Comments and Advice from our Guests:
1) Here are some places where I’ve often found myself reveling in hapless indiscretion;
Movida – Dan and Laura are both very helpful, Michael is the burly doorman with a secret sense of humour.
Tramps – Serrafin organized our party last time, it was good but he failed to mention the 5K minimum so the night ended with a pinch … don’t make the sense mistake :P
Maddox – Amy is great, she’s got a lovely approach to hospitality and Max at the door will be good to you (quid pro quo). Sian is the owner so if you’re planning on going large he’ll make sure you get the proper treatment.
Alto – I don’t know how I feel about the layout but Yacine (general manager) is a friend, PM if you want his details.
Jalouse – a standard back-up plan to any night, if you smoke and it’s cold go to the back hallway (near bathrooms). Mo will let you have a smoke indoors through the back entrance with a little monetary persuasion. Its private so my Charlie loving friends swear by it.
2) I live in South Ken so Eclipse and Boujis are standard fare , but when Mayfair calls I would generally opt for that instead.
I would not go to Amika, it’s become something of a chav-mecca.
Movida is ok, but very pretentious
Jalouse was ok. but very strangely they made our 1/3 full 4.5 litre bottle of vodka totally vanish at some point!
Maddox is passable if you have nothing better to do….
The Top 5 Clubs in London right now:
1) Tramp
2) Cockoo
3) Movita
4) Maddox
5) Amika
6) Jealouse
3) For me the Automat, Annabel’s and Tramp.
4) I think:
Maddox/Whisky Mist -Thursday
Jalouse on Friday’s is great (won best new club)
Tramp/Cuckoo Saturday (tramp obviously need to know member or be one)
Boujis on a wednesday is awesome.
5) Try Sketch – it’s a bar kind of thing with amazing design (it’s def worth going there), and the restaurant is great as well!
Movida is good on Thursday, Maddox is good on Saturday!
You could also try Whiskey Myst (next to Nobu on Park Lane) and Mahiki (try Zombie cocktail there:))
6) Automat is a restaurant rather than a club (good food though), definetely Sketch is worth going to for pre-club drinks. Annabels and Tramps are both fairly old school types of nightclubs attracting a suitably more mature set so really depends what you’re looking for. I’ve always enjoyed Mahikis, it’s fun and unpretentious and Whisky Mist is also good. Other alternatives not mentioned here are Funky Buddha (can be a bit chavvy though) or Chinawhite (haven’t been there for ages and have heard mixed reviews about what’s it like recently).
Going out at respectable hours in one thing, however if you are a true Noctambule, consider the following:
Driver, far but really cool, same crowd as Le Montana in Paris.
To try also: British Luxury Club (owned by Tony) and L’Equipe Anglaise (owned by Sharifi). Depending on the day and time in the year, BLC is better than L’Equipe.and vice versa. I had amazing parties at both these places: an interesting mix of people, from hookers and drug addicts to elegant people.
Dont go to L’Equipe, trust me, the days of elegant people is over. There are only hookers and drug addicts who rely on Sharifi for a good time. no offence meant but this place should be tore down and renovated.
Tramp – Thursday used to be good. Saturdays is horrid, unless you have an obsession for the star wars soundtrack.
Annabelle’s always a classic, a little uptight sometimes.
I like Raffles nowadays, the only non pretentious nightclub i’ve been to in London recently. + Its on the kings rd so if your staying in chelsea, the proximity is always nice. More of a local crowd as opposed to the intl crowd in the west end.
Go to Automat on thursday is the best one
Chinawhites doesnt open again for another few weeks and gained a d-list reputation when it used to be opened.
Try whisky mist as its is pretty good at the moment however can be rather young crowd and rather full of chelsea brats.
Movida/ alto/ amika= all typical pretnetious models/ wanna-be who are there to pose but not dance, party and enjoy themselves.
Some of the top hotels have great bars for good pre-party cocktails as well as sketch. Cuckoo has a good vibe even if the music is not that great
Maybe try Aura st james – its just re opened .. deco not fab, but great music on saturday.
