Old Bengal Bar

Address: 16 New Street, London, EC2M 4TR, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 3503 0780
Website: view Old Bengal Bar’s website

Door: Open door/walk-ins
Style: Cocktail bar
Food: Set menu

It's National Curry Week, so it seemed fitting to head to Old Bengal Bar on New Street in the City of London. This latest venue from D&D London, the former Conran group of restaurants, is a terrific mix of antique and modern design. Entering through a large terrace area, you'll find a moderately sized, low-lit bar area with comfy armchairs, quirky stools and low leather couches. The exposed brick work and gargantuan wooden columns of this former warehouse contrast with rough metal finishes, a fancy mirrored wall (where you may or may not find the toilet doors) and two huge, softly illuminated aqua-coloured contemporary portraits.

A surprisingly large cocktail menu is divided up thematically (and emphatically, with exclamation marks everywhere!). A Zubrowka competition-winning lemon grass infusion takes top billing, while the rest of the drinks are largely twists on classics, with a few house specialities scattered throughout (some of which sound challenging combinations of flavours but are dealt with adeptly). Prices range from £11.95 up to £195 for a cocktail containing rum from 1930. The venue is so-called as the 1771 building originally housed the East India Company, so don't expect more than a cursory Indian theme on the menus. Subdued on our visit, but it's early days, and with all the right ingredients this bar will surely find its feet very soon.