Chilli Room Bar & Restaurant, South End, Croydon

I was a bit skeptical about the listing of this place on Pubs Galore, as it is quite clearly a curry house. However, to be fair, it has got a large lounge-style area which takes up roughly half of the floor space and is set aside solely for drinkers. The right hand side of the room is a run of the mill curry house with standard dining tables set up along a wooden floor strip. I had a decent Lamb Rogan Josh here and the other half enjoyed an impressively large biriyani. The lounge is a large open space, slightly raised from the restaurant side and has a small servery at the rear and quite a lot of sofas dotted around the perimeter. There was just the one person sat at the bar, and for all I know he might have worked there, which made me wonder who exactly would come here for a drink. The menu listed the draught beers, which seemed to be Guinness, Fosters and Kronenburg. I asked for a Kingfisher, expecting to get a bottle, but was presented with a pint. However, it seems that the waiter poured a bottle or two into a pint glass and then charged the best part of a fiver for it, which I thought was a bit of a cheek. This place is okay for a curry, and being on Croydon’s main restaurant strip, is likely to always have a few other diners in when you visit. However, I wouldn’t consider coming here just for a drink and there are plenty of decent pubs a short walk from here that you’d be much better off slaking your thirst in.