This is the worst bar I have ever been to in London. As an events coordinator myself I was utterly disgusted by the racist manager. It was my Husband and my 30th birthday drinks we had reserved an area and told them that we were expecting about 40 guests. They started to refuse entry to some of my guests for dressing to casually, yet they were letting in other that were dressed the same as my guests. Unfortunately my guests didn't take too kindly and did swear at the manager, but we found out from his own staff that he only allows a certain number of coloured people in before not allowing any more in. I came down to speak to the manager who was rude and behaved with the social skills of a baboon. He didn't like being argued with and had no room to move so decided it was acceptable to push my female friend out of his way while she took a fall back...and then had the audacity to deny it (it happened right in front of me) and would not even apologise to her for that. It gets better still...he then calls the police over and claims that my guests were trying to climb over his counter and steal his money...all of my guests were either upstairs at this point or outside as they had been refused entry.

My advice to you is...there are hundreds of decent bars in London, please don't line this racists managers pockets with money and custom that he clearly doesn't deserve!

Was given a coke instead of long island ice tea. witnessed someone else being given 3 waters instead of vodka tonics. Too crowded..too expensive. full of gawking tourists. puke smells haunt the corridors. Irate bouncers giving dirty looks and trying to chat up women.

Very bad experience with this club.We booked a table to celebrate my friend's and bf's b-day and they didn't let my bf and his friends in because we didn't come together as a group! Save £25 for deposit and don't book a table there as there is no guarantee they will let your friends in even if they are on a guest list! Also the staff was very rude, they treat customers like annoying flies. I won't definitely go there again and don't recommend the club to anyone.

On most weekdays only one bar is open and it's still usually quiet. It appears many have voted with their feet, a shame for a venue of this size and location.

I admit that I do pop in on occasions for convenience, it does look like a significant proportion of the clientele are tourists doing there own thing. The bland atmosphere does allow for a thought shared with a colleague without intrusion whilst having a drink, the deafening pop music drowns out the conversation leaking to other ears.

I agree how it looks and how the business is run, does make it appear pretentious, this also makes some people behave this way too, whether it's staff or customer.

Despite many shortfalls mentioned it doesn't bother me much. My biggest gripe is the mention of class by other reviewers (I recall at least one), really? there is zero class if you're generally more mature than a teenager.

Picadilly Institute is my favourite club ever ! I've been there on a saturday, friday and wednesday, it's always really good. Lots of different rooms, good music, expensive drinks it's true -but same prices as everywhere in this area-, and I don't know what it is with the people who found the staff rude ! Maybe they changed their staff because of the bad feedback, but all the times I went I talked and laughed with the doormen who were nice and funny ! I would recommand it if you like quite classy clubs, but not if you're looking for very cheap drinks.

For my friends's 18th birthday, me and 14 other girls were extremely excited to go to Piccadilly Institute. We arranged to have a table reserved for £25 and for us all to be on the guest list. As we were taking a long bus ride to central London we arranged to have 3 of our male friends to arrive before 10pm and we were told our table would be reserved. In addition, we were also promised free entry depute arriving after 10pm because some of our party would arrive on time. However, when they arrived the guys were denied entry (mainly because 14 girls are preferred to 3 guys and I guess they didn't believe we would turn up, despite us all being on the guest list). Of course, by the time we arrived it was after 10. We explained our situation to any staff that would listen and they're responses were very rude and abrasive. Calmly and sober, we explained what we had been promised but they refused to give us our table, free entry and refused entry to the three guys and one of the girls in our party. They even refused to give back the £25 paid on the table we never used and most probably re-sold it that night. It wasn't the fact that we lost the table, denied free entry and 4 members in our party were turned away, it was the sheer rudeness and inability to even attempt to understand when we addressed the staff. In addition, they just didn't seem to care about our service nor did we feel as if we were valued customers even though we were 14 beautiful 18 year olds who would clearly spend a lot of money. They were so unwilling to negotiate and save our night out. I won't ever consider making another trip to Piccadilly Institute because if the service inside is anything like how we were treated outside, theres no way I want to spend my evening somewhere like that. I plan to enlighten all of my friends about our London clubbing experience and I certainly shan't be recommending Piccadilly Institute to anyone.

If you're a tourist go here. It's better than when it was onanon but pretty bland. They've done some good decoration and the hat club is quite fun but it's somewhere you'd go with work friends on a Wednesday. Really average.

Well, there must be some people who are very hard to please. I booked a kgb deal on the Internet for this venue and was worried when I read the reviews. Do not rely on reviews checked it out for yourself and make up your own mind. My daughter and I visited Monday evening and loved it. Staff very friendly and helpful, despite being very busy. Wonderful cocktails, and food was delicious. Only slight disappointment was that only one room open on Monday's, but the lady bar tender offered to arrange for us to look at other rooms, however we were unable to stay and see them as we had to leave for the theatre. We will definitely be visiting again when next in London.

