Cuisine: American
Cost:
Rating:
Where?: 4, Golden Square, Soho, London. W1F 9HT.
Closest station(s): Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, Tottenham Court Road, Covent Garden.
Telephone: 0207 287 9241
Website: www.graphicbar.com
Nestling in the middle of the narrow streets of Soho I found myself in Golden Square – I’m not quite sure how I hadn’t stumbled across it before. On a warm and sunny Thursday the light and open square had a crowd of people standing out in the sun enjoying post-work cocktails. Wandering over, the place drawing a crowd was Graphic.
Graphic is a contemporary bar – aiming to maintain its cutting edge by opening up the decoration of the venue to a new artist every few months; a move that should stop it becoming familiar. On my visit the design was urban, the current installation coming from the artist Eine who has a penchant for graffiti on metal shutters – probably not how I would chose to decorate my bedroom but it worked well in creating an atmosphere. The passion for contemporary art is further demonstrated by the presence at Graphic of a Mark Wallinger brick. Alongside the artist focus there is also an emphasis on music, the venue having a DJ from the early evening onwards, helping to create a buzz.
Graphic appears to have broad appeal – looking around the bar from my table halfway down the long, narrow room there were varied groups including those from the City, trendy Dalstonians wearing their anorexic jeans and those from the media hubs littering the surrounding area.
The focus is on gin with a selection exceeding 120 having been amassed, purportedly the largest selection in the UK and quite possibly the world. The cocktail list is varied with the signature cocktail being their paint tin punch – fresh juices blended with different gins and served, as the name suggests, in a paint tin. The two I tried were very good, I’m not sure whether the paint tin container adds a huge amount but it certainly didn’t detract from the experience and it was at least novel. With house wine starting at £17 a bottle the prices certainly haven’t been set to beat up your wallet.
So, the venue is trendy, the music’s good and the drinks are great – this being the London Food Review however the key element for me has to be the food. Whilst Soho has a number of decent bars, when conceived the onus is seems to be on venue and drinks with food being a distant afterthought. This also seems to coincide with trendy bars often thinking it is a particularly good idea to serve pseudo-Oriental food despite it having no relevance to their brand - clearly nothing sums up chic like a spring roll. The Graphic menu therefore came as a very pleasant surprise. Putting the menu into a box is difficult, largely American with hints of the Middle East, the focus being on the sharing of small plates.
We started by sharing a plate of sliders (small burgers). All too often in a bar sliders would be an excuse to get cheap and greasy meat in stale bread out of the kitchen and to charge a premium. Before they arrived however I already had high hopes – the fact that one we chose included bone marrow suggested that a little more thought had gone into these than one may expect. The sliders were, as I had hoped, very good – well cooked, flavoursome, served in decent quality bread and grease free. At 3 sliders for under £10 I certainly didn’t feel that I was being ripped off in light of the size and quality of the dish before me.
We then proceeded onto the grills section – ordering the chicken and the salmon. Again, both were surprisingly good quality and cooked simply. The lack of any attempt at pretention behind the food continued to be a pleasant surprise. Accompanying the grills were the items that I thought summed up Graphic, namely the sides and salads. In a majority of bars you would find the option of chips, onion rings and some other items that came straight from the freezers of the horribly generic catering companies. Instead at Graphic I was able to tuck into a roast fennel salad, a refreshing summer slaw with plenty of fresh apple cutting through the dressing and these were accompanied by the crowning glory - the polenta chips. At only £3 each the sides and salads were far less you could spend around the corner for a bowl of limp chips.
Graphic is a bar and is not aiming for fine dining. The focus is, as it should be, on the cocktails – what makes Graphic a bit different is that you have opportunity to soak up the alcohol with some well-conceived and executed food, perfect for sharing amongst a group. The sharing platter, that I didn’t try, also looked particularly good. Leaving the bar my eating and drinking partner said she thought it was about the best bar food she had been served in London and by no means the most expensive. I highly recommend going there for a drink and whilst there why not get a few plates to share – you shouldn't be disappointed.