The famous Blue Elephant’s cocktail bar is a leafy – and glittery – oasis in London..

The Venue
Located in Fulham’s Blue Elephant restaurant, the Blue Bar is off to the right of the main entrance – right before the first bridge that takes you into the restaurant area. As with the rest of Blue Elephant, the bar looks and feels like a tropical oasis. Leafy green trees line the edges of the bar area and work as dividers, making your tables seem private and secluded. The seats are low and wooden, with fluffy white cushions – a bit like lounge chairs. The centrepiece, though, is the actual bar, which is so sparkly you can hardly take your eyes off it. In the shape of large boat with an elegant swan figurehead, the bar is covered with tiny glimmering pieces of multi-coloured glass.

A bit of history – the bar is actually a reproduction of the Royal Barge of Thailand, the Suphannahong, which is used to transport the King and Queen of Thailand. It’s 12.5 metres long and was fully carved out of one trunk of teak, then covered in 50,000 sheets of gold leaf and 3,000 mosaic pieces – all in all, it took more than four months to make. The Blue Bar, like the Blue Elephant, doesn’t do anything by halves.

The Atmosphere
Most guests are dining at the restaurant as well, as you’re invited to have a drink and some bar snacks before your meal. Whilst quite a few of the people are local Fulhamites and young couples, families frequent Blue Elephant as well so be prepared that you might have a kid or two sitting at the next table whilst you sip your cocktails.

The Food
It’s best to experience the food in the restaurant, but as far as bar snacks go there’s a spicy mix of nuts as well as crisp prawn crackers.

The Drink
The wine list is very extensive and is several pages long, with a few choices for wines that are made in Thailand as well as Thai-inspired French wines. Prices start at about £20 for a bottle before climbing steadily up to about £100. There’s a staggering amount of spirits as well, including a prestige list that includes Louis XIII cognac (£1,205 for a bottle), 25-year-old Springbank whisky (£2,005 a bottle) and 1957 Bowmore whisky (£4,005 for a bottle). Luckily though, these are on a separate page altogether, so no need to worry about a very expensive slip of the finger.

Cocktails are available too, most with an appropriate tropical twist (watermelon martini, fig caipirinha, tamarind margarita) and priced at about £9 - £10. The Red Dragon, made with vanilla vodka and strawberry liqueur, is highly recommended: a mixture of tart and sweet with a pretty slice of red-rimmed, black and white speckled dragon fruit on the side of the glass. There are also some spicy choices such as the Tom Yam Mary, a Bloody Mary named after the famously piquant Thai soup. Teetotallers and the aforementioned kids are catered for with a wide variety of non-alcoholic choices.

The Last Word
If you can’t afford a week of relaxing and sipping cocktails on the coast of Thailand, try the Blue Bar instead.

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