Vibrant party pub meets sports spectator heaven, Bison and Bird brings the guys and gals together for a wild night out.

The Venue
Inspired by the great outdoors, Bison and Bird at Clapham Common first strikes as elegant. Sandwiched between little cafes opposite the Clapham end of Acre Lane, the frontage is deceptively narrow. Inside, though, a cavernous venue awaits, where a long bar overlooks a central dance floor, which is lit from above by a chandelier of horns. Save for a few pillars, the area is open plan to facilitate mingling. While a lot of the space at the front of the pub is standing, there are spacious tables and American diner benches available, with cherry red booths at the back of the bar offering some potential dating privacy.

The Atmosphere
Before the banging nights break out and the DJs (Fridays and Saturday nights) crank up the Nineties and Noughties commercial dance or pop, weekends are all about sport. This is one of the few Clapham bars showing football as well as rugby, catering to all sports tastes. Even better, if games collide, both rugby and football can be split across the pub on alternate screens, so both sets of fans are satisfied. Without much of an after work scene, weekday crowds revolve predominantly around sport or pre-weekend warm-ups.

On Saturdays the party starts early. Soon the dancing, drinking and generally having a laugh turns over to happy-hour-fuelled antics, heckling and flirting. Chatty staff keep the night ticking along nicely.

The Food
Without so much as a sniff of the Serengeti, the menu is not exactly exotic, dominated as it is by beef, chicken and cheese. In fact, fish lovers could only plausibly opt for the crisp calamari salad (£5.95). Delicately cooked, with a tangy chilli vinaigrette, it’s quite filling for a starter, but a lovely bite nonetheless. Creamy chorizo and manchego croquettes (£5.95) has the capacity to weaken any turophile at the knees with its gooey centre. That’s if they haven't already opted for the the whole baked Camembert.

For a manly meal, the char-grilled rib eye (£12.95) is generous and then some. A pub perfectly cooking steak isn't to be sniffed at, and with a name like Bison and Bird, you'd hope they do justice to the name. They do. For a lighter but no less punchy option, the Thai sweet chilli beef salad (£9.95) is dowsed in an eye-popping sweet chilli and rich soy glaze. There's also monster platters and chunky burgers from £6.95.

The Drink
You should definitely try some two-for-one cocktails in happy hour (Saturday-Thursday, 5pm-8pm; Friday, 5pm-10pm). The sleek Mai Tai is just right on the sweet-sharp split with a generous squeeze of lime mellowed with syrupy scarlet grenadine. At this time too, jugs of cocktail are down to £8.90, bottles of Becks are two-for-one, and two large glasses of wine gets you the rest of the bottle for free. The tart Sauvignon Blanc is deliberately fruity and very drinkable. There’s no denying Bison and Bird knows how to get the night well on its way.

The Last Word
Not only a satisfying place for a feed, Bison and Bird is ideal for all those other animal instincts. Their drinks offers and mainstream party music help get the party started and the chase underway from very early on.

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