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Friday 5 March 2010

Cocktail Heaven: dion


When I worked in the city I always found it to be pretty crap for eating and drinking. It seems people work so hard that once they've finished for the day they're off somewhere much more interesting to get sloshed. dion, (yes, dion with a little d) is a great example of an after-work city hangout though, and I just wish I'd known about it at the time.
First impressions were good - it's stylishly laid out, with lots of scarlet leather, dark wood and low lighting, plus black and white Getty prints on the walls and a chandelier made of up-turned ruby champagne glasses. The atmosphere was abuzz with chaps in suits, girls getting together over a bottle of champers and people generally having a jolly good time.

The bar menu is bog-standard - we tried generously topped nachos (the bestseller) and an antipasti plate of mozzarella, garlicky toasts, parma ham, salami, red onion vol-aux-vents and roasted peppers. Coming in at £7.95 and £7.50 respectively, these were good value for a city bar, and substantial enough as a light dinner. A formal dinner menu of burgers, steak sandwich and other such bar staples is available downstairs.

Cocktails were where dion really shone. Although it markets itself as a champagne bar, with glasses starting at £7.95, there was a decent menu of cocktail choices split into bubbly (£11.85), classics (£8.50) and dion specials (£8.50). We tried the classic Mojito, sweeter than some and right up my street, and the Resolution, our waitress's favourite and a deliciously sugary raspberry confection.

At 8pm the live music kicked in. The Allstars are a collective of London's finest session musicians, and whichever of them happen not to be on tour can be found whipping up the dancefloor in dion on a Wednesday night. The band have an impressive CV - between them they've played with Michael Jackson, Madonna and Shakira, to name a few. What with the sugar-high from the cocktails, and the infectious jazz-funk from the band, I almost felt light headed.

dion is a great city bar, and suits the area perfectly. So, city girls with a sweet tooth, next time you're in need of an after-work hangout you know where to go.

dion St Pauls, Paternoster House, 65 St. Pauls Churchyard, London EC4M 8AB

2 comments:

  1. It's going to always annoy me that it's a small d.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know! At least their cocktail names have capital letters...

    ReplyDelete

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