please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
While the decor is dreadful and the beer overpriced I had bigger issues here. Whilst being amused by patrons doing the usual lines of white powder in the cubicle of the men's toilet I was met with a rather cute little grey mouse. I personally have no issue with these creatures, in fact I am rather fond, but was quite disturbed as the premises serves food. When I pointed this out to the bar staff one went to investigate.When he came back,shrugged and said "I cannot see him". Glad they dealt with the matter so professionally. In general this is a dreadful pub, wannabe trendys, poor beer added to drugs and rodents.Certinly will not be back
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What is the world coming to? The decor in here is dreadful. I must confess I wouldn't normally frequent a place like this but it was 4.30 in the afternoon and the missus said she fancied a G&T. A G&T + pint and some mingin' olives shouldn't cost nearly �15 quid but we are in Hoxton. The place was completely empty and light which meant we could sit and stare, aghast, at the monstrosities that clutter up the place. In an instant a lady with a clip board came over and asked angrily whether we had 'booked' the table. No? we hadn't? Is this a problem? I might have to ask you to move. Well, I said, we can do if you want. There was no one else in the place. One can only imagine what this place is like during the weekend.
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I always approach this area of London with a certain amount of trepidation and the name of this establishment was sending out a large warning so I was semi prepared for the fresh hell that awaited my friends and I.
It was packed wall to wall with preening, coked up bell-ends. It appeared that the DJ was being paid to plug in his ipod as all I saw him do was dance like a self important prawn as he smirked at various texts he was receiving.
When I was given the unenviable task of trying to get served I made it to the bar after 25 mins to be faced with an absolute car crash of a barman making 4 cocktails with the air of someone who truly believed they were creating something akin to an outstanding work of art.
There seemed to be children employed to collect glasses.
I was overlooked twice by other members of the bar staff in favour of some people who appeared to be holding (inexplicably) loyalty cards. I may well have been overlooked all night had I not been dragged out of there by my companions who were also near to tears at the tragedy of the place.
After wading through a sea of tossers I finally made it to the pavement outside never to return.
This place left me feeling cold, confused and angry.
No ales but the Czech lager was ok.
Joppa - 25 Jul 2010 03:33 |
I always approach this area of London with a certain amount of trepidation and the name of this establishment was sending out a large warning so I was semi prepared for the fresh hell that awaited my friends and I.
It was packed wall to wall with preening, coked up bell-ends. It appeared that the DJ was being paid to plug in his ipod as all I saw him do was dance like a self important prawn as he smirked at various texts he was receiving.
When I was given the unenviable task of trying to get served I made it to the bar after 25 mins to be faced with an absolute car crash of a barman making 4 cocktails with the air of someone who truly believed they were creating something akin to an outstanding work of art.
There seemed to be children employed to collect glasses.
I was overlooked twice by other members of the bar staff in favour of some people who appeared to be holding (inexplicably) loyalty cards. I may well have been overlooked all night had I not been dragged out of there by my companions who were also near to tears at the tragedy of the place.
After wading through a sea of tossers I finally made it to the pavement outside never to return.
This place left me feeling cold, confused and angry.
No ales but the Czech lager was ok.
Joppa - 25 Jul 2010 03:30 |
No ale. Only lager and watery (when I tried it) Guinness
poured with a full Eastern European service culture experience.
Punters were self-perceived hipsters and bohemian types.
Bizarre pseudo surreal interior.
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Rampanywurzel hits the nail on the head.
There is always a 15 minute wait at this bar. It is too dark, overpriced and packed full of ponces. I live local so have been here 4 or 5 times over the years for various reasons. Just avoid.
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There was a queue for the ground floor, not sure if it was a restaurant, but we went straight into the downstairs bar. No real ale, only thing remotely worth drinking was Staropramen.
More of a club than a pub anyway with loud music playing. Bearable for what it is.
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Rampantwurzels Tip on how to build a Hoxton bar
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1. Get rid of 90% of the lighting.
Beautiful people don't look so beautiful in normal light, particularly since skag abuse does nothing for the skin, so strip out all the lights and get a few blacklights in there so tht people can look at their white clothing and go 'Wow, that's so cool' while tripping off some cheap PCP....
2. Get leather couches.
But do not get new ones. No no no, that's not the way. Get really old ones probably from house clearances, batter them up some more, and lay them out higglety pigglety around your pub floor
3. Carpets
Why bother? People don't like carpets, and hey it's easier to clean. If you can be bothered once every six months....
