Bar review: ADVENTURE BAR (Clapham High Street)

Having visited and reviewed the Adventure Bar in Covent Garden, I postulated whether the chain's venues outside of central London were better than the flagship one. The fact that DUSK (a terrific app that allows you have a free drink a night) featured Adventure Bar when I happened to be at Clapham Junction, meant I could put this hypothesis to the test.

The cocktails in the Clapham branch of Adventure Bar were even more original than the Covent Garden venue. The drink pictured in the plastic pink container above is called Glaston Berry, and came with a free wristband, featuring a Kanye West quote. This was an homage to name of the cocktail (a play on Glastonbury), where Kanye famously played at, and as a huge admirer of Kanye's arrogance and ingenious wordplay, this tickled me greatly.

The cocktails were uniformly delicious. My personal favourite was Sink the Pink, who's blend of Lemongrass-infused Eristoff vodka, lychee liqueur, pink grapefruit soda and Prosecco was a fizzy, fresh delight. It was also lethal, because the fruity flavours helped disguise just how alcoholic it was. And this applied to all the cocktails we tried: they tasted good, whilst managing to get the drinker suitably boozy.

French Letter, another wonderfully named cocktail (which for me, evokes memories of a) French footballers, and b) The Scarlet Letter, a novel which was referenced in both Easy A and Taylor Swift's 'Romeo and Juliet', and has thus thoroughly permeated the zeitgeist) was the drink you get free with the DUSK app. Unlike many a disappointing drink I've sampled on that app, there was nothing phoned in about this cocktail. Featuring Grey Goose La Poire vodka, white wine, fresh lemon juice, cherry tomato, sugar and soda, it was a dazzling blend of flavours, that all complemented each other well. The cherry tomato was a maverick touch, but it definitely enhanced the look and taste of French Letter.

As with the Covent Garden branch, loud pop music boomed in Adventure Bar, and it was all stuff I recognised and loved singing along to, including 'Baby' by Justin Bieber, and songs from Grease. There are some open spaces in this branch of Adventure Bar, so a couple of people had a boogie, which was great to see. With the DUSK app, it was 50% off our drinks, so I would really recommend you get this app, because you can use it beyond Happy Hour, and it also means you don't have to get two of the same cocktail to make a saving, which is a common constraint of most Happy Hours.

Finally, I couldn't write a review of this place without giving a shoutout to the barmaid Asha, who was an absolute sweetie. From the first drink she made us to the last, she had the most winning smile, knew her stuff about what was on the menu, and just made us feel accommodated and welcomed in Adventure Bar. I had a wonderful evening at this place, and when I return, Asha's charming nature  will be a major factor.

Grade: A

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