From Old Street: take the exit for Shoreditch and head along Old Street until the road forks. Take the left fork (past the Foundry pub) and continue on until you reach Curtain Road. Turn right and the pub is just down on the left. From Liverpool Street: take the Bishopsgate exit from the station and turn left up Bishopsgate. Walk for about five minutes until you reach the junction with Great Eastern Street and turn left. Cross over as soon as you can and take the third right into Curtain Road. The bar is just up the road on the right.
Having spent what seems only a few weeks as 'Hell', Bar Music Hall, as it became, injected a bit of life into an area which seemed to be losing its spark. It's a big space with a long history and has, at various times, been a cabaret club and a (pre-gentrification) rave venue. The interior is dominated by a central bar, at which cocktails and an impressive array of expensive imported beers can be found; just beware that the beer labels for the pumps are only found on one side of the bar. The service is mixed but you rarely feel your life ebbing away waiting and the door policy is normally fine, albeit pointlessly annoying on Saturday nights. The music is certainly varied (and always "cutting edge") with different events on various nights; DJs might play anything from electro-clash to early 90s dance, although Whigfield's 'Saturday night' was a little too post-ironic for us. Like many nearby places, it comes alive on weekends (albeit rarely unpleasantly busy) and consequently you might find it a little soulless at the quieter end of the week. Overall, if you want a trendy place to go and have fun, listen to eclectic tunes and secretly laugh at the more excessively dressed Hoxton clientele then there's no reason not to go.
reviewed: 06/01/2007
Eating at TheBar Music Hall (ex Hell)... we last ate here on 14/7/2006
Kitchen opening times: Mon-fri: 10am-5pm & 6pm-10pm, Sat 10am-10pm, Sun 10am-9.30pm. Simple stuff: burgers, salads, breakfasts (till 3pm), sandwiches etc. Nothing too expensive.
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I wish I'd read some of reviews before celebrating my birthday, post pub here. We only came here as the place I wanted to go was closed and this was nearby. For some reason the door staff were so rude and only let three people in at a time, although once inside the place was half empty! We were a mixed sex group, so I don't see why there was a problem there. Having spoken to the manager, we all managed to get in, but the door staff's attitude put a bit of a dampner on things. I would advise people to try other places than put money in people's pockets that don't know a good customer when they see one.
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