The Voodoo Rooms

Known more for it’s raucous weekend nights and excellent cocktails, this bar and gig venue also runs a busy restaurant in its opulent Victorian gothic rooms. Lofty ceilings, panelled walls, leather banquettes and curlicue chairs are a uniform black and gold, lending an eclectic Joan-Crawford-meets-Slayer vibe. At night it perhaps suggests good times and strong drinks more than dinner, but lunch times are quieter, and popular with city shoppers and tourists alike. Eclecticism runs to the menu too: beetroot sorbet accompanies smoked duck and blue cheese, and dark chocolate jelly tops a pearly cauliflower risotto. More conventional items include crunchy courgette fritters to start, or crab claw meat on wholemeal bread from the range of sandwiches available during lunch, though the latter’s mammoth proportions could stifle the rest of the day's activities. Cocktail bar, venue, restaurant: the Voodoo Rooms packs it all in, and doesn’t do a bad job, but maybe it’s not the best place to take your gran – unless she’s into Slayer.