This club is awesome- the staff were so nice, we got cheap drinks and a area.. this place goes off!

Did not like this place at all. Only old people and very high prices.

The staff is just horrible. I've been insulted by a waitress with absolutely no reason, just because she was having a raw at my friend and I told him to ignore her. And then, trying to complain to her manager, she started yelling at me too before I had a chance to even explain what happened. Only then she apologized...

Terrible club. Too hot, too expensive and very pretentious.

They pack too many people into the place and the layout is extremely confusing. The staff are rude beyond belief and the location ensures the crowd is sufficiently tourist-based.

Would seriously advise staying away from here.

Dump club. dump bouncers. enjoy rinsing your money at an average place the size of a shoebox.

Please do express ur opinion to the bouncers, they are very accomodating.

Picadilly institute was ridiculously hot and never liked the lay out . The rooms thing was annoying coz u never knew who's party you were in then some rooms you came into were like a dead end . Drinks were so expensive and 11 quid for a JD and Coke! Joke! Came out sweating! When I first got there I was like wow this is amazing then after a few hours of dancing and going round all the rooms got fed up and went else where!! Not recommended at-all first time experience and defo last!

best Nye ever!!! Scott mills was awesome and the 6 rooms are wicked. everyone was just there for a good time. staff are super friendly. danced the night away in fruitbox room with the views of London. will defo be going back. WE HEART P.I!!!!!!!!!

NYE at PI! Loves it!!!! Was great night, ventured into all the rooms, i think! trying out the different music in each finally settling on the Pop room as our staying point! had so much fun dancing on the light up dance floor to the cheesy hits with the music videos on the screen prompting our moves!!!! Very busy and a bit hot but must have just been all the fitties around us!!! Enjoyed Scott Mills DJ set upstairs in the clinical room!!!! Love him and love the syringe shots we dosed eachother with!!!!! Defo going back again soon!!!!

I have been to the Piccadilly Institute several times now and think its a great bar/club. I went there for NYE and had a great night! Even managed to meet Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills! As expected it was busy but regardless the place had an awesome buzz with different music in every room and Scott was wkd! I spend most of the night in Clinic as we all love funky house music and the HOT naughty nurses they have serving your drinks! Definitely recommend this place as a great party club!

OMG!!!!!!! best club everrrrr!!!NYE at P.I was great, spent the whole time in my own I HEART PI t-shirt!! Scott Mills was great, can't believe tickets were only £30! Straight to the front of the queue and booked a great table. So much fun and partied in every room. The staff were super nice and the service was quick and efficient. Had a great time, will be going there for my bday this year and NYE!!!We heart P.I!!

had the best NYE ever at this place! my friends booked tickets to see Radio 1s Scott Mills and the place was absolutely buzzing, loads of people out to see in the new year, amazing cocktails, every type of music you can think of! tickets were £30 which was really reasonable for being right in the middle of london, there were even two rooms where we could have amazing views of piccadilly circus and all the people below. i'm not from london so this was the ultimate west end clubbing experience! everyone made the effort as the dress code was smart, and everyone was in by midnight for the bells - i was in the hospital themed room for the count down with scott mills, though there were about 4 dance floors in the whole place. so much fun, got so many facebook pics from the night!

Yes, it was NYE but i'm pretty sure they haven't heard about fire safety and were definitely exceeding maximum occupancy. It took me ages to get down the stairs! I have never experienced a club this overcrowded, and it did spoiled the mood. Otherwise, good music in each one of the rooms, nice bar staff. Oh, and am i deaf or was there no countdown for the midnight? We were not paying too much attention what time it was and I only realized that midnight's passed after i checked my friend's watch:)

NYE 2011/12

Overcrowded, no glasses at bars, no air con. Was told at one point they were only serving doubles on drinks, they only needed to look around the place to see that wasn't a good idea with the clientele that were in there, falling about everywhere, I'm not even convinced everyone in there was over 18!!

NYE is meant to be a fun night out, unfortunately with the heat in the place, how over crowed it was, this was proving to be difficult.

went here for nye, i had an amazing time. the queue didnt take ages but with so many rooms we had to go explore first which was fun. each room played different types of music and the themes were so unique! The place did get quite crowded but it was NYE so what did you expect...and it is in central London - duh. I would have been a surprise if it was empty! It did get really hot though, i had to remove my tights i was sweating too much lol so maybe buy some air condition?! Generally a good crowd between 20-30, a few strange ones, like any club really. Worth the £30 entry I reckon. The bouncers were no trouble, Ive come across worse in london clubs! Might actually celebrate my bday here in April :] x

Have been a few times before and it has been pretty good but after the experience of New Years Eve in which we paid £30 a ticket with the promise of Scott Mills we won't be returning for a while. The Club was so overcrowded you literally couldn't move. There was no air-conditioning which made it boiling. We had to keep popping outside for fresh air only to be shouted at by the bouncers who were very rude and unhelpful. Definitely won't be returning for a while its an overrated rip off.

