The Bonneville

Name: The Bonneville
Address: 43 Lower Clapton Road, London, Lower Clapton, E5 0PD, UK
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8533 3301
Rating: 8

Restaurant & Bar in Lower Clapton

8 / 10 from 1 review

Address
43 Lower Clapton Road
Lower Clapton
London
E5 0PD

Map

History

Telephone
020 8533 3301

Cuisine
Restaurant & Bar

Region
Lower Clapton

Nearest Station
Hackney Central
0.29 miles

Opening Times

Monday	Open 17:00 - Closes 00:00
Tuesday	Open 17:00 - Closes 00:00
Wednesday	Open 17:00 - Closes 00:00
Thursday	Open 17:00 - Closes 01:00
Friday	Open 17:00 - Closes 01:00
Saturday	Open 11:00 - Closes 01:00
Sunday	Open 11:00 - Closes 00:00

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All In London Review

A twisted gin palace nightmare that you won’t want to wake up from – at least for a couple of hours.

Part slick Clapton bar, part Victorian opium den, the look of The Bonneville is pure vaudeville. Before you even get in the place there’s the heavy dark curtain to navigate.

When you’re inside, it oozes low-lit charm, which seems to bounce around its taxidermy covered walls and mirrors. If you want to be transplanted out of Hackney for a couple of hours, there’s no better way to do it than at The Bonneville – aside from, you know, just leaving Hackney for a couple of hours.

Operating as a bar and restaurant, we turn up for drinks on a Thursday night to find the place heaving. It turns out nabbing a place at the bar on raised stalls was all luck and timing as people filter in behind us, disappointed to find a lack of seating space, looking around like a gang of well-dressed models. Oh, yes, this is an attractive place and all those handsome faces we can see around us only enhance the style. The bar has a strong collection of beers on tap – including a tasty Belgian blonde – along with a liquor display that might daze and confuse even the most knowledgeable spirit fan. People always say that places like The Bonneville are the kind of places you find in New York. We’ll deviate from that and say that The Bonneville is actually somewhere exactly like somewhere you might find in Chicago. Really.

Don’t be fooled by its hip looks, the Bonneville is serious about the food. The likes of braised beef, mussels and cured sea trout we see on its sample menu tell us good things. However, for now we’re here for the bar and for drinks The Bonneville cuts an appealing figure. A twisted gin palace nightmare that you won’t want to wake up from – at least for a couple of hours.

Reviewed by T.A.O anonymously on Feb 3, 2016
Published on Dec 20, 2015