Best bet – any of these with your best pals and you will have fun no matter what xxxx enjoy london
Tramp – said to be the best (but i think that’s more just because it’s one of the only true members’ club, exciting the imagination of ppl not able to get in and flattering the ego of those who do…), obviously u need to know a member, and crowd is sometimes a bit young…
Jalouse – nice room, great crowd but a few bad experiences with pushy waiters and music sometimes too aggressive, also smoking area in the street is not so great…
Maddox – great music, great team, nice little garden if u want to smoke or get fresh air, they also offer decent food for a decent price if u want to have dinner before the party
Movida – crowd is not as great as it used to be but still a nice place to go to, nice music and great space, esp the lounge bar if u want to relax from the main room for a while…
Whisky Mist – nice club, nice music, but make sure u can get into the VIP room otherwise the place is a bit too small…
Boujis – the place to go to if u want a chilled out atmosphere with great music and great ppl
BLC – best place for afterparties
Many other clubs worth trying if u stay longer but that’s the ones u have to go to if u only stay for a few days ;) have fun!
There is a new afterparty club called Jet Black setup by Boujis folks. Went there recently it is worth trying at least one, it is kind a la The Box spirit in New York with shows and stuff, pretty fun
Otherwise for clubbing, I more or less agree with what has been said, we got the top 6-8 pretty well defined I think.
Aura and Automate need more recognition though
It depends on what you want… if you want ‘classy’ and a night around very money oriented minds then the west end is the place to go -
Taman Gang – Balinese name, no balinese staff, Thai decor.
Its good but like all west end clubs gets pretentious
Boujis
Boutique – under the baglioni’s hotel, not sure if its still open 24
My Top 5:
Kingly street
Mahiki
Funky Buddha – one of the better ones
Movida
Maddox
if you want the west end but not a huge price tag, check out Rubylo and another place, opposite Selfridges near duke street.
I dont know if its quite the scene you are looking for but I love the dirtier, more music oriented nights – east london, camden, brixton, shoreditch – the parties are amazing (nights like antisocial and boombox, R.I.P though). Also had some crazy nights at the hardcore big names – Fabric, Ministry of Sound, Matter (definitely worth a shout) hope this helps.
Thanks Jessica and everybody for info. I’m also going be in London for 5 days…………So, have a fun
Most of those places seem dives – or flaccid bars at best
Heaven always smashing
Ministry on a Friday for the Gallery pretty decent
Fabric Saturday for some pretty decent sounds
Cable I’m told is very good!!
The Den (ex The End) may be quite powerful…Pacha underwhelming (poor sound system although i went 2 years ago..)…Didn’t like Matter either though
Pick of the weekend coming up would probably be CIRCO LOCO at Cable or Bugged Out!!! at Fire!
The club Armada in Automat is very good. Tramp was fun both times I visited. As a bar I’ve enjoyed Kumo a lot.
I hear it’s rocking with a bizarre overhead cabaret and breakfast served!
TRAMP all the way, and btw there is no minimum spend for Tramp Zakir am a member and can gurantee that there is no minimum spend as such. That’s what makes it different from places like movida etc.
Cuckoo, see Paris Hilton below, is good on Fridays, good atmosphere, good crowd, and the 3 o clock in the morning Pasta that comes rolling in the club.
Clubs like Movida have become very touristy clubs..Movida was good 3 years ago, not now.
Jalhouse Crystal Movida all not worth it at all.
Annabelles is good too, i personally dont mind it on saturday, but the younger crowd is there on Thursday, so i think u d like that.
Harrys Bar is probably the best bar in London–i love it.
I’ve never been to Annabelles.. would love to go! Especially this weekend as tomorrow is my bday… difficult to get in? I like Tramp, is it similar to Tramp?
Roof Gardens is my favourite in good weather, although the music is starting to resemble the clubby crap they play in most clubs nowadays…Loved Chinawhite for the music but closed at the moment.
Aura has now reopened and is great on both Friday’s and Saturday’s.
Try Aura on friday it is a new venue, and Automat it is not a proper club but rely cool place
and TRAMP of course is always the best.
Portofino World, a world apart.