4. Beer
Beer is 25% more expensive because beautiful people like paying more for less. But why stop there? We do food - Thai noodles is a predictable favourite (despite Cay Tre being just up the road), as is some hand-cut chips by Brzailian orphans for 2 pound a bag. Bargain!
5. Toilets
Toilets are supposed to look/smell like that. And don't blame the addicts/vegans for the smell, it's just that we can't afford toilet cleaner coz we don't make enough money off the beer....
6. Clientelle
Oh sorry, they don't talk to you. If they did you'd notice their bleeding gums from speed abuse, as well as an inability to say anythign interesting.
If we all stop going to these places, they will close down and be forced to either be proper art pubs, or better still, real pubs.
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this place is fabulously passe, the pseudo art theme is an insult to anyone's intellectual capacity, luckily, there are more bars in the area with a more convincing arrangement. The good thing? The chav punters keep property from rising much further.
anonymous - 3 Aug 2007 16:14 |
If you like endless queues waiting for hipper-than-thou trendoids to serve you over priced drinks then this is the place for you!
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This place is awfully chav and drunk, a glorified Wetherspoons with Hoxton prices.
anonymous - 11 Jul 2007 16:55 |
I love his place, the food is well prepared, fresh and reasonably priced, also difers from the usual bar food menu. The staff is efficient and the decor is fun and original without being pretencious or in your face. DJs on saturday night are always good and the music original, the only down point is it's popularity it gets really crowded on saturdays!
Oh and you gotta have a look at the screens always displaying movies that either give you a smile or gets you chatting!
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Me and my friends decided to celebrate the beginning of a new term with a pub crawl in Brick Lane and Hoxton and ended up spending the whole night in Zigfrid. First we had a dinner in the restaurant area and were all licking the plates not because a student is always hungry, but because the food was well prepared. The portions were big and therefore good value for money. Afterwards we moved to those comfy sofas and as one of the bartenders kindly explained the whole cocktail list to the girls they had beaming smiles all over their faces while sipping daiquiris and mojitos in the candlelit atmosphere. The only annoying thing was the music that was turned up later on when the DJ started that made serious conversation almost impossible, but by that time we were all pretty tipsy and dropped the talk and danced until the DJ finished. We'll go back to Zigfrid for sure and I don't regret a single penny of my student loan spent in this bar.
anonymous - 9 Jan 2007 16:25 |
There is something magical about this place. It must be a combination of the well designed interior where I suspect an equal amount of thought and randomness makes it really cool, and just the amazing mix of people you meet. Good selection of beers and the food I had was good value (Sunday brunch menu). Certainly a place that I'd go back to again and again.
lupus - 28 Nov 2006 10:54 |
This bar is great! I�ve been here many a time and despite being well into my thirties I have no issues with the young bar staff. The service can be a little slow but it�s a friendly and laid back place so uppity city types used to Corney & Barrow expense accounts and finger snapping service won�t like it and that�s exactly why we do. An eclectic mix of people, good food and a great outdoor area.
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This bar is shit! The staff are barely old enough to drink so the service is left wanting and it's full of very uncool people in 'vintage' clothes. If they're trying to be mods then i've decided i'm a rocker!
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Really like this bar - nice comfy sofas/chairs, good music and a nice attitude. Great for a happy Sunday afternoon.
kat74 - 10 Feb 2006 21:47 |
Look, it's true. The food is crap, the service isn't the Fred West, and it's pretentious- but my oh f*cking my what a bar! The people are all like minded (ie- they've been up since Fri night) when you go on Sunday,the music is out of this world (80s 90s classics on Sun afternoon branching into Electronica later on) it's full of good looking people and it's easy as sin to score in there! What more do you want?
Schba na na SOBER IS IT!
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Why don't you moaning gits just bugger off and go to the local wetherspoons? You go to Zigfrid for the music, and to hang with like minded people. Why should straight suits like you even be allowed into places like Zigfrid? If you don't like the whole Shoreditch thing then DON'T GO THERE. It's that simple. I wouldn't dare go to anywhere like Upper Street as it's full of chavs, and city straights - so I STAY AWAY. The same goes for people who don't like arty Shoreditch Bars...Nobody is forcing you to go there! If arty bars aren't your scene, then go to All Bar One, and quit moaning about independent drinking holes when the majority of you should be stuck in Wetherspoons. At least they try and do something different at Zigfrid!And it's quite refreshing actually ....
anonymous - 4 Jul 2005 17:35 |
As the sign above the bar says, "I only have two hands, so wait to be served with a happy face". Well I'll be buggered if any of the Hoxton leggings and mullet brigade ever crack a smile... massive queue at bar. Music's good tho, but I'd got to Bluu just down the road and vegetate on the sofas. Far too many pretentious tosspots in Zigfrid!
