Forge

Typical city bar with grand interior and strong, pricey drinks.
Came here around 10pm on a Saturday night for a friends birthday and it was empty. Dead.
Our party of 20 were the only people in the whole bar. I guess that’s good in some ways, but the whole place was seriously lacking in atmosphere.

The Forge is not bad for a city bar. Although it can depend on what night you’re there and what the crowd is like. A night of boring suits and cheesy music can be a bit meh! but get the right night (ie: Friday) this place is buzzing and the music is great!
A respectable range of alcohol, not the best but not bad either and competent service make this a satisfactory drinking whole.
Big upstairs and downstaris, but downstaris is where the magic happens — music that is!

A sleek urban bar with a vibrant atmosphere and a hotspot for suits mixed with hens party affliates.
Not the best service on arrival (if it takes longer than 7 minutes for me to even order a drink I start getting angsty) but once they got into the flow of things I was happy.
We were originally placed on a long narrow rectangular table which made it feel like we were attending a board meeting, but on request were moved to one of the cosy booths.
Drinks were excellent and the 2 for 1 cocktails and 50% off bottles of wine made for a deliciously exhuerbant night. The staff knew how to shake a good mixer. The food flying quick and fast outta the kitchen looked like nibbles from heaven.
Perfect atmosphere for those sneaky after 5pm drinks on a weekday.

I was there for the first time in January when they did a 50% OFF promotion. I immediately liked the industrial design interior. The lucky streak continued with delicious cocktails. I had an absolutely delicious salad that is not on the menu any more but I was far from disappointed when I tasted the salmon salad on my second visit some months later. My friends were all more that happy with their pulled pork, chicken, and burgers. It was also fun to watch the chefs do their magic in the open kitchen.
I’d go again to have another amazing salad and maybe some cocktails.

Came her on a Weds night. It was a strange experience having been to the bar under it’s previous name of Abacus to come back after so many years away.
It had a nice atmosphere and didn’t feel like the meat market it was. Service was fairly quick and the nibbles were good.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here but it’s a good place to pop in after work.

Lovely Cocktail bar that is much more sophisticated than the average pub in central London. The crowd is friendly, young and full of energy. They have an extensive cocktail menu with delicious wine choices to compliment. While visiting there was also a DJ playing music making it a very lively atmosphere.

Having never been to Abacus, some friends and I ended up at its new incarnation, Forge, a few months back. It’s conveniently located in the city, but was laid back and but not too crowded when we visited at around midnight on a Friday.
Our group of 5 was able to find a table easily. The drinks and music are fairy standard, but the large dance floor would make for a fun evening in a group.
My one slight gripe is that the girl on the door was pretty rude. We visited with Texan friends who were over in the UK, and they actually asked whether all London door staff have that attitude. Our group was not overly intoxicated, but the lady acted as if she was doing us a favour by allowing us (paid) entry. This might be understandable during peak hours and with huge groups, but we were a small group at a quiet time for the bar. Hopefully the Forge works on this attitude, otherwise it may put me off returning.

We got a warm welcome from Giles and who also very knowledgeably talked us through the 100 cocktail list and made recommendations, which he had had input into from his experience as a bar manager.
Regarding the cocktails, I opted for No 35 as it has two of my favourite ingredients in it elderflower cordial and Ketel Vodka! It arrived as a pretty shade of green in a cut glass goblet, very attractive.
We then turned our attention to the food, I opted for the coca cola glazed ribs with apple and fennel slaw (£15). My rack of ribs was a nice size, sometimes I find the humongous things that look like they should be balanced on the side of the Flinstones car overwhelming. This one was just right and the meat was nice and tender. Sadly I found the marinade to be a bit generic, with no hint of the coca cola glaze, it tasted mostly of ketchup. The apple and fennel slaw was lovely and refreshing and I would have liked a bit more of this to balance out the fatty meat.
We moved on to dessert, I opted for the chocolate brownie with caramel ice cream. This was really good, fudgey, dark and dense and nicely offset by the ice cream (thankfully not salted as too many are these days!).

We settled in with cocktails, talked through the list by Giles (Restaurant Manager), who also gave us a historical background on the creation of the negroni. Clearly lots of thought has gone into the list which focuses on classics with a twist.
In the bar and nightclub area in the basement, they had got a local artist to create the art in the VIP area wall backdrop as well as the textured wall in the private hire lounge.
I enjoy my favourite drink — a negroni — whilst I made my menu selection. I plumped for the cider belly pork (£13). It was soft, succulent and complemented by the vanilla and Bramley apple sauce, and came with fabulous crackling that has not been over-​salted (as has happened in other restaurants).
Ended with a fabulous, well balance chocolate brownie with caramel ice cream.

I never thought I would say this about a place which used to be Abacus, but it is actually pretty great!
It helped that my friend and I went there on a Monday for dinner — it had a few people around, but not crowded.
I liked the differently styled seating areas — so you can choose which ‘ambiance’ you want to have when you’re dining. The service was good and the food was really good!
I ordered grilled salmon as a main and my friend went for pork ribs. My salmon fillet was enormous (and it only was £13.50…in the City!!) I couldn’t finish it, but it was delicious and juicy on a bed of salad. They could have added bit more salad leaves though… I love my greens! It also came with new potatoes — so if you are hungry — you won’t be after having that. The ribs were good too, my friend finished it in a breath and loved it (I tried and loved it too!)
You would not imagine how pleasantly surprised we were when our bill came and apparently on Mondays they have 2-​for-​1 mains, so we paid about £8.50 each. For a good dinner. In the City. Amazing.
We didn’t have any drinks /​cocktails — but we went downstairs to check out the bar /​clubbing area and although it was closed when we saw it, we decided to check it out during a Thursday night.
They did a nice job re-​doing the whole Abacus thing, so I’ll report back when I check out their night scene!