Dalston Jazz Bar

Fantastic, even when you come on your own. For shure a great place and last reminecent of another time is this venue a jewel in old fashioned dinner-​and-​jazz etablisments!
You order drinks and get fresh cooked food with it– whatever the chef likes to cook that day. And he does very nice african inspired experiments! As the bill shows only the drinks make shure you rise your tip high up. Very casual service, friendly and convinient. You can sit in their unique garden and watch the gangsters and hipsters strolling by or enjoy life music inside.
Great decoration!
After dinner this turns into a serious club until early morning and the chef turns into a DJ.

Perhaps the best hospitality in all of London. The chef/​owner/​dj is a mascot and lovely. Any time we have come, and if the music has been late or cancelled, they welcome you warmly and accommodating. Truly a lovely place with a great team. I love coming here: great value, comfortable, warm and free love music. You can’t go wrong.

They kicked us out half way through the meal and wouldn’t accept our Unilocal voucher– and shouted at us. That’s one place I wish I had never been to!

I had a fantastic night here! Easily one of the best dance ‘n drink experiences I’ve had in London.
Why doth I love Dalston Jazz Bar so?
An excellent soundtrack for one, starting with soul, moving to motown and then later (alas) some Cypress Hill. A slightly indecisive DJ at times, sure, but I guess that just added to the charm.
Space to dance was another reason. We arrived sometime between 11 and 12, and there was plenty of space. A few punters too, but admirably dancing away in one part of the bar rather than standing around hiding behind drinks like a school disco. I mean, let’s face it, dancing is far more fun when one has space to… ‘express yourself’ fully, something which in one’s typical rammed club/​pub one doesn’t. It did fill up a little later but there was still space to move.
Great crowd. By that I mean non-​sleazy and there simply to have a good time. And friendly too — I got to know most of them, which just stoked the fun levels yet further.
Add to that the friendly bar staff and door men and, wow. I confess I was hitherto a little unsure of Dalston’s cool factor. Now I’m beginning to get it.

I’m a huge huge fan. There is little to no pretentiousness here despite being in the heart of Dalston and the music had us dancing all night long.
They were splicing Lionel Ritchie with Sister Nancy and ABBA, then hitting up some Bob Marley and before you know it some French parlour music. Obviously that might just be the DJs we saw but any place that hosts such an eclectic mix is a fave of mine.
They served some good rum. What let them down however is only having 2 toilets and they ran out of certain drinks pretty quickly and near the end switched to only selling bottles of beer for a fiver… a fiver!

Dalston Jazz Bar is situated at the very heart of the Dalston cultural renaissance. Nearby are the vortex jazz club, café oto, servants quarters, and the relocated CLR james library adjacent to the overground station, and across from there is the curve garden. Recently, arcola theatre has moved to Ashwin street next door to café oto.
So all this and the new apartments going up. All this and also the cross-​rail construction locally amounts to upscale development and urbane sophistication.
So Jazz Bar Dalston has been very much a pioneer of this whole dynamic, opening in the area well-​before all the aforementioned venues.
Jazz Bar Dalston is a well-​established jazz restaurant, which caters to the french model of plate du jour menu, which varies, offering dinner with wine and live jazz. After two sittings for dinner and the two sets of live jazz, the venue then transforms into a late club with djs, and room for dance floor.
This formula along with the interior design etc and welcoming and professional staff, make this place a very popular draw within the hive of activity that Dalston has become. It is advisable to book early by phone to avoid disappointment, as the jazz bar Dalston is often fully booked.

The service was extremely poor. We bought a wowcher and the only way to redeem the voucher was booking the table via email. He refused to take bookings over the phone. Robert Beckford which was dealing with the enquiry and took about 4 days to respond to the email, if at all.
When I asked to deal with someone that was willing to respond to my email/​inquiry he responded with this email:
From Robert:
Excuse me ! I have responded to your email: I think it’s best for you to get a refund. The refund you get from the person you buy the voucher from: there you are I have dealt with your inquiry: have a nice day.
Needless to say we attempting to get a refund.

