This is your standard stuffy hotel bar where the décor is kitsch and the atmosphere is lacking.

The Venue
Just over the road from the Cochrane Theatre and overlooking the busy traffic of Southampton Row is the Holborn Hotel’s Hermes Lounge Bar. It is hardly the height of sophistication, with fake flame torches on the walls and overly glitzy chandeliers mounted to the ceiling. Green leather sofas and red upholstered armchairs placed squarely around bar tables provide seating, and fresh pink roses are placed in the centre of each table, which is a nice touch but does little to detract from the feel that you’re simply in a hotel foyer.

The Atmosphere
Cheesy Latin music is played through the speakers to try and create some sort of ambience, but it only adds to the foyer feeling of the bar. Staff seem weary and reluctant to come to you and take your order, but once they do they are pleasant enough. Hotel customers stop by and pre-theatre drinks are enjoyed by a few, but on the whole Hermes Lounge Bar is pretty quiet.

The Food
Bar snacks are served at Hermes Lounge Bar 24-hours-a-day, but come with a juicy price tag attached. The Holborn grilled club house sandwich (£10.95) is stuffed with fillings and served with chips, while a simple panini is £10.95, and a wrap filled with meat or cheese costs even more. Burgers, platters and lighter snacks are also available at a similar mark-up.

The Drink
Hermes Lounge Bar offers wines, spirits and cocktails to its clientele. Wine by the glass starts at £5.25, and can also be purchased by the bottle, with top dollar being paid for a Villa Maria Pinot Noir (£33.75). The sparkling wine list is most impressive, with a choice from several upmarket champagnes and proseccos.

Oriental beers are on tap, probably to draw in custom to the hotel’s Japanese restaurant next door. A pint costs around £4.50, while a good selection of bottled beers all cost £3.95. There is an impressive line-up of aperitifs, whiskies and spirits at the bar, which lend themselves well to the cocktail menu. Cocktails range from £8.50 to £10.50 in price, and include classics like the margarita and the white Russian.

Tea-drinkers are just as well cared for at Hermes Lounge Bar, with all sorts of herbal infusions and green teas for just over £3.

The Last Word
The selection of drinks at Hermes Lounge Bar is good but pricey. When you add in the lacklustre atmosphere and tasteless décor, Hermes Lounge Bar is not really worth the visit.

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