The Lilly Bar & Grill has opened in the former Fat Cat premises, a place I visited many times in the past although not for many years. I do however well remember the good ol' days of the Fat Cat when you'd have to fight your way in, fight your way to the bar, fight your way to the toilets etc. Not much has changed internally, it still has the same layout and same style, but having recently visited at 10pm on a Saturday night it's obvious that one thing has changed the number of customers. Not only did we not have to fight our way in we pretty much had the run of the place and not only did we find somewhere to sit (something practically unheard of in the old days) we had a wide choice of seats to select from.
This may be partly due to the fact that the bar doesn't target the usual Saturday night drinking crowd. There's no cheap lager, only more expensive brands served up in fancy glasses. Some of the small band of customers present were buying cocktails which were served up with dry ice capsules that made the drinks smoke, something that looks impressive but probably doesn't add to the flavour! As well as drinks they also serve food but no-one seemed to be eating that late at night so we had no chance to sneak a peek at other people's grub.
All in all it's a nice and reasonably upmarket place (the toilets need a revamp and hopefully refurbishment will be on the new owners to-do list) but you wonder if the demand is still there for a place like this in Llandudno, especially considering not only that the Fat Cat closed because the owners went bust but also that a rival bar & grill is set to open a few doors away. read more