playing. It was a bit loud to have a descent conversation mais definitly gave a nice atmosphere. Oh yes they will see me again and again !!

Love this venue so much fun and good drinks, great crowd!
You gonna have to be dress funky and wear a big smile
JP

And yes, I can confirm that they will tell you that you will have to wait an hour, except if you go back you will be told the same thing again.

Exceptionally rude door-staff. Very difficult to get in on Friday or Saturday, not worth even trying. Apparently "not all the bookings have arrived yet" but according to their website they keep 50% capacity for walk-ins. Yeah, right. What a joke. Do they not understand that London is full of decent bars?

What sort of price are the cocktails here please? Sounds good fun...

Great drinks, great crowd, great music, great, great, great and great!

Great drinks, great crowd, great music, great, great, great and great!

Just incredible.

Very nice place, good music (rare for Ldn), beautiful people and amazing drinks.
will come back.
NR.

My husband and I had a wonderful time here on Sunday night (28/8/11). We were a little apprehensive given the rather negative comments on this site and as we hadn't made a reservation, but thought we would try our luck.
The doorman was very welcoming and the hostess was just charming. The great cocktails were expertly mixed and the vibe in the very busy bar was just lovely. What a fantastic evening, thanks to all of the staff, we are really looking forward to coming back.

Came highly recommended and did not disappoint, booking was straightforward and essential no matter who you are!
Drinks are unique and amazingly made with attention to detail. Prices are logical seeing as you could get away with much more in a venue like that.
Atmosphere is something special from the time you arrive at the door,you need to experience for yourself to appreciate.
As far as London is concerned, hands down the best cocktail bar experience available.