Old Bengal Bar

The hipper, cocktail twin to the wine bar next door.
And a much more civilized affair than that racket which calls itself the Magpie down lane (that fittingly abuts a police station, by the way), the Old Bengal targets the higher brow amongst working professionals,
Outdoor seating like this is hard to find in this part of London.

Nice outdoor space with heat lamps– staff was really nice as well and took care of my group. Indoors was nice and bumping. Nice to know a good bar near work

Very cool place — and seems to be not that well known because my friends and I were able to get a table on a saturday night. The staff were friendly and quick. The music isn’t so loud that you can’t talk to people. Décor is beautiful. Will probably go back.

I’m a city dweller and frequent this area often.
Met a few Unilocal to have send off drinks for Kevin. sniff snif… it’s true, Kevin is leaving us. sniff sniff
This bar is slightly intimidating with the security at the door asking questions. Really they were just trying to accommodate me, but I took it as «what do you want». Took me a minutes to realise this. They were just trying to ask if I needed help.
The best thing about this bar is the outdoor atmosphere (outdoor heating lamps) and hand lotion in the loos! Oddly an establishment can get star jumps just for the bogs alone! And yes. the bogs were lovely! Girls bogs anyway.
The drinks were a bit more than average. I paid 8 pounds for a wine and 10 for a cocktail. But a few pounds extra is normal for a nice establishment such as this one. Hey… it’s London. If you want cheap, move to Texas!
I would happily return!

This smart new bar is one of four swish new eating and drinking places opened in a former East India Company warehouse, which feature exposed cleaned brickwork, chic furniture colours and a large relaxing heated outside area. It is mainly targeted at City fringe business types, yet I think this is for a more mixed (age and gender) subset who are more discerning and like to take more space and time than the regulars in many Liverpool Street drinking dens. There’s a price to match it’s £9.50 for most cocktails and certainly no happy hours, which is fair enough, though don’t randomly select the (surely mistyped) Royal Daiquiri at £195! The six cocktail lists are each intuitively categorised, and there is enough but not too much choice on each list: We sampled from the sweeter Rum-​based list, an American bourbon list, the Bloody Marys and a fruit-​based Eau de Vie one, which is where we embarked on our journey: Even though they said they didn’t have ‘quite’ the unusual Spicy Cherry cocktail described, they brought us complimentary versions that tasted to us pretty spicy and cherry like! Then we ordered the exact Blush (sweeter) and the precise New Orleans Twist (sourer) from the American list, which were also as good as promised — simply presented, very tasty and alcoholic enough certainly not the buckets of coloured crushed ice you find in too many bars nearby. It’s maybe not the right place to go to eat, with a limited choice e.g. £16 burgers, but that is what the equally new next door New Street Grill is for (carnivores) and the next but one Fish Market place (pescatores) And Fabio, the assistant bar manager, and all his staff were exceptionally helpful, genial and knowledgeable.

