If you’re looking for a quiet bite on a Saturday night then Verve isn’t for you. Early evening sees the venue full of revellers dancing to popular chart hits - this spacious bar and club is a major player for pulling in the West End party crowd. If chart hits, cheap drinks and guys and gals strutting their stuff are your thing then this beats off the competition from some of the tackier ‘clubs’ held within the bosom of Leicester Square.

The Venue
Verve is separated into three areas. The sinful basement club is reserved for bad boy moves with copious amounts of space to ‘strut that stuff.’ Cubby hole booths on the side are no doubt a welcome escape from the mainstream madness of the dancefloor, offering seclusion and a chance to pass judgement on the state of humanity.

The ground floor looks like your standard Central London bar. High ceilings, a long bar, mirrors and a shiny chandelier welcome the congregation, as do the pleasant staff working there. The balcony bar appears a perfect space for quiet confessions offering a VIPesque respite for the predicted carnage ahead.

The Atmosphere
Don’t come to Verve expecting the hoi polloi or a taste of the finer things of the capital. This place caters to a very different crowd who fill the club week in, week out. Tourists, out of towners and a strong hen and stag party contingent of unpretentious clubbers out to party to commercial tunes with a cheap drink in their hand is what you’ll get here. That’s no bad thing, and Verve is considerably better than some of the truly tacky venues located within Leicester Square.

The Food
Verve doesn’t pretend to offer anything other than grub to fill a hole and line the stomach, which it manages admirably. Lots of fried food, light bites and sharing plates pepper the menu. The prices are very low and they make a decent choice for sharing with mates if you’re in for the long haul and don’t fancy breaking your party stride to head to one of the nearby eateries.

The Drink
Verve is the place to come if you want cheap drink – and lots of it. With an impressive menu at low prices considering its locale, you’ll be hard pushed not to find a tipple to tempt your tastebuds. There’s a decent wine selection of ten whites and as many reds, with the most expensive bottles barely topping the £20 mark, making it the perfect choice as a warm-up drink with a group of mates. There’s a large array of cocktails, covering all the classics. Don’t go expecting the best concoctions you’ll have ever tasted – syrups and white sugar often being used instead of fresher ingredients, but then Kingly Club St Martins Lane is almost next door if that’s more your thing. Here, the cocktails are less than 6 quid a pop and are right on the money.

One of the biggest draws of Verve’s drink menu is the incredible Happy Hour deals they do, called ‘Happier Hours’ where food and drink prices, which are low enough already, plummet through the floor. If you’re looking for somewhere to wet your whistle early on then this could be all the excuse you need.

The Last Word
Verve is a West End venue appealing to those who don’t necessarily know London but are attracted to the thought of a night out in the big city. Uninspiring but inoffensive, this is one of the better choices in its particular genre of low-priced, commercial clubbing.

View®  Card offers venue information venue map view london review user reviews (37) image gallery (8) club listings what's on   book a table