The Martini is exactly what a Martini is supposed to be, which is rarer than it should be in Cardiff. Forty seats, no standing, you can hear your friend. The ice is ridiculous in the best way.
Reviews
What Cardiff says.
Six reviews, one for each thing we do, including the four-star one from the couple who waited forty minutes on a Saturday. The full set is on the review platforms we are listed on.
Collected by a third-party review platform. Names shortened at the reviewers' request.
Thursday jazz with a table booked two weeks ahead, as advised. Three sets, nobody talking over the band, Arcade Sours all round. The best night out in the arcades and it costs the price of the drinks.
Booked the back room for my wife's fortieth. Sixteen of us, our own bartender through the hatch, a set menu of five cocktails that came out fast, and the croquetas. No hire fee, we hit the minimum spend without trying. Huw sorted everything on one email.
Pregnant and expecting a lime and soda. Got four proper no-alcohol drinks on a list with the ingredients on it, made with the same care as everyone else's, at £7. The Smoked Tea Sour is better than most cocktails with alcohol in them.
Superb drinks, lovely room. Four stars because we turned up at nine on a Saturday with no booking and waited forty minutes on the bench by the door. They did offer us a drink while we waited, and the website does say forty seats. Book.
Masterclass for my hen do, ten of us behind the bar with Leo on a Sunday afternoon. Learned why my ice is cloudy, made three drinks each, ate the snacks, and were allowed to stay on at the bar afterwards. £55 well spent.
About the four stars
Forty minutes on the bench. It is the price of forty seats, and it still cost a star.
Jake is right that they waited, and right that the website says forty seats. We could put sixty in and sell more drinks, and the room would be a different room: louder, standing, nobody able to hear the trio. We would rather keep the seats and lose the star, offer a drink on the bench while you wait, and say, as plainly as we can: on a Saturday, book.
Join the list.
Come for a drink, come back for a second, and tell the next person what it was like. Good or bad, it stays up.