If we could give no stars we would! Went there for New Years Eve, £30 a ticket with the promise of Scott Mills DJing. Website looked excellent and made it look like a large a venue with its '5 rooms'. Basically the club was way too crowded (surely unsafe), the only dancefloor we found would hold 15-20 max and the bar staff only seemed interested in talking to each other or to serve the lucrative tables. Younger crowd which saw people getting chucked out 9:30pm which did not bode well hence we left after 20 mins and went to Grace bar instead which was much more welcoming and an awesome night. Left a bad taste in my mouth and would never go back despite some good reviews on here!

Beware!!! Booked and payed in advance for a booth for 8 people. Arrived and was directed to a small table with just 4 seats, in a corridor, at the top of a flight of stairs.Managemnet were extremely unhelpful, we were ignored for almost 30 mins and was told that they cannot guarentee adequate seating for a booking. Managed to get half the money back (nice easy money for them) and went to a much better bar with better service and better atmosphere (Grace - across the road)The management and door staff left a very sour taste.Do not bother with this place!!!!

Went there last Friday for my friends birthday and all I can say is WOW!! For such a big venue, with so many different rooms, the atmosphere was as good as I have seen in a long time in Central London. I arrived just after 7pm to be greeted by a host at the door and taken to my friend Lucy’s table in their 90’s bar. I was slightly late, but arrived just before Lucy was receiving a cocktail for us all to share in a giant rubiks cube (was that 80’s or 90’s??) as well as food platters and cupcakes, happy days! Her husband told me it cost £50 but when you consider that’s for the table as well (the cocktail on the menu alone is £40!) it seemed like a pretty good deal. Even managed to blag one of the free t-shirts on offer! Spent the rest of the night soaking up the other rooms, my favourite being Chamber an old school hip hop / chemistry type room (I managed to buy 4 smoking cocktails for Lucy and her sisters from this room, which they had never seen before and loved). The only negative I might say about is that it gets busy, and has lots going on so not sure how I would have found it if I wasn’t part of a booked table where I could find people if I has lost them. Despite that, it is busy and in demand because the service is top drawer, so much so I am booking my work Christmas do there next week!

Piccadilly Institute had the best Halloween Party ever!! The door staff are brilliant, gorgeous girls take you to your table and the managers greet you with a smile!The areas are just what you need when you want to rest your feet after dancing in 6 different rooms. Happy hour is brilliant, 50% off all food and drinks for 4 hours. Made us all very happy!The music is great and the bar staff are friendly serving yummy cocktails. I had a package and a big fuss was made, cupcakes, the lot. my favourite room is Fruitbox. The views of London are great from up there. If I could give it ten stars I would. The people I spoke with on the telephone were polite and helpful and were happy to help me with my booking.Like the t-shirts say...I <3 P.I!!!

TERRIBLE!! I went to the Piccadilly Institute on Sat 29th Oct to celebrate my friends 30th birthday. She booked a booth in advance in the Clinic Bar. We were looking forward to the shots in syringes! However, when we arrived they couldn't find us on the guest list and when they eventually did, the had us booked in another room. The room they took us to was called Fruitbox and it is a chill out room - not exactly what you want for a big night out! When we spoke to a manager about this, he said they don't guarantee what room you will get when you book a booth. This is ridiculous, they took over £100 from us and told us over the phone that we were booked into the Clinic, knowing full well that this was not the case. I raised this with the manager and he kept saying that it was not guaranteed. He was extremely rude, listening to someone in his earpeace rather than listening to me and effectively blackmailed me saying that as my friend was rude to a member of staff on the way in (because they had ruined her big night out), he would throw her out if she did not accept what she was given. I could not believe the cheek. To top the whole thing off, we waited two hours for the food platters and cocktail that was meant to come with the booth. I will not be returning to this bar, I found it to be the worst night out of my life and I was so upset for my friend who tried to out on a brave face. The staff at the Piccadilly institute just do not care about the customers, with the exception of a Senior Manager who I think is called Steven. He took control of the situation when he heard how rude one the first manager was to me and he did offer a bottle of bubbly to try and cheer my friend up. He was however, unable to move us to the area we had booked.One more issue is that the bar is overcrowded - they must be breaking fire regulations. It was like being on the tube! There was even a security guard offering crowd control to the toilets!!In short - thumbs down!