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Many things I could say, but I'll just stick with the following: after waiting ages to be served I very politely asked for three pints. The girl serving behind the bar underfilled two of these - not slightly (which I'd let go, I'm not a serial complainer), but by a good inch at least. She didn't take kindly to being asked to complete the job. After that I paid up and she came back with my change and was about to put it in my hand when she dashed off to the other end of the bar to look for something. After about a minute of rummaging she came back with a silver tip tray. Marvellous! Needless to say, I didn't leave anything on it.
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Went here last night and after reading other comments was pleasantly surprised. Lots of trendy Hoxton types and no cider. But then the music was eclectic, there's a club downstairs, and who cares if a girl has an eating disorder if she's going to look as good as the honeys in this place.
Pretentious: yes, but it's such a refreshing change from the arrogance of West London, or some provincial winebar.
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This 'bar' is Nathan Barley in the worst sense. I wont go into it. Im a local. They are short staffed. They have limited bar staff. I have never encountered such crap service in my travels. Don try and get a drink if you are a woman when it its busy. You will be ignored and overridden by blokes. I was waiting at the bar for 20 mins on a Thursday and totally ignored in favour of blokes. Im a pretty Londoner and go to bars everyday, but I was gobsmacked last night. 20 mins standing there being looked at and ignored. Actually grabbed the ignorant barmaid by the arm in total frustration in the end, as my friends sat there waiting for me and I was being ignored.
Walked out in the end. Its a second rate pub that is up its own arse. Truly pathetic. Dont bother going there, boycott it cos its truly pathetic and up its own arse.
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A mixed bag of experiences, good and bad. The atmosphere is as I would imagine (not been here before) i.e. predominantly trendy Hoxton types generally having a good time, the odd suit thrown in, nice decor and layout.
A quick positive before I start on the negatives - the DJ played one of the most refreshingly eclectic collection of tunes I've ever heard in a bar - old skool dance, Kate Bush, Supertramp (!), Chaka Khan, you name it... even Michael Jackson got a look in!
And the negatives... I tend to find that bar staff in 'trendy' gaffs to be ever-so-slightly up their own arses, but this place takes it to the extreme. One guy seemed to place an awful lot of importance on doing his nifty little jig in front of the till whilst smiling like a loon and waving at various 'faces' he'd spotted on the other side of the bar, and very little importance on actually serving the vast number of customers gasping for a drink. Still, he was nothing compared to 'THE RUDEST BARMAID I HAVE ENCOUNTERED IN A BAR... EVER!' (moody expression, selective serving of customers depending on trendiness of haircut, rolling eyes when I dared to ask for another pint of Guinness when she'd already finished pouring the last one, looking away whilst holding out hand to take money, SLAMMING down silver ashtray with change on it, etc, etc, etc...).
I could've come close to suicide had my humour not been restored by the sight of a large plastic container on the bar with 'TIPS' written on it, containing a solitary coin... and that was probably a Xmas bonus. Heh!
In summary - if you can hire someone else to do all the drink ordering, this is a lively place with a cool atmosphere, and the DJ helps it all along with some great tunes. But if you ever have to face the bar staff to get yourself a drink, you could be put off for life, as I was... unless, of course, you're Nathan Barley.
Cheers.
...oh hang on, the food seems to be pretty good too. I tried a bit of Gerard's sausage and it certainly was meaty!
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Excellent Bar. A bit too busy though. New Yorker Bar tender was giving lots of friendly attitude - music not loud enough. Trendy hoxton types.
Sarah Coxton - 6 Nov 2004 14:28 |
nice bar with good food and not bad prices considering location. The crowd are getting more rude and annoying with every passing week however.
tkd - 1 Sep 2004 18:35 |
the food is excellent and really good value
Ruth Hawkins - 3 Feb 2004 17:56 |
A mix between the liveliness of the Elbow Rooms with the relaxed coolness and no agro feel of the Blu bar. The atmosphere had the right party vibe and the door lady was polite and friendly at last orders. There is also a good mix between dance areas and comfy sofas. I didn't eat there. I will definitely return and hope that the bar can carry on attracting such a good bunch of punters.
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Designed by the man behind the elbow rooms, Paul Daly. Music from Moulin-X, Bones and Ramsey and Quuens of Noize.
Delicious gastro food from ex chef of The Lock in Camden - perfect Sunday Roast!
Liz Matthews - 21 Nov 2003 12:26 |
