Princely sum for Bertie's revamp

BERTIE'S BAR
Royal Garden Hotel, 2-24 Kensington High St, W8. Tel: 020 7937 8000

A location in a hotel lobby on a rather awkward corner of a Kensington High Street doesn't help when it comes to attracting passing trade so Bertie's Bar is hoping to pull in the punters with a £500,000 revamp, heralded by five foot poster ads at the nearby tube station.

The giant billboards had yet to have a noticeable effect when we paid a visit, with only a handful of customers trying out the new sofas for size, and the distinct lack of chatter meant that we got to experience the full effect of the low-level Latino music being piped across the room.

The new bar has been divided into different zones with a frosted panel running the full length of the room to separate it from the foyer. The old Victorian-style decor has been stripped out and replaced with laminate wood flooring, frosted glass tables and muted brown and blue furnishings and a big part of the budget seems to have been blown on the shiny granite-topped bar.

The menu has had an overhaul too. Sandwiches have been replaced by Caribbean jerk chicken winglets, falafel with guacamole, seared chicken satay and mini sausage and mustard mash, all priced at £5.95 each. A slightly more expensive selection at £7.50 each includes prawn balls coated in sesame toast, chicken liver parfait with French toast, a characuterie platter with grissini sticks and pickles and a dainty selection of eight bite sized sushi pieces.

The one thing the new bar has retained is convivial Spanish barman Luis Cobas who has worked at the hotel for 33 years and who proved to be a useful man to have at hand when it came to navigating the drinks list. After cheerfully making his suggestions from the cocktail menu he confessed to being a bit of a budding mixologist and says he encourages his customers to offer up new recipes.

The bar has naturally named a cocktail after its namesake, Queen Victoria's eldest son who was fond of his tipple and would no doubt approve of the Bertie's Bloody Mary Special. But would the notorious playboy, who loved socialising and was regarded by his mother as 'frivolous, indiscreet and irresponsible', approve of the bar's contemporary new look?

With drinking, smoking and gambling on his list of vices, Bertie's Bar would tick two out of three boxes for the Royal prince. Perhaps a few extra pennies could be found in the budget for the installation of a couple of stylish slot machines next to the gent's?

Bertie's is open from 5pm to 11pm (2am for hotel guests) Monday to Saturday