Aces and Eights Bar & Pizza — Restaurant in London

Bras dangling above the bar, a hard-drinkin' cocktail menu, Whitesnake pumping out loud and booths made for assignations... It's pleasingly dark and dingy but otherwise spotless - with, weirdly, the cleanest, sparkliest toilets I've ever seen in a dive bar. The music is great - while we were there, they covered cheesy rock, Nick Cave and some classic 90's indie tunes. There's not a huge range of beer on tap (it's really a cocktail/liquor joint) but an amazing selection of boozes. The cocktail menu is pretty unusual (my favourite was Parma Violence, a deathly concoction of gin, parma violet liqueur and lemon) and I was a little sad that we missed the 6pm to 8pm happy hour.

All this would be great enough on it's own, BUT (and if you've eaten there, you'll know why I've used capitals) they have a pizza parlour right there in the bar, and it's run by Il Bacio. This is, for my money, Stoke Newington's best pizza place and they serve up thin, properly Italian pizzas with gorgeously fresh toppings like rosemary sausages and rocket.

So. Aces and Eights isn't fancy. It's kind of cheesy. It's cocktails, music and pizza...

I hired the Aces and Eights downstairs bar for a private party last weekend and had the time of my life! Tim (Bar Manager) and his staff were really helpful on the run up to the party, answering all my questions promptly and offering help and advice when needed.

The downstairs bar has a secret, speakeasy feel to it with gorgeous velvet lamps and quirky mirrors and it's own bar and toilets, so guests needn't venture up stairs unless they want to.

We were given access to the room before the party and free reign to decorate as we liked so we were able to make the event really personal. On the night we had our own bar staff who were on hand to help guests and served drinks with great friendly banter.

We ordered pizzas for our guests which went down a storm, easily some of the best pizza in London.

So if you are looking for a place to host your next party or just drinks and food with friends then look no further than Aces of Eights, an intimate venue with a unique character, friendly staff and a relaxed...

Update May14: after many more times at this joint i can say that things are still the same: nice vibes, good music, amazing pizza vs. rude doormen, and very load music (the place gets virtually empty between dinner and late evening because no one is interested in getting their eardrums blown off by the load music. please lower it down, its for your own good!!). tis my local so have been there many many times. one of the best in the area showcases good DJs on weekends, with good music playing all the time. not pretentious or over priced like many of the other places around and not dodgy like the one across the street the Boston Arms. Aces definitely has its charm. oh and the pizza is very good.

I want to ask the management to consider one thing though: please lower the upstairs live music volume. I don't mind that you want to give attention to the music, but a little lower volume will be better. had to leave every time the music starts to the Lord Palmerston due to this. you may be losing...