Soda

Another gem of bars in Cardiff! Crazy happy hour amazing cocktails and wonderful atmosphere. Loved the fact that they offered an all night happy hour on a Thursday and yet no one was ridiculously drunk like the scene so often witnessed in London bars — brilliant. Everyone is really friendly and the bar looks amazing. What more can I say, this is a great bar to come to for a good night out with live music or a place to chill.

DO. NOT. GO! I know I am very picky about where I go, but I have never been so badly treated by such ignorant staff in my life!

Thanks missy pink of the soda bar management for your advertireview. Went there for first time on sat 23^rd September. this place should be shut down. They tried to rob a friend and me by serving water in place of a double (so there was no subtlety) gin and tonic. How dare you people. This place is staffed by classless slappers. Any perception you have of a classy venue is nonsense. Its populated by weekend millionaires and chavs. It smelled like wet dog thanks to the genius idea of shagpile carpeting and the décor is crumbling. weather spoons is better

Hmmmmm…
YES…because it makes you feel like you’re in the ‘place to be seen’, the layout is unusual and chic, you’re not kept waiting at the bar, the dance floor is huge and pumps out smooth r’n’b tunes, there’s a VIP area, the lounge seating area is quirky, comfy and cool, the outside, roof-​top decking is also huge, sociable and has it’s own bar, heaters, and DJ… but now I’m running out of nice things to say…
NO…for all other reasons I’m afraid, Sodabar really, REALLY tries hard (maybe that’s the classic downfall). It just doesn’t work. It attracts the just-​turned-​legal age, who turn up looking like they’ve used every make-​up tester in Boots, who swan around looking up and down (mostly down) at any one else wearing a skirt longer than a belt. The bar prices annoy me, oh yes, literally ridiculous, I’ve paid nearly seven pounds for a single spirit and mixer there… not happy!
To be fair, that’s the only problem, the less than chic people who come here just don’t flatter the very chic décor and furniture! So, I’ve come up with two very helpful plans– of — attack for a great Sodabar experience…
1. Come on a quieter, mid-​week night, like a Monday or Tuesday to avoid the usual crowd
2. Go on a Sunday night, when drinks are £1.50 all night and get so drunk that you won’t give a hoot who is there, and get down to some serious shape cutting and then crash out in the big spaceman looking chair, or on the furry carpet, you’re choice!

Sodabar tried its level best to make me feel privileged just for being inside. And it worked… for about 3 hours.
My first experience of Sodabar came as we attended for a friends 21^st birthday. She had somehow managed to wangle the VIP area. It felt a bit ridiculous (but also pretty awesome) to go behind a little red rope, away from the peasants and get free champagne and food all night. Naturally then, my first impression of the place was that it was great. But bear in mind that I didn’t spend a single penny that evening so my view was bound to be tainted somewhat.
I then made the mistake of going back as a regular punter. What a letdown it proved to be. First of all, it’s £3 to get in, which is alright I suppose. From there on in though, unless it’s a Sunday night the drinks are pretty extortionate. I paid just under £8 for two bottles of your average lager. That makes my heart weep. So prices are no good then how about the atmosphere in there? Um… nah! That’s pretty dull as well to be honest with you. It’s decked out really nicely in fairness but that just attracts people who love to feel special and think that the high prices make this an «upper class» establishment. They’re wrong and there’s not a great vibe inside.
The best part of the whole place would have to be the upstairs decking area. I wouldn’t like to brave it in the weather we’re having as I write this but in the Summer months, it was pretty nice up there. There’s plenty of large tables and plenty of seating and it’s got it’s own bar aswell as a seperate dancefloor. That goes some way to redeeming the bar itself but not by enough. For the amount of money you’d wind up spending it’s simply not worth it.

