Ravishingly Lavish

The smart money these days is being spent on quality bar operations in the suburbs. With Soho oh-so over and the traditional party haunts of Notting Hill, Shoreditch and Brixton becoming increasingly mundane, London's urban villages are fast becoming the new breeding grounds on the style-bar circuit.

Not that it's strictly fair to refer to Weybridge as an urban village - it recently came third in a survey of the UK's richest towns and boasts Sir Cliff Richard as one of its residents - but you get my drift. It's like any other sleepy Home Counties town, where one can only muse as to the goings-on behind the twitching net curtains.

The Lavish Lounge opened in December on the site of a former Chinese takeaway, promising to bring a 'slice of Soho to the suburbs'. Perish the thought. What they have brought to Weybridge is a squeaky clean, ultra-modern, atmospherically cold venue decked out in dark leather wall panels and lime-green furnishings.

I hate lime green: it's not funny and it certainly isn't clever. And it's asking for trouble: a gentle bleed from a Bloody Mary could leave all sorts of dubious-looking stains. Anyway, enough talk of lime green, I'm feeling queasy at the thought of it.

The Lavish Lounge opens at noon every day for lunch with an adventurous offering of dishes that include Asian sea bass (with pak choi and an Asian noodle salad, £7.50) and a brown crab thermidore with salad and bread (£11). An evening menu boasts 'tapas fusion', and includes crustacea and kebabs (from £4.50). A weekend brunch menu boasts eggs Benedict (£5.50) and scrambled eggs with a variety of toppings (from £4.75).

The service was remarkably friendly and attentive when I visited (though one of the waitresses was an American, so she could have been faking it), and the drinks surprisingly good. Bottled beers include the fabulous Budvar (£3), and they offer a good range of fresh fruit juices and an eclectic range of teas (from £1.50).

Profit margins on the wines seem healthy enough with - from a limited list - an Elena Walch 2002 Pinot Grigio coming in at £23.50, and a Bodegas Corral Gran Reserva Rioja at £40. Unspecified house wines start at £3 per 175ml glass.

They've really gone to town on the range of sprits behind the bar, with as impressive a collection of quality brands as you're likely to find almost anywhere. So there's Ketel One vodka, Plymouth gin, Blanton's Special Reserve bourbon, Havana Club rum, and a wide selection of speciality liqueurs.

Such ingredients should make for terrific cocktails, and indeed they do. A long list of classic and bespoke mixes - fairly priced from £6 - demonstrates both ingenuity and creativity. My Cosmopolitan was as good as it gets, and a Lavish Rose is prepared from a fabulous blend of rose petal vodka, Plymouth gin and lychee purée.

If this place didn't so closely resemble a psychiatrist's waiting room (I'm back on the lime-green subject again) or a posh estate agency (Foxton's in Fulham Broadway looks more like a bar than many bars I've visited), I'd be happy to go back for a few tinctures. Still, give it time to develop a more livedin look and this place could be better than any bar I know of in Soho.

Lavish Lounge Bar
3-5 Monument Hill, Weybridge, Surrey, KT13 8RX