Artesian at the Langham hotel

I've started a new job in Central London so it seemed like a good opportunity to start trying cocktails beyond Islington.
I remembered a visit to the Tsar's bar at the Langham hotel  a few years ago which featured several of the 100+ vodkas that they had in stock. Back then I wasn't drinking Martinis but I did have the vodka shots which were served in a shot glass made moulded in ice. It was a nice novelty and there was some excitement in going through the hotel to what felt like a hidden bar.

I made the arrangement with my date and we met there at 6pm. Unfortunately the Tsar's Bar is no more so we were led to the Artesian cocktail bar on the ground floor of the hotel.

The bar has a specialism in rum but I wasn't tempted to digress in my order.

Having placed our standard order (me the vodka martini straight up with a twist, my date asked for a very dirty martini), we settled in to enjoy the bar nuts and crisps that were brought over.

The setting is very plush. The Langham hotel is certainly one of the more exclusive/expensive places to stay in London. Service was friendly and polite.

The drinks arrived and the presentation was excellent (see photo).

With my first sip I was very pleased. This tasted as good, if not better, than any martini rated so far.
My date didn't agree, she felt that hers was not dirty enough.

Before long it was time to order the next round and unfortunately we were presented with two dirty martinis rather than one of each.

It didn't take long to rectify the order but unlike the Dollar Bar and Grill we were not given the incorrect surplus drink on the house so can only assume that it was thrown away. Shame.

The second martini arrived for me and it was exactly like the first venue to score on consistency.  It's possible the drinks were mixed by the same person, unfortunately I wasn't facing in the right direction.

Measures:  It seemed to fix the standard size of a London Vodka martini

Mixing: I checked with the bar man on the way out and we were drinking Ketel One vodka. I didn't check the Vermouth brand.

Twist: Looked great and tasted good too.

Cost: £15.00 (yes that is fifteen pounds) for each cocktail plus 12.5% service charge

Verdict: The best vodka martini that I have bought so far. Crisp, tasty, consistent. Down checks on service error and cost. four stars out of five. Excellent

Dollar Bar and Grill

Last Saturday (12th Feb 2011) saw the latest move in the hunt for the best vodak Martini.
We visited the Dollar Bar and Grill which boasts to "...serving the best cocktails this side of Manhatten".  We shall see.

Having phoned ahead that afternoon to see if a reservation was required (it wasn't for the basement Martini Bar) we arrived a few minutes before 8 o'clock.
The restaurant was full when we arrived and we squeezed past the the greeting station and descended a short, slightly precarious, flight of stairs into the basement martini bar.

Space was at a premium and we were offered a choice of tables although only one was un-reserved. The others would have meant being moved on when the the forward-thinking patrons arrived.
We didn't want to have to move so chose the table at the bottom of the stairs next to the cloak room.

I ordered a vodka martini straight up with a twist and was offered a choice of vodkas to go in this.
It turned out, but was not explained at the time, that opting for non-house vodka incurs a surcharge of £3 on top of the base cost of £6.50.
I chose Grey Goose and my date chose Chopin Vodka to grace her extra dirty vodka martini

An extra dirty Chopin Vodka Martini

A Grey Goose Vodka Martini with a double twist

When the drinks arrived I received a VM with a Double Twist which isn't quite what I ordered and then a few minutes later another one arrived. I didn't send the double twist back as that would have been churlish and I accepted the extra drink as it was kindly offered on the house. The main benefit of this was that I was able to immediately check the consistency of two drinks before pouring one into the other.
They were nearly the same although my date thought that one was stronger than the other.
Dollar - Bar and Grill has table service so we didn't get to see our drinks being made but when I did look, there were no measures in view.
I have mixed views about this. On one side it's fun to see bar staff pour direct from bottle to glass or shaker and it means that you will get more generous measures on occasion. However, it means drinks are not consistent unless the person mixing your drinks is very good and the inconsitency can affect both alcoholic strength and flavour. Both too strong and nor strong enough are down checks in my view.

My date had a second very dirty martini which she enjoyed and I had another which was much the same as the first.

Measures:  The glass was not filled to the brim until I put the accidental extra one into the same glass as the original. It seems that Rich's measures are rich indeed.

Mixing: No information

Twist: A double twist in this instance definitely adds a strong pleasant lemon scent and flavour

Verdict: A better martini than the Lucky Voice. I think Grey Goose does add something to the flavour.

