please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Typical Covent Garden - expensive. Poorly stocked (in terms of beer). The upstairs bar is crap, the basement bar is bearable.
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Went there for dinner with my girlfriends, we sat in a lovely area surrounded by an aquarium. The happy hour really pays off, cocktails in a jug for only �10 and great pizza! We had actually planned to party somewhere else but went upstairs to the club and partied until after midnight, simply didn't want to leave! Had to pay a door charge of �5 when we went to the Fuel Above for dancing, but it was totally worth it. I really recommend this place, lovely decoration and atmosphere!
anonymous - 8 Mar 2007 15:29 |
Reading the reviews below, if you want to encounter groups of birds on their "first girly trip to London" or hen nights (which frankly sometimes you do), this seems to be the place to come. I bet it gets a fair smattering of the kind of American tourist you'd see described as a co-ed on less savoury internet sites than this.
Went here a few times once when out and about in the area. Just what you'd expect from a smallish bar in a good location that doesn't have to try - rubbish drinks and high prices, rudeness from staff. Standard procedure, lets face it. On the face of it, definitely one to avoid, though that never stopped any of us, did it?
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anonymous - 10 Jan 2007 00:10 |
Met up with a group of friends for pre -dinner drinks last week. Staff still not there for the customers!
Drinks ok but you have to be proactive to get refills and 12.5% service charge for average service is not justified.
I would not recommend this place unless you are easy going, have a group of around 8 with fairly deep pockets. Jugs are good but remember half of it is ice!
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some friends and I went to Fuel bar for a drink last night, before going to a restaurant to eat. The venue itself is pretty enough if a little cramped. HOWEVER, the rudest serving staff i have EVER come across. There is one bar upstairs, one downstairs. the one upstairs had one person serving and about 20 people waiting, so not unreasonably i went downstairs to the other (empty) bar. The barman came over, asked what i wanted, and i ordered 5 beers. He asked where i was drinking. I said "upstairs". he replied "order upstairs" and then turned his back on me. thats it. 2 words: "order upstairs". I asked my friends if we could leave - we went to Belgos just around the corner and had a lovely time.
anonymous - 16 Jul 2005 12:31 |
Went to Fuel last Sat with 4 friends on our first girly trip to London. We stumbled across it by accident really, but I'm glad we did. Only �5 to get in and even then, only 3 of us had to pay. It was a small place, but cosy and not too crowded. We were drinking the pitchers of cocktails all night so don't really know what sort of choice you had by way of drinks. We really enjoyed ourselves and it's the only place I've ever been to where the dj played all 3 of my requests, we got free pizza and the bouncers friendly. I'd def go back. x
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To say that this place was a disappoinment would be a huge underestimate.
Firstly, their booking policy. We booked a space for 30 people and they said they had space for 16 people seating, which seemed reasonable enough as the rest of the people could stand (and they agreed). What we ended up with was a tiny space that could sit 8 people and had room for about 2 to stand. The staff were rude when this was questioned and very dismissive. This seems to have happened to someone else too, so be warned.
Secondly, we were led to believe that there would be a DJ and dancing that we would not have to pay for if we arrived before 9pm. This was not the case as they have the ridculous policy that if you are downstairs you cannot go upstairs and if you are downstairs you cannot go upstairs without paying. In our case, this ended up with half our group upstairs and half down without any way to meet up! The bouncers were also very rude when dealing with this.
The prices were about standard for this type of bar i.e. we are talking around �3 for a drink. I would say that the food (bar snacks) were over priced and the nachos that I had were not up to scratch.
I would never go back to the fuel bar. It is highly over rated and the staff definitely had an attitude problem.
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After looking at the Fuel Bar on their impressive web site, we had high expectations for a group of 15 girls on a hen night. We sat in a small, cramped area suitable for 5 let alone 15 (even though table had been booked for 15). We had to find our own menus and go to the tiny bar to get our own drinks. The options on the menu were half of those shown on the web site. The starters came. Soup was cold and interestingly 2 of the goats cheese starters were cold and one was hot. We questioned this with the waiter and the unbelievable reply was "Sometimes they are hot, sometimes they are cold, it just depends!" It was so ridiculous it was funny and when questioned "It depends on what?" he shrugged his shoulders and walked off smirking! After a complaint to the manager and for those whose food was barely edible (better pasta sauce has been known out of a tin and more than 2 salad leaves are required in a salad!!) had fifnished eating, we were out of there quick!!!!! We planned to stay until 2am as sounded a great venue on internet, but we were out of there by 9.30.
Final word - avoid at all cost. Hugely dissapointing venue, an embarrassment to Covent Garden!
anonymous - 16 May 2005 11:50 |
This bar is ok... the jugs of cocktails are quite good for a group of people. However, I found the staff to be blatently rude, patronizing and unhelpful. They couldn't/ wouldn't answer my simple questions about ordering food to eat at the bar and I found the whole experience quite frustrating.
anonymous - 7 May 2005 18:48 |
Very nice small bar with a lovley balcony that overlooks the market at Covent Garden. The music was slighty too loud for my liking, and the toilets are pretty hard to find if you've already had a few. My greatest complaint has to be that the only serve bottled beer at �3.25 for the cheapest.
anonymous - 24 Jan 2005 17:59 |
Tried this and Lowlander on the basis of the reviews on this site. It took a full 360 walk around the market to find it at first, certainly well hidden. We were dissapointed with the lack of draft beers, bottles only at club prices which was a shame, not much variety in the beers either. It's certainly atmospheric and looks cosy with all it's plush fabrics & cushions everywhere but there were no seats available for us to truly get into the mood. Feels like more of a pre-club bar than anything else, worth getting dressed up for anyway. I'll certainly go again but with more cash, more glammed up and a lot earlier in the evening!
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Celebrated my birthday there two years ago and will do so again this year love the atmosphere and the little alcoves where u can sit and completely relax.
Sam - 15 Apr 2004 12:26 |
I have had some GREAT nights at this bar. Always a nice crowd and brillent music. The staff there are amongst the best in any bars that i have been to. Free pizza slices through out the night which has always been a plus!!
Nehal - 4 Apr 2004 12:39 |
Evil (but tasty) cocktails.
Late license, food served until ~midnight, cosy balcony overlooking Covent Garden.
Better than the rest of the crap in the area :)
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Fab venue - no tourists as it's too hard to find unless you know it!
Funky little venue with nice staff
Natasha - 18 Jun 2003 13:30 |
They stole my bananas man! I mean they stole all my bananas in this bar. I had a whole load of them in my bag for my rugby game. What kind of perosn does this...?
anonymous - 20 May 2003 14:55 |
good Cocktails, very small balcony, good underground coves - nice and cosy!
Kimberley Holdsworth - 30 Jul 2002 12:18 |
