World Service

Address: Newdigate House, Castle Gate, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG1 6AF, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)115 847 5587
Website: view World Service’s website
Style: Restaurant bar
Food: Set menu

Review

Arguably Nottingham's most refined bar, World Service juxtaposes east with west. Enter through an Eastern-themed zen garden, in sharp contrast to the building's olde worlde origins and setting near Nottingham castle. Inside, the juxtaposition continues, where Regency tables nestle against lacquered tables; overhead are frames of backlit eastern cloth while around the wood-panelled walls are the gold-lettered names of winners of sporting events - evidence of the building's past as a servicemen's club.

The eastern theme is perhaps most evident with the seats at the bar - they are so low that you can't actually sit at it so much as sit under it, so there's not a hope in hell of being able to watch your drinks being made. That's basically all helps encourage table service, with suited and booted staff ferrying trays of drinks to and from tables. The menu offers two pages of classic cocktails which precede a fantastic range of top-end spirits. Cocktails are incredibly well-made and beautifully garnished, from the trailing lemon peel down the stem of our French 75 to the Pedro Ximenez-macerated cherry tomatoes that accompany a truly memorable Bloody Mary.

Most people go on to eat - and we wish we did too, purely based on the complimentary bar snacks. But equally, many people might be missing out by assuming this place is just for eating.