Uk Barblog

The Corn Exchange (Leicester)

The Corn Exchange (Lloyds Bar)

An absolute palace of a venue and who would have thought indeed that this was lloyds bar in its own right?It sits just beyond the lip of the market and once inside there is a cyan glow about the place which extends onto two levels with tables and seating on the divisions between the levels on the stairs. The place i pretty big- the focal point is square bar with bottles racked right up to the celing surrounded by a neon light show and upstairs another bar crops up at the far end. As ever drinks are cheap and the variety is excellent. There are also very large weird disco balls suspended all around above the punters below as I sit on the first floor looking down on everyone else.

Overall the place has great character but is badly advertised outside- probably the nicest lloyds bar i have ever been in and the building does wonders for the chacter of the brand as well. I gave this venue a 7/10.

The Last Plantagenet (Leicester)

The Last Plantagenet (Wetherspoons)

Well what to expect from a wetherspoons in the first place? No music as usual and quiet even at the most popular hours of the evening, The place is scattered with small varnished tables and old men. The curry club in here is a popular run as for a change the curry is a stronger smell than the alcohol and because its so empty the service is fast and the drinks remain the normal cheap wetherspoonsy price. The place is shaped strangely with a long room bright to the left where the window wall looks out into the road and on the right a long bar but it remains fairly narrow down to the end.

Overall if it wasn't so quiet it could be quite nice but it has no atmosphere and even the voices of the few of us and old men slurping jalfrezi doesn't drown out the poised silence and we leave behind a 5/10.

Pause Bar (Leicester)

Pause Bar

Sitting rather humbley next to the ever popular Vodka Revolution bar, this alternative offers one much better thing- no queue. And with it taking in the region of an hour to get into Revolution one can see the appeal! One enters beside a cafe through glass doors into a long RnB bar with a strong asian population with a string of couches along one side, in a large cubby corner and all at one end likened to a lounge. Cocktails cost around £4.50 which is  alittle much for leicester but excellent value for money. The decor is upmarket and the floors are all wooden. We sat rather sprawled out in the cubby area with vast seat space all to ourselves, and rather empty even at 11pm which revolution was banging we felt rather kingly if a little less hip.

Overall it is a really nice venue but it is way too quiet so i recommend bringing the crowd and having a right good night with a view to raise this above the 6/10 it gets just now.

The Loaded Dog (Leicester)

The Loaded Dog

The loaded dog proves to be a popular bar and pretty exciting place to land on your night out if you are the kind of person into the whole cheap drinks and instrumental music scene in leicester. Very popular with the studnets this particular bar offers a pub-like exterior with large bar interior of themed lighting of half-lit xmas lights and high celing, warehouse effects long tables and dance floor. Drinks are also cheap as they are sertved to us by a team of men in workmens outfits for their celebrated drink "the bulldozer" basically a double vodka red bull for £2. Theres strawberry beer on tap but its £4 a pint with a deal on to do £6 for 4 pints!! The place is also equipped with pool table, dance floor. The only let down for me was the emo/indie music.

Overall this place is a large bar, friendly accomodating, cheap well decorated and clean with a wide range of activities. It could be better advertised as a bar from the outside but other than that its easily an 8/10.

Stamford Hall Student Bar (Leicester)

Stamford Hall Student Bar

Leicester Uni has various bars dotted around its accomodation halls, this is apparently the best and most popular of them and this is truely a student bar. It is essentially a small hallway with a bar at one end and looks like all the past students old furniture has been dragged into the middle of the room and student are laying themselves upon it. The music is old dance music, the games machine broke down on us and the barman called "Dave" fancies himself for a part in a stage production of Cocktail where in fact he was lost to the students a long time ago when he dived up his own backside. I have felt more alive in my grandman's kitchen. Its quite cheap at £1.60 a pint, but I assure you thats still a little expensive for a student bar. The only noteable thing was that it was popular with the students although some daft billy-goat had the idea to have this place close at 11pm.

Overall totally unimpressed its a hole and it makes every effort to make sure you know this. Surprisingly the onyl nice thing here was the toilets and this place therefore gets 2/10. Do us all a favour and sent Dave back to the dole-office !!

Mosh Club (Leicester)

Mosh Club

A three tier rock club in the centre of leicester attracts only the most grundgey of students and although the popular belief among them is that this is one of the more expensive of the bars it is still way down on the price scale offering budget alco-pops at £1 each. I went on a Wednesday night where its four quid to get in which is apparently expensive for Leicester but I was impressed. On the ground floor it is a light rock/indie club with small stage, dancefloor and bar beside a staircase. This staircase leads upstairs to a more gothy, industrial floor with a bar and lowered dancefloor. Leading off the ground floor these is also a hidden passageway downwood to another room which has a seperated caged off dancefloor and bar at the end with spacious seating to the right, the music down here was more punky. The place is very varied for music tastes even if the place is populated by a barrage of clueless students.

In all it had a lot to offer and it remained relatively quiet all night for a club so there was always seating and at £2.50 a pint there was opportunity to be ripped off but its punters were not. Would certainly head back, it had atmosphere and character even if it is a little small for Leicester's premier rock club. Overall 7/10.

Walkabout (Leicester)

Walkabout

A cold multi-coloured hallway awaits you. With drinks costing a good 50p more a pint than anywhere else close by frowned upon by indie music and poor quality disco lighting. Splashed around the club you find an array of flat screens but they are not broadcasting anything and the place is rammed with students. Of a weekend you can expect live music acts to be on show in here and although it is really busy there is nowhere to sit and for this it feels empty and chaotic. Apparnelty this is quite the respectable venue for live music in the are ana ddespite the fact that I dislike the look and feel of the walkabout there was no denying that this was a popular feature.

Overall I was not thrilled by the prospect of having an expensive drink whilst standing ina  cold hall full of students but I wamred to the music, that is until I couldnt feel my toes and left so a gentle 5/10 for this bar.

Varsity Bar (Leicester)

Varsity Bar

A large bright open wooden bar like a walkabout awaits you here.With large bay windows at the front making this place seem grand and bulky. There are big brown couches in coves to the right and a long bar to the left. The residents are students (surprise surprise) and much like a Walkabout you get sports played on the various Tv's. There are lots of deals on drinks (they even do a 14 beer rack). The decor is of brick wall effect and the whole makeup feels too bright to drink inside. Although the bar is well stocked the staff are slow but you can get shots in here for a pound.

Overall the decor is so off-putting that it sinks this place to 6/10 especially since you need a tour guide to find the toilets some 200 miles away.

Yates (Leicester)

Yates

The Yates's bar in leicester follows the stem of the road like every other major chain on a good bar crawl so its not hard to find and in fact is a very large version of its infamous branches. There are a few bouncers on the door sporting thick attitude but inside the bar is dimly lit with a slow service and the crowd swarms onto the bar leaving plenty of room through the rest of the venue. It acts mainly like a corridor branching off into booths and then into a green lit dancefloor and Dj booth before ending on the doors of the toilets seperated by gender. The music is new wave commercial I am told and is pretty good although is kills any chance of decent conversation. Despite the size empty seats are few and far between although it must be said that the bar tends to be quite cheap for drinks.

Overall it had a good atmosphere for a Yates but it still failed to engage the punters a true bar or club combo does and stands alone at an above average 6/10.