All Bar One

I’ve had a decent experience here in the past, with a few wins amongst misses, but my last trip really put me off a bit.
First the good… typically friendly staff with quite a large and clean establishment. I’ve also had a few of the tapas type dishes that weren’t bad, and in the past even enjoyed some although I would struggle to recall what they were exactly… I just know I haven’t always been as disappointed as my last visit, but I’ve also never had that «must be back for X» experience either.
For my recent visit I had the Szechuan Coated Crispy Calamari as a starter… they were of the strip variety and actually looked quite seasoned and good, sadly the taste didn’t live up to the look of it… they weren’t actually bad, but not as good as they had appeared. For the main I had the All Bar One Pad Thai with Prawns, which I hesitate to say is the worst Pad Thai I’ve probably ever had… to the point I wondered if there was a mix-​up and they had given me some kind of stir fry instead… I didn’t expect it to be great, given it’s not a Thai restaurant, but I was a bit taken about by how bad it was.
The two courses for £10 during some of the week is a bit misleading as well as most dishes are only at this price for the vegetable variety… because we had prawns with our Pad Thai it actually cost each of us £14 instead of £10… just adding insult to injury given the state of the Pad Thai.
The few drinks I had follow the same line as the Calamari… not necessarily bad, but no real winners as well. I tend to really like Caipirinhas, which aren’t too hard to make given their limited ingredients, but it is a drink that falters with the use of sugar syrup over actual sugar… you may not notice if you haven’t had a proper one, but it missed the mark a bit as did a few of the other cocktails I tried.
To be fair they did turn me on to G&Tea a while back… if you’re a Gin and Tonic fan it’s worth giving these a go… they have special tea bags of various flavours from Bombay Sapphire that they steep in the gin before making it into a rather tasty spin on the classic Gin and Tonic, served in a cool glass as well… on next visit I’m definitely going back to these versus the other cocktails and have even started making my own variation at home.
Another plus point would be that one of our friends had the Burger with Chips and Calamari appetiser for an actual £10… I tried a few chips and a bit of the burger and have to say both were quite good and miles above our £14 selection form the £10 menu, so if burgers don’t put you off it may be worth checking them out if you find yourself here for dinner at some point.
I’m sure I’ll be back with friends at their suggesting, and will hopefully find cause to throw in an extra star, but it’s just not somewhere I would seek out at the moment unless you have a medium sized group and are looking to squeeze in somewhere.

do not have the steaks from here! portion size is small, steaks are thin, so asking for a medium steak would be impossible, with a small garnish of potatos
taste wise it was ok, was not worth asking price
place was busy, wine £14 a bottle nothing spectaular
would have been better if it stayed the HA bar, same lay out toilets up stairs
have not been back since, not even for a drink, there are normally discount vouchers for here on line, so if you are thinking of going, see if they have any current ones.