At first glance, this is a standard City bar. Slick look, loud music, and a main bar area filled with suited bankers. What sets it apart is the fairly sizeable outdoor area with a good collection of heat lamps to ward off the autumn chill and a fairly high bartender to customer ratio.
OBB has only been open for 10 days so one can forgive the lack of coordination of the waitstaff but as YGO says, they did not lack for energy and enthusiasm. I found our first waiter to be fairly smooth with a good bit of banter thrown in. Some of the others were a bit stiff in their three piece suits but the lovely lady who served Kevin, Nava, and I at the end was absolutely brilliant. She had that right balance of flirty with plenty of sass and an ultra helpful manner. Just for her, OBB went up from 3 to 4 stars in my humble opinion.
Note: OBB is one of three new D&D spots in the area and the worst signposted of the lot. The entrance is through the gates directly opposite the Magpie pub but is so obscure that the security guard at the entrance frequently has to ask lost looking potential patrons if they were looking for OBB. Probably something to fix, D&D.
Drinks-​wise, the menu is filled with mostly classic cocktails with a few twists. My first pick was a «Great Pair» although I confess it was more for the name than anything else. Built on a whiskey base, the cocktail includes lychee liqueur and is served with a fanned pear. It was sweet and slightly fruity with just a hint of smokiness from the whiskey so overall an easy start to the night. Nava’s Dirty Truffle martini exuded a strong truffle smell but lacked any taste beyond a slight burn of vodka. The promised garnish of black truffle shavings never materialised which was unfortunate.
Second round for me was an old fashioned from proper Maker’s Mark bourbon. Points to the waitress for asking what type of whiskey I’d like in an old fashioned (which isn’t on the menu). It was well executed although I ended up swapping with Nava as her Churchill (12 yr old Chivas Regal base with orange liqueur) wasn’t quite up to expectations. It was smoky and sweet which suited me just fine though but the garnish was switched from an orange twist to a cherry.
Finally, we asked about the bartenders’ confidence level in their Sazerac making abilities which sounded promising when our waitress indicated that it would take 5 – 6 minutes to make each drink. These were by far the best drink of the night and were also off-​menu. It speaks to the skill of a bartender to make such a classic that, despite its few ingredients, is often truly awful to drink. This had the perfect amount of citrus to take the edge of the rawness of the Sazerac rye without overwhelming its flavour. Bonus points for this one!
The liquor license only allows for outdoor drinking until 11, at which point you have to go inside into the dark and cramped quarters of the main bar. Overall, I’d suggest OBB for the start of the night where you can relax in the spacious terraced seating but as far as the interior it’s more chaos than class and not worth the time.
Price-​wise, it was as expected with all cocktails (including the Sazerac) coming it an 9.50 with the exception of the Dirty Truffle at 14.50. Service is included at 12.5% although is considereed «optional». Still, a worthy addition to the D&D Group and hopefully they will sort out the minor coordination issues with time.

Being a south Londoner, I don’t frequent the City very often but Andrew M’s UYE for Kevin L’s leaving drinks was a perfect excuse to explore this unfamiliar part of London
Located on New Street which is right opposite Liverpoool Street station made me confident of not getting lost. However, the bar proved harder to find that I had (over)confidently predicted. I think that I’m not the only one with that problem as a waiter cum security chap standing on the street asked me what I was looking for and then informed me that I was actually outside the bar
On my way out, I looked again and there’s a small menu on the wall outside but there’s no sign announcing ‘Old Bengal Bar’, so be aware!
The bar was filled of City folk or perhaps my perceptions of City folk. The drink prices were to match — around £10 for a cocktail, £8 for a glass of wine
The nicest thing about this place is the environment. There’s indoor and oudoor seating. We managed to snag a very comfortable outdoor sofa and chairs and cushions that Jennifer S proclaimed were dreamy enough to sleep on. Outdoor heaters kept us warm enough on a definitely autumnal chilly evening. The only slight downside to this lovely setting was the drift of cigarette smoke, perhaps an unintended side effect of the smoking ban, which has turned al fresco dining into an irritatingly smokey affair at times
There were a good number of staff — the security chap, a pretty lady whose job all evening seemed to be to smile prettily at customers as they entered the bar area, quite a few waitresses and a few besuited guys. However, it did seem a bit Frank Spencer-​ish at times as I watched them trying to coordinate themselves. There were looks of surprise at times when we asked for menus or tried to place orders for drinks. However, they all seemed to be eager to please but to be honest, if you have legs that work, it could be faster to go to the bar yourself
I didn’t drink but my fellow Unilocalers were intrigued by some unique cocktails on offer though their success was variable — Nava N’s truffle cocktail wasn’t really a marriage made in heaven
Jennifer S was impressed enough by the lotion in the lady’s bathroom to want to award a star for this. To be fair, her hands did smell nice!
I didn’t see any Old Bengals, any Bengal tigers, any Cincinnati Bengals or any Bengali food but this was a nice occasion to bid a sad farewell to the departing Kevin L. That’s until London Unilocal’s field trip 3.0 to New York to visit him, of course!