My friends and I came here on Saturday night, as one of them had recently returned from a holiday in the Caribbean and had a bottle of rum that he was eager to share. I had heard of this place through a friend a while ago and it seemed like the perfect place for this occasion. I took a look at the available reservations early in the week and saw that Covent Garden was fully booked but that there was availability in Camden. However, the venue asks for a credit card deposit and seems quite strict about it, so I waited to check with my friends to see if the time and date was ok. By the time I had heard back from everyone, someone had booked so that a table for 4 was not available! I called the venue and asked them if there was anything they could do, and the staff kindly moved one of the reservations (I think to another table) so that a space for 4 opened up again. They were equally accommodating when another friend wanted to join (but had to call since you can't just amend the booking online due to the deposit issue) so that in the end, we were a group of 5.
The bar is very nicely decorated like a casino, as we were seated at a blackjack table and there was a roulette wheel behind us. There were probably about 6 tables in all, some accommodating parties as large as 8 or 10 people. I definitely think that this is more of a venue for groups as opposed to dates. There are about 3 bartenders serving and this is the deal: you pay 25 pounds per person at the door, and you get 5 cocktails made for you over 2 hours. They recommend half a bottle of alcohol per person, but we had two 750mls of rum and tequila and we had a good amount left over at the end. You don't really have a say in what drinks are made; the bartenders like to call it a "surprise," and I did get a strong drink the one time that I mentioned that I wanted one, but the rest of the time they just did as they pleased and served us a concoction of their fancy. It is probably best for people who have versatile palates, but I honestly enjoyed all of them.
The one thing I found frustrating was that at times service was really slow, and we weren't able to get our 5 drinks during the scheduled 2 hours since the bartenders were so busy. To make it up to us, they agreed to extend our time by another 20 minutes. But after that, since we still had alcohol left over and there weren't people waiting after us, we asked if we could pay for another drink somehow, and they refused. They also told us that the venue was closing a little after midnight, which is earlier than I would expect for a bar. It's definitely a different business model that your typical bar that serves non-stop and makes money off each drink, whereas this has a fixed fee at the door and must only have 2 or 3 rounds of scheduled seatings per night. But it is a very cool concept, and perfect for bringing visitors that you want to impress. read more