It’s hot, sweaty and packed with a buzzy party vibe — I have always had a good time here and meet friendly interesting people, I have to say I have a bit of a soft spot for the Jazz Bar. The music is good — generally a mix of swing/​soul/​funk with some downright cheesy numbers thrown in. The décor is 60s inspired rough and ready with big ice bins full of beer and a makeshift bar — the barmen even dress in sailor suits, sweeet.
But be warned it can get so crowded that you can’t move, and there is generally a massive queue for the loos.

Jazz Bar I love you so. If you were a boyfriend (which by the way I know a building cannot be a boyfriend, but let’s pretend), you would be be a very foxy friend with benefits. I look you up every once in a while for a good fun time as we get on like a house on fire, but know that a long term relationship just is a very silly idea!
I say this because although I adore Jazz Bar, I just couldn’t go there every week. It’s a tiny little heaving sweat box filled with happy drunk dancing people (or maybe it should be swaying people as there is just no space to throw shapes). Plastic pint cups of cocktails that are strong enough to kill a large horse served by bar men dresses up in sailor suits are just what the doctor ordered to keep the heaving masses merry. And you get very merry. It’s just how it works in there.
Down sides to the place is the lack of toilets and the fact that you look like a sweaty marathon runner after you leave. Oh, and the fact that they are charging £2 entry fee now.
Don’t go if you like a nice spacious classy bar full of refined banker types talking about SAT results and tax breaks though, because that just soooo isn’t what this place is about. And that’s why I love it so.

Oh. My. God… which oneeayyaallll wants to:
1) wait 15 minutes in the line outside
2) enter to find it so hot you have to strip down to your knackers
3) discover you dont feel like wrangling your way to the bar to get a drink
so you just rock on with the music (no jazz I heard), sweat it all out, and embrace the hot sweaty vibe of the #1 afterparty in the east.
oh, by the way, there’s a hair salon right across the street SAVVY & Something that seemed to have just as good and jammin a party as DJB. Was tempted to head over and get some of that.

I’ve heard about this Dalston institution — But never seem to venture enough east and tend to stick to the haughts of Camden and with the central Shoreditchians but I’m glad I went on the hike to the Dalston Jazz Bar because it didn’t disappoint.
I would describe it as a fun-​filled sweat box with lots of odd-​ball characters thrown into the mix. No entry fee. Mojitos were served in large plastic pint glasses for only a fiver [My fave cocktail!], music was great and the barmen were dressed as sailors hahaha brilliant!
if you seek — you will find… and probably won’t leave until 6am the next morning.
I’ll visit again — Just for its randomness.

The smell of mojitos first alerted me to the presence of this bar — you can smell them from down the road!
Tucked away nicely, cosy inside, delicious mojitos and good tunes means this bar is a great place to hang out! As it is quite small you are in danger of being squished when it reaches busy times (usually about midnight) so good luck gettign a table!

I’ve only been here once, but this has to be one of my favorite bars anywhere.
The first time I saw this place I thought it was a crack house masquerading as a bar, as it looks pretty dodgy in daylight (eg one of the windows was smashed in). However, when I walked past later that night there was a total transformation.
This place gets totally pumping, and when I was there the ambient air temperature was 5 or 10 degrees higher than outside due to the number of bodies they cram in. I wouldn’t want to be here during a fire.
The music is great, the people are cool (and the bouncers are good at kicking out the retards), the drinks are reasonably priced… it’s just awesome.
Don’t plan on doing much except drinking and dancing.

Total time there = 5 hours.
Remembered time there next day = 10 minutes
Amount of bacon needed to recover = lots
Awesome

Could this be the best place to shake your tail feather in all the land? Possibly.
It’s hot, sweaty and sounds delicious with a super funky crowd.
And the best thing about it? It doesn’t close until the birds start atweeting. Prepare for a 6am homecoming. Too much fun.