Ahh, Sodabar. Bless its cotton socks.
This is a club that just wants to be so much more than it actually is.
Planted on Mill Lane, Sodabar seems to want to give off the scent of money, dear boy. It wants to have the appearance of being a classier place than the surrounding bars. It really, really wants people to look at it and say «wow… I wish I were important enough to go in there». Sadly, this all comes off as a little bit like one hobo sneering at the rest of them because he managed to find two matching shoes in a bin that one time.
Go upstairs and you’ll be treated to an awful blend of wannabe-​60s furniture, 80s Wall Street yuppie club and, bizarrely, a Wetherspoons. The colours are cream and murky grey, but I don’t think the grey is intentional. The drinks are overly expensive for what they are, and are served by people so far up themselves you can easily imagine them answering the innocuous question of «so where do you work?» with «THE ILLUSTRIOUS SODA BAR! I SERVED CHARLOTTE CHURCH ONCE, AREN’T I FASCINATING?»
Well, much like the club you work for, no. You really aren’t. People and businesses who are trying just oh so hard rarely are that fascinating, and Sodabar is no exception.
I will say one thing for them though; one of their chairs is shaped like a spaceman’s helmet, and that’s really, really cool.

This bar was created and designed to target a more sophisticated crowd than many of the chains surrounding it, with stylish décor and drink price tags to match. What they’ve achieved, however, is a bit trying.
Despite the attractive surroundings, with lovely wooden floors and low lighting, the place and the clientèle it attracts are both less interesting than you might hope. The drinks are nothing out of this world, and the bar seems to be full of people who love themselves and perhaps have an inflated sense of their own importance.
The club ‘membership’ means you can pay to join, then get a reduced entry each time — but unless you plan to go regularly it’s not worth it. I don’t really get this place, and probably wouldn’t bother making a second trip.

I like to surround myself with lovely things. I like to drink in a place with a lovely atmosphere and a decent carpet, I’m a fan of low level lighting and elitism. Sodabar is a place that I like purely based on aesthetics. It’s a bit, poser-​ish yes but it’s also warm and chic and provides a haven from those horrible city centre bars because it has all of this lovely wood and plush seating.
On a weekend, it’s filled with annoying people and on a week day it’s slightly dead so the clientele can leave something to be desired.
I visited with my good friend, an ex bartender (who had worked in some of the nicest bars) to see what all the fuss was about.
There’s a membership fee which allows for reduced entry, I don’t really see the point, you still have to pay at least £3 even if you’re a member and I think for non members the starting fee is a fiver, depending on what’s on.
The girls on the dance floor were a bit orange and screechy, the boys on the perimeter were a bit orange and pervy. The drinks were mediocre and the tonic for the gin wasn’t as cold as it should have been. Still, it looked pretty, until my friend moved a table on a white rug and revealed a huge white ring underneath it. I wonder how often they hoover…
Sodabar is nice, it’s alright, the setting is lovely, just don’t look too closely.

Great little cosmopolitan bar that is well hidden and very easy to miss, we found it by accident after all! The bar has a long list of great cocktails some of which are the best I’ve ever tasted which is an achievement, can not for the life of me remember how much it was to get in as I am not a regular but it was worth it, the bright lights make it even more special and become even more fun when drunk definitely worth a visit! Wish they had one near me, those cocktails really were that amazing!

Beautiful new club the new soda bar the décor is amazing and its huge in there. drinks are reasonably priced with a small glass of wine for just £3. the music is funky and cool good choice of choons ranging from a bit of funky house to a little old skool garage. the toilets are fab you will see what i mean ladies! the staff are polite and helpful. you can get an anual membership for just £50 which gets you q-​jump in busy periods and discounted entry enjoy!

Soda bar cardiff is a great bar with an extensive list of cocktails & drinks, a great atmosphere for a great night out

I’ve only ever been here for people’s birthday parties as the the bouncers and lack of signage make it feel like an exclusive, guest only bar. However, once inside the atmosphere created in such a small venue is awesome, the low light in the seated rooms with the contrasting fully lit dance floor is great. This is a really relaxing place to be even if the bar is on the expensive side.

About a year ago Soda Bar was one of those clubs everyone knew about, but no one knew how to find it. Designed for a celebrity hiding place with a shabby entrance and steep misleading stairs eventually revealed one of the most intriguing and interesting clubs of Cardiff. With no lighting except for the fire display plasma screen TV’s the venue left a lot of dark corners, perfect for celeb gossip. But times have changed and this unique club fell into the need to be an «it» club of the city. They moved up market to an area surrounded with other popular trendy bars that replicated the repetitiveness of any expensive bar. With the prices souring to over £4 a drink and the secret exclusive character lost, Soda Bar lost it’s fiery impression immediately.