Vanilla Rooms

The best way to sum up Vanilla Rooms is it’s very posh, daahling. A few of my girls and I came here for martinis one Friday evening before heading off to Ten Feet Tall.
With the obligatory mood lighting and accompanying ambient music, Vanilla Rooms does everything right in order to establish an elegant and exclusive impression, but there’s something about its atmosphere I find strangely off-​putting.
It’s one of those bars where you feel horribly out of place if you laugh out loud. I know not everywhere is like Burger King, but with only a few people scattered around not saying much, the experience would have been a bit dull were it not for the charming company.
I will say that we each enjoyed very strong dirty gin martinis, which were the perfect complement to our gossip-​fuelled discussions (which is another reason I don’t like drinking in too-​quiet establishments — people can overhear your conversations!).
Admittedly, it’d be a fantastic venue for a private party, as Vanilla Rooms is a modern and sophisticated setting that would comfortably accommodate around 30 of your closest friends.

Vanilla Rooms is a fairly chic bar located on the ground floor of the Park House Club, a stylish members-​only club for socialising and networking. Vanilla Rooms, however, is also open to non-​members, so you can pretend to enjoy a bit of the club’s exclusivity without actually paying for membership… although of course you have to accept that you’ll be amongst other riff raff wandering in off the streets!
Housed in a beautiful Grade I listed building built in 1874 and designed by William Burges, the building itself is a masterpiece in Gothic architectural design. Vanilla Rooms aims to offer a luxurious lounge bar where you can sip cocktails prepared by manager Christos Kyriakidis, who’s a bit of an expert — and they do pretty much achieve this. It is a smart place, with price tags to match — and you might feel out of place if you’re not dressed up a bit. As you would expect in a high-​end venue like this, the drinks menu also features plenty of expensive wines and champagnes, plus more than 200 spirits and liquors. If you have pockets deep enough, this bar offers a fantastic selection of drinks.
You can also hire out the whole room for a private function — for between £200−250 a night + VAT (discounted for members).

Vanilla Rooms is the little bar attached to ‘The Park House,’ a members only club that boasts a large restaurant, and upstairs wine bar and a basement nightclub/​cocktail bar. Entry to the Vanilla rooms no longer requires a membership so you can pretty much walk in off the street but it’s hidden away so unlikely to be filled with too many of the usual Friday night crowd. A year ago this was the very best place to go for a cocktail but since staff changes I can no longer vouch for it. It was friendly, laid back and the place to go for the best cocktail in Cardiff. The mixologists really cared about making the best drinks, I suppose to justify the hefty price tag. A cosmopolitan costs £6.50 and from that point the price just go up and up. I won’t even mention the top end, you’d need an ambulance. Since the passionate (and can I add, very attractive) bar staff have migrated and the membership for the bar dropped to encourage more custom the place has really changed. Gone is the relaxed ambience and soothing sounds of trip hop, replaced with orange girls in tiny dresses and a DJ who plays his records at ear splitting volume. I have no idea why, nobody ever dances…