Zenna

The bar itself is has low lighting and a very cool, sexy feel but the friendly staff make sure you feel perfectly at home, even if you're completely new to the city (like me).On to the drinks!

I am glad to find this venue while dining in Red Fort restaurant last Friday for drinks before our dinner. Some really exotic selection of cocktails priced from £8 and over. Even they are running promotion of cocktails for £6.50 during January. Ambiance was energetic and it started getting real busy during 8pm onwards. We plan to come down after our dinner later around 11ish. Music is the soul of the bar and the staff too polite to accommodate your requests. Well done!!!!

If my forefathers had a favourite bar, this would have been it. No, it's not old fashioned (actually just the opposite!) but it has two things that would have my ancestors doing the happy dance: 1) some truly excellent cocktails, and 2) a touch of mother India. Located underneath the Red Fort (an upscale Indian restaurant), Zenna immediately made me feel like I was home. We rushed to the bar to place our orders and a very pretty blonde mixed up a trio of House Nectar (no ingredients listed but it's a light fruity drink made from citrus and mango in my opinion). It was a nice easy way to start but there was no way it was going to last. As we quizzed Dan about the menu, he revealed that he had created all but two of the drinks. Upon further questioning and compliments about the shot, he pointed out the Illiana (or Golden Dragon) which lays claim to the spiciest drink in the world. Being naturally competitive, I had to give it a go. Dan explained the ingredients as he carefully mixed the drink. For the longest time, it didn't look that daunting as it's a beautiful looking beverage with just a few chillies in the mix. The danger comes in the last ingredient which is a concentrated extract from Habanero chillies. One drop of this extract (400,000 Scoville units) has more fire than 50 jalapenos. Yeah, I was starting to sweat... The Illiana comes with two things: i) a fire extinguisher of Gin Fizz (a cooling drink but it does nothing for the fire), and ii) the requirement to sign a waiver of liability. The first few sips were easy and I was down a third of the drink before the burn started to hit. The danger of these chillies is not the initial spicy taste, but the fact that each incremental drop adds more and more pain until your mouth, throat, and stomach are on fire. With the dual motivation of wanting to finish and Anna mocking me, I managed to get the drink down in about 15 minutes (along with the entire Gin Fizz) and after a further 20 minutes of agony was finally ready to drink again. And we did. Dan kept talking about the bar (which he owns too by the way) and like love-struck schoolgirls we hung on to his every word. When Mark mentioned he wanted to try a whiskey drink, Dan took us through a tasting of three whiskies and made a drink with each one. We even got to try his proposed entry into an upcoming competition but I won't give away any secrets just yet. Needless to say, he got my vote. The night wasn't done (although my memory was starting to be) and we continued sampling different spirits before finally bidding Dan farewell and dragging our inebriated selves out. All in all, Zenna has become my favourite place for a quality drink and I'll undoubtedly be back to taken the Illiana challenge (I'm a sucker like that). Although I hear it's packed on Friday/Saturday so perhaps a more chill mid-week to enjoy the cocktails. They have a luxury selection with average prices of £18-25/cocktail which is just drool-worthy.