Cost: £6.50 plus £3 supplement for Grey Goose (the same applies for the Chopin vodka)

Overall, I liked Dollar Bar and Grill. The staff were friendly and attentive. The drinks tasted better than at Lucky Voice and were more consistent although they did make mistakes with my order and didn't tell me that the non-house vodka incurs a surcharge.

I'll score this with three stars out of five.

The downstairs bar is a fun place for a date too.

Lucky Voice and the search for a perfect Vodka Martini

On Saturday night I was waiting to meet my date and thinking about what we could do to kick the evening off.
I thought perhaps a cocktail or two would be a nice start and we could decide where to eat whilst drinking our aperitifs. I know this isn't a mind-blowingly original idea but it was met with enthusiasm so my instincts weren't too far off the mark.
A short bus ride from Finsbury Park station (oh the glamour) and we were in Lucky Voice on Upper Street perusing the cocktail menu.

I'm a fan of the Pina Colada (and so is my date) but that wasn't on the menu so I decided to try my new favourite drink and ordered a vodka martini straight up with a twist.
My date ordered a dirty Martini.

I watched them being made and noticed a few differences to my inaugural VM.

Measures: overall the drink was smaller. The glass was not filled to the brim. The menu states that cocktails are made with 25 ml shots but the waiter poured both the vodka and the vermouth by hand without measures. I forget the brands used but will find out and update later.

Mixing: A pint glass was filled with ice and the vermouth was poured into this and decanted into the empty cocktail glass which had been chilled with ice at the start. Some surplus vermouth was poured off. The vodka was poured over the ice, the vermouth was poured back into the pint glass and stirred with a metal twizzle. The mixture was then poured back into the cocktail glass.

Twist: One piece of the lemon peel was twisted and dropped into the glass. Another piece was run around the glass edge then squeezed over the drink.

Verdict: A good martini although I can't vouch for the measures or the ratio of the two ingredients.

Cost: £7.50 plus 12.5% service charge

My date's drink was exactly the same except for the substitution of the twist with three olives on a plastic stick and the addition of a generous drop of olive brine. This is the ingredient that bestows "dirty" status.

The vodka martini is a sipping drink and very conducive to conversation.

During that conversation I thought that a search for the perfect vodka martini would make a good theme for my otherwise un-used blog.

Thirty minutes or so into the evening we decided on a second round.

I wasn't present at the making of the drinks but both mine and my companion's were significantly stronger than the earlier efforts. While this is no bad thing in itself it does raise a question about consistency of product which I think is important. If you can only make a great martini once then it's a fluke. Reproducibility of results is essential to the scientific method and I intend to apply this to my research.


Overall, I like Lucky Voice as a place for a drink. It is comfortable environment with nice staff and the drinks were ok.

I'm still trying to figure out a scoring system that is sensible and fair.
I'm going to start with a star system based on my enjoyment of the drink with some note given to the surroundings. After all a great drink is wasted in a crappy setting and a nice setting can improve a mediocre drink.
If a maximum score is five stars I will give Lucky Voice Islington two stars.

My first Vodka Martini

Rich measuring out the vodka

I had my very first Vodka Martini on Boxing Day of 2010. Strange but true that it took until I'd entered my 41st year before I sampled this drink but there is no point in looking back with regret.

I must give Rich thanks for introducing me to this fine drink. He mixed a fantastic drink for me which appeared to be essentially be a triple vodka with a wallop in it. The wallop being a slug of vermouth. Add a little bit of lemon zest/peel and you have a Vodka Martini straight up with a twist.

Lovely.

In this case the Vodka is Blue Absolut, the Vermouth is Dolin and the ratio was about 6:1.
All the ingredients were poured over ice and into the metal mixer which was shaken and then poured into classic Martini glasses which were filled to the brim.

Now I have always been a fan of vodka. I like its simplicity and versatility. In my twenties I used to drink it straight from the freezer in shot glasses and when times were good with a drop of cassis for flavour and perhaps sophistication. In the absence of cassis, ribena cordial will do at a push
In my thirties, the ever-present bottle in the freezer was enjoyed with tonic and lots of ice. A very civilised way to end a hard day at work especially when the tonic is fresh out of a small airline style can and the lemon is ripe. I still enjoy a vodka tonic as my first drink of choice on any flight that I take.Now, in my forties I have found the Vodka Martini and I think this could be the start of a beautiful relationship.

The end result