Booked for a room (chamber) @7.30 that wasn't open until 10.00! Snotty bar girl in chamber when it finally opened then they could not make cocktails advertised online because they did not have needed ingredients and bouncer on a power trip. Watched me sit wit my feet up for bout 15 mins then told me to sit properly, am i at school?!?! S* *t! Will not go back.

Awful!!! Ordered vodka lime and soda - watched bar lady make my drink, right infront of me and didnt see any vodka been put in - asked her when she was planning on adding the vodka - she went bright red that I had noticed and insisted she had put it in. Got into an argument about it and told her i have watched her make my drink right in front of me (I only kept my beady eye on her because she had done the same to one of my friends) After a massive argument she added it. A friend of mine went up to pay her tab and there were 6 drinks on the end of the bill which none of us had ordered. This place relies on drunk people not noticing what drinks are being given to them and whats on there bill!!!

My favourite club to go to. I have been several times and love the themes in all the rooms, although some are much more crowded than others. Only down side is the selection of music and the room placement. I found the best music was in one of the rooms that has no dance floor. Other than that, it's great, I would definitely recommend it.

THE WORST CLUB. this is the worst club i have ever been to. it was my 21th birthday so i had been looking for the right club for weeks, found this and the website and concept look good. Book a guest list for about 50 people and pay-de for a deposit. me and my boyfriend got there early so we could meet every and got a call from my brother down stairs saying they would not let him in, he is a young mixed race boy (shirt, jeans, shoes). i went down stairs to try and sort out what was going on and the manager at the door was very rude and did not want to talk to me and said its what he is wearing, i stood outside for a while and realised the people that they were letting in looked worse, so i tried to talk to the manager again and still did not want to talk to me. after this i saw that he had also not let in a young African man. As from this you can see that the door manager is highly racist and does not let anyone in of a certain colour... Had to drop my deposit and go somewhere else because i was not going to let my brother go home after he does not go out a lot due to his health problems. NEVER GO HERE AGAIN....

Went to the club and paid for a table which was two sofas against the wall which everyone in the club sat on! Very disappointing, was told we would get a big bottle of vodka and cocktails, ended up with a 50cl bottle and a cocktail to share which was mainly ice! Do not go outside the club, as they will not stamp you then you will be refused entry back in even though you have paid for a table and your name is on the booking and guest list! Do not go to Piccadilly Institute, man outside thinks he is manager and is power mad and totally arrogant!

I booked a party here. After much persuasion, they said I could arrive at 10 instead of 9.30 (claiming that it would be full up and the tables would all be full up by 9.30) After getting there, we were the ONLY people in the whole place! We were not given the 50 quid worth of things that we asked for, and the place had claimed it was student night when it definitely wasn't. The bouncers/ manager were also rude, aggressive and thuggish to people in the group. What a shame.

Went there with some friends just to have a beer and we were invited by a gentleman near the Institute. When we got in we liked the concept of having different ambient in everyone, but than we started to see some of the people and inside and they were really strange. There were some bars with normal people just having a good time but others it made us feel uncomfortable.

It is a nice place..but I am very disappointed with some staff members.Especially the women who worked in the toilet.Me and my friends had been accused of stealing chocolate from her.She did not find anything in our bags but she kept saying,"I saw you in the mirror". We complained to the security and one of the managers but they have not done anything.They did not even try to apologise.It was so embarrassing!

Awesome night out last Friday - happy hour drinks were dirt cheap for what were really amazing cocktails, and there was such a fun atmosphere! The Clinic bar was wicked for dancing later on, and the shooters served in syringes were a great idea. Definitely going back for my birthday!

Had my 21st here, and have to say that I had an amazing time. The staff were friendly, especially barman James. All of my friends commented on how original the venue was, and how much better they thought it was compared to On Anon. I reserved the Chamber for the party and found the level of service from the staff to be exceptional. I couldn't have asked for a better venue!

I agree with the favorable comments below! I was a bit unsure about whether or not Piccadilly Institute would be a good night out, as it's not long opened. The website has that old fashioned dark glamour about it, and the fact that it used to be On Anon were the two main reasons I picked this for a night out with some friends.

There were no problems whatsoever regarding entry; the staff were all friendly and helpful, and there was a good atmosphere. I went on a Thursday night so it was quiet until about 11pm, but we went early to get free entry. The rooms each have very strikingly different themes, with more than enough seating and dancing areas, and there are relatively quiet areas where you can sit and have a chat.

One thing I quite liked was the proximity of the rooms which meant that you could hear several songs playing at the same time, adding to the revelry.

I thoroughly recommend this for a night out!

Couldn't agree with the comments below more, great to find a bar so different in the west end. Love the magician, but a little bit scared by the dwarves!
Cant wait to come back!