Ha ha ha! The Jazz Bar in Dalston is a gem of a place. I say this as it is open until 6 am and when the party has ended everywhere else it continues here. You can find a whole host of characters, and quite a few dodgy ones on the weekend but generally the crowd is friendly. This venue is almost always packed and with no ‘door charge’ its one in one out after 12pm.
The bar serves drinks in plastic cups and only has 2 toilets, which considering the amount of people they cram into this place is crazy. I think I really like the place because it doesn’t pretend to be anything it isn’t. It’s a grubby bar that plays decent enough jazz, soul and old skool R n’ B to keep you dancing for a couple of hours. If you want to go somewhere late at night and dance in complete strangers personal spaces, as so often I feel the need to do, then please go. I will see you there.
NB. I have marked this place as 5 stars as it is beyond any expectation that you may have of such a place.

Despite the fact that it has progressively with time, stopped playing jazz and mutated its music policy into a curious mix of electro pop and outright cheese, I still have a fondness for this establishment. Back when I first moved to Hackney it was the only place you could find a late night drink if you didn’t want to go to a bashment club or try and ingratiate yourself into one of those private Turkish men’s members’ bars (you know the ones where the lights are on all night, and if the door is ajar there are always people playing pool?).
The guy who owns it apparently has other ventures (but sadly, no website where you can find them!) and is the kind of person that you end up spending quite a lot of time talking to, despite the fact you came with a group of friends.
Now, it’s a well established drinking den for people who are on their way from other bars in the area but just want to go for ‘one more drink’ (famous last words). From the outside, it does look a bit like a university library or sixth form common room. Luckily though, it isn’t crammed with teenagers. It’s still Dalston’s best kept secret for the nightcap brigade.
The crowd is always a mish-​mash of whoever has managed to stay up until the small hours; ‘tourists’ from Shoreditch, clubbers decompressing out of their hyper excited stage, ready for the ride home, people who have just come back from gallery after parties (of which there are many in Dalston), sleazy lone men, hoping to use the bar’s diminutive to get a quick bit of female-​loving frottage in before they go to bed.
Don’t be worried if you see a large queue on approaching. The ‘crowd turnover’ rate is quite high. Probably because of that sleazy guy

It might be to its credit that I have never actually heard any jazz in the jazz bar, I mean there’s a time and a place for contemplative chin stroking and 6am on a Saturday morning in Dalston is definitely not it, anyway for hardcore fans there’s the Vortex Jazz Club just around the corner. I think the jazz aspect is more in the atmosphere, name and décor than the music policy but either way this a great bar for any occasion.
With its glass fronting, this bar is like a little fishbowl just off the high street, great for watching the strange goings on of Dalston (I once saw a huge police bust of the flat opposite whilst sitting safely inside, sipping a beer). The windows steam up on the super busy weekend, as the minuscule bar gets completely packed with locals and late night Shoreditch immigrants.
Early in the evening, friendly bar staff in crisp white shirts and black tie serve up cheese and biscuits for free and it’s a great place to chill out, with a usual selection of soul classics and a well stocked bookshelf. The low bar and random assortment of sofas and chairs give this place a really cosy living room feel.

I remember this place fondly. We had all been drinking in central London after a friend’s gig. It was a really successful night and we were enjoying ourselves. One of our party lived near The Dalston Jazz Bar and suggested we go there to carry on drinking. One of the reasons for our little detour (The Dalson Jazz Bar is really far away from where we actually stay) is because he said it was open pretty much all night long — result!
It was already well past 1am and the place was jumping. It’s pretty tiny inside but the atmosphere is absoloutely electric with DJs spinning some really cool jazzy tunes, lots of people around 25+ chatting, grooving and drinking. This was the perfect place for a late night retreat for the all-​nighter party animal!
I think we ended up leaving around 4am and it was still pretty busy and going strong. I wish there was a place like this near our flat, it would be perfect to be able to have a drink in a cool, hip kind of place, without being pretentious and not getting kicked out really early either. Awesome…

It’s 2 am, you’re thirsty and still have 2 hours of dancing left in you. Where are you going to go? JAZZ BAR!
This place is perfect. Roger the owner has great taste in furniture (20^th Century) and Music (40’s-Current)
The mojitos are great and only £5
Its open in the week too and they give you free cheese and biscuits, and sometimes cake!
Don’t go if you are claustrophobic and don’t like very close bodily contact with strangers, don’t like it when places get a bit warm, don’t like queuing for the loo. Also, good for people on the prowl for a new ‘friend’…