Tucked away in a secluded corner just off Oxford Street, the Market Place is an oasis of relative calm only seconds from London’s busiest areas. Its generous outdoor drinking area is especially popular in summer months, as exhausted office workers and thirsty pre-clubbers make this the first stop of the evening.

The Venue
Order your drinks outside and have them delivered to your table, or venture inside its wood-panelled walls (a feature that gives the bar the look of a Swedish sauna) for a quick bite to eat. Upstairs the tables are small and capacity high, but downstairs in the basement you’ll find more sumptuous furnishings for serious relaxing.

The Atmosphere
Loud! As it’s often busy - on a good day the bar will serve over 1,000 people - if you’re looking for somewhere peaceful for a quiet chat and a guaranteed seat then you should probably look elsewhere. But the sound of house music pumped over the venue’s speakers and its clientele loudly talking shop certainly lends the place a lively energy. The clientele ranges from late 20s through to early 40s, with a big proportion evidently heading there straight from nearby offices after a day at the word processor. There’s no dress code but most are suited and booted or smartly dressed in other ways.

The Music
DJs take over on Thursdays through to Saturday nights at Market Place. Depending on the night you attend you will hear a diverse playlist that ranges from funk and soul to pop, rock and even some Afro-Latin thrown in for good measure. Entry is always free.

The Food
There are two distinctively different menus at work, with the more substantial lunch menu offering more hearty meals like the Market Burger with fat wedges (£8.50), beer-battered cod and chips (£9.20), chicken, duck, wild mushroom and tuna salads in starter and main course form (£5.50-£8.50), and simpler starters like gazpacho soup (£4.50), mussels (£5) and sardines on toast (£6). In the evening the menu switches to smaller, more tapas-style grazing designed, by the bar’s own admission, to be served quickly and prove a good complement to the drink rather than vica versa. Mix and match from an array of mini kebabs and burgers, feta cheese filo envelopes for the vegetarians, bruschetta, squid and so on - the more you order, the cheaper it gets.

The Drink
Cocktails are Market Place's pride and joy. It’s an original selection, with unique trademark cocktails like Passion Martini (£6.50), or the equally fruity Mandarin Cap (£6.25), a blend of oranges, limes and Absolut Mandarin that creates a refreshing (and re-hydrating) result.

Whisky cocktails like Jack’s Julep (£6.50), a sugary mix of Jack Daniels and mint leaves, and the Lynchburg Lemonade (£6.25/ £15 a sharing bowl), blending JD with Cointreau, Angostura, lemon juice, sugar and soda, are another attraction. The bar also offers a choice of ten-plus red and white wines, ranging from Pinot Bianco La Casada Botter and Merlot La Casada Botter (both at £3.65 per glass), right up to bottles of Chateau Lamonthe Cissac (£45), the wonderfully named Meursault-Charmes Domaine Boissard Lardy (£49) and bottles of Moet & Chandon Rose Imperial (£70). Braver souls might want to try a bowl of the Market Place punch, based on grapefruit vodka and Pimms (£23.50), while less adventurous might opt for pints of Peroni (£4.20) or bottles of Steinlager (£3.40).

The Last Word
If you want the extravagance of a quality cocktail bar but haven’t got time for all the Tom Cruise-style bottle spinning behind the bar, then this is the place for you. As West End watering holes go this one is quicker, friendlier and more reasonable than most.

venue information venue map view london review write a review image gallery (3) club listings what's on   venue hire