Spiritland — Restaurant in London

We went to the bar yesterday with a reservation for four people. We arrived at 7:10PM, and at first, there were only three of us. We ordered three picante cocktails, which, I won't deny, were nice, but they had a somewhat strong alcohol taste; it was like drinking a spicy piña colada with tequila. The atmosphere was nice; in fact, they were playing Madonna's first album, and I’m a big fan of hers.

However, from the time we sat down at 7:10PM until we received the first cocktail and finished it, about 30 minutes had passed. Since we had another reservation at 8:00 PM at a different restaurant across the road, we decided to order another round—this time, three cocktails and a prosecco. Two of the cocktails were the same, which should have been easy to prepare and saved time, and the third was different. We thought we could drink them quickly when they arrived.

As it got closer to 8:00PM, we tried to get the staff's attention because we needed to leave, but it was very difficult, even though the place wasn't full or particularly busy. Twenty minutes went by, and the drinks still hadn't arrived, so we decided to inform the staff that we were leaving. The only way to do this was to get up and go to the bar ourselves, since none of the waiters were paying attention to our table. Just then, the cocktails were coming out of the bar. We told the person in charge of billing that we had to go and that we would pay only for the cocktails we had consumed, since we had been waiting for close to 20 minutes for the drinks. They offered to put the cocktails in plastic cups so we could drink them on the street. I said there was no way I would accept that, since the drinks were expensive and we would have had to down them in the street before our dinner reservation, but the manager insisted on charging me for everything, totaling £74, which I refused. Finally, the waiter decided to charge us only for the drinks we had consumed but informed us that we were banned from the venue for life. Honestly, they’re doing me a favour.

It's not our fault that the service is slow and inattentive (both times we ordered drinks, we were had to try and get a waiter’s attention for a good few minutes - no one ever came over to ask if we wanted a drink, even after we first sat down). If, in an hour, you only have time to consume one small cocktail, that's ridiculous. I don't usually leave bad reviews, but the fact that they berated me, told me I had to inform them of my plans and schedule, asked me to calm down when I was perfectly calm, and even threatened to ban me from the place, is honestly not to my liking. So here I am, sharing my version of events. Perhaps the venue’s manager would be interested to know that the service is absurdly slow and that they’re probably not generating the revenue they should be per...

It was a pilgrimage for me, I had been trying to find an excuse to visit Spiritland after reading about it well over a year ago.

I've been three or four times now, at different times of the day, different days of the week, admittedly not for any of the special events of an evening yet.

The Kuzma turntable and custom-made Living Voice speakers are indeed sights to behold. Just sights though, it's unlikely you'll actually hear them, thanks to the media-types from any of the many local, well-known media agencies talking loudly about themselves to each other.

We have just left, at circa 1945hrs on a Tuesday (6 Feb 2018) we were squashed so close to people either side (it wasn't busy) that getting on the Thameslink train home was a relief.

The sound was better in the bathroom than the actual venue because at least when in the bathroom you aren't hemmed in by the 20-somethings keener to talk about their latest Tinder success than acknowledge they're in 'a listening cafe'.

It's a great idea, it just doesn't work yet. Judging by the number of reviews left right here complaining about the music being too loud for talking, London doesn't deserve it.

Most annoying today though, was the maitre d' or whatever he is. He had no interest in engaging this evening, bordering on rude, completely forgetting that the last time I was there I corrected HIS PERSONAL MISTAKE on the bill, he'd missed off £28 worth of drinks. Stupidly, my autistic analyst maths pride made me point this out, ensuring I paid the right sum. I have to do this when it happens.

There was no acknowledgement of this at the time, or on any subsequent visit, no surprise it didn't happen today. It just added to the disappointment.

I had Madame with me for the first time today too, she pointed out how uncomfortable it was to be so stupidly close to people, when the place was just not busy.

Also she said how she had heard the couple to the right say 'CAN THIS MUSIC NOT JUST STOP?'.

A great idea, to say the least. Some teething trouble, I suspect London is not quite ready for it yet, but do go, let's get it working.

Use it, or...

Made a reservation on a Sunday afternoon .

We came to hear the 'legendary' audio system - unfortunately the Kuzma was not being used, and the level was too low to be able to listen properly over the general noise of the bar.

No tables were set up to immediately face the system from a central position.

Our first impression of the Vitavox / JBL / Atelier du Triode system therefore was underwhelming to listen to- it just wasn't being driven hard enough - although extremely pretty to look at!

LPs were being played via SL1210mk2 - (Tame Impala / Currents when we arrived)

There wasn't any playlist or up-next available that we could see, I'm not sure if requests are possible so we just had to get what we were given in that respect!

The music level was just slightly too loud to easily hold a conversation from one of the tables in front of the system but not loud enough for a 'listening experience' ,

I found that odd because it was like the bar was set up for background music/ food service but the volume wasn't low enough for that either.

The cocktails were good, expensive as expected, a fairly small menu of drinks.

Service was prompt and polite!

In conclusion-

Disappointed this time - but I hope it will be much better on a dedicated Album Club evening.

We would have liked to have had some idea of what music they would be playing before we arrived- and more importantly when the full system is in use so we can plan accordingly.

So as it was - neither really a very good bar, not was it a good listening experience - I'll put that down to booking at the wrong...