Luxuriate in the opulence of this small, central, continental style bar.

The Venue
The Grand Cafe is a fairly small Parisian style cafe-bar on the High Street which looks a lot bigger than it is mainly because of all the mirrors in the place, some of which literally take up whole walls. The mirror theme is indeed a favourite of the bar owner Clinton Pugh (the guy behind Kazbar and Coco too).

The place has a touch of the art deco about it with golden arms bearing lantern style lights reaching out from the walls. There's a wooden bar on the left and the cafe has a stone floor, a high painted ceiling and blue pillars with golden orange ornamentation. A mirror takes up the whole of the far wall giving the impression there’s another room beyond. You’ll soon find out there isn’t when you bump into a table or a big potted palm plant.

The People
In keeping with its sister bars The Grand Cafe is always busy with a younger crowd than other nearby watering holes. Inevitably you get girls in here indulging in the whole high tea experience.

The Food and Drink
They don’t serve any draught beers here (the pumps are an ingenious deception) but there are Sagres, Peroni and San Miguel in bottles. There are five bottles of red wine and five whites and a Prosecco is £8.95 a bottle. There are a dozen of the classics cocktails ranging from Mojitos and Raspberry Cosmopolitans to the unusual fruit flavoured Rapaska, all priced at £7.50. Afternoon tea is a classic too and it comes beautifully arranged on a silver stand. It’s not that cheap though and a sandwich alone can cost £6.50 but for a treat there’s nothing better. It’s so chi chi here they even sell handmade chocolate.

The Last Word
The Grand Cafe's illusions of grandeur are quite warranted. It’s a lovely place to come to spoil yourself. Go on, you deserve it.

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