Bad Apple, Croydon

This is a new late night lounge bar from the same people that operate the nearby Black Sheep Bar. The name seemingly references the problems the venue had in the past under previous guises as Flares and Pop World. The new venture seems to have a members-only policy, but when I visited at around 6:30 on a Thursday evening, we were allowed in without having to sign up. The venue is essentially a large open plan room with the bar to the rear right and a dancefloor area to the left. There are a lot of seating options including a large curved high-backed leather banquette which acts as a partition between the bar area and the rest of the room. Numerous sofas, chesterfields and comfy chairs line the room and there is a ledge with high stools around the dancefloor area. It’s all been fitted out in a fancy enough style, with some interesting silhouette images used to obscure the large windows along two sides of the room. Glitter balls, chandeliers, fancy mirrors and TV screens showing arty images all abound and fit in well with the club’s theme of magic and burlesque. I only spotted one handpull which dispensed a ropey pint of Taylor’s Landlord, although there were some bottled ales including Bishop’s Finger. The barmaid was very slow and didn’t seem to know what she was doing half of the time. A loyalty card is available which allows you to get a discount on all purchases. This place is far better than the likes of Tiger Tiger and Reflex with which it is in direct competition, so with that in mind I’d be happier being dragged here with work colleagues than the other drinking strip suspects. That said, it’s not really a pub, would normally require you to become a member and doesn’t keep its beer well, so it’s hard to find many other positives.