Absolut Ice Bar

January 26, 2008 at 10:30 am | Posted in General, London, Out and About, photos, Random, Tourism, Travel, UK | Leave a comment
Tags: Absolut Ice Bar, Bars, Drinking, London, Mayfair, photos, Tourism, Travel, UK, Vodka

London’s Absolut Ice Bar situated on Heddon Street near Regent Street in Mayfair is, as the name implies, an ice bar.

For £15 you’ll get 40 minutes in the bar, a free drink and an incredibly snazzy cloak with gloves helpfully attached to the cloak.

The bar is kept at -5C and is made of Swedish water and sculptured by artists from the famed Ice Hotel.

My imagination didn’t exactly live up to the reality. I’d like to blame James Bond for false expectations of ice buildings. I had thought the room would be larger and contain a few sculptures.

The ice bar actually consists of a metal floor (presumably non slip), ice walls and around the pillars and a few alcoves with ice benches covered in fur to sit on.

The sculpting takes place predominantly along the walls with such things as this informative and mildly concerning text.

At the bar your first drink is free (refills are about £7). You’ll be able to choose an Absolut Vodka drink served in your very own square edible ice cup. Good thing you’ve got those gloves. The price of the drinks relative to the volume of liquid in your cup isn’t very good value for money so I only had my complimentary drink.

Perhaps because of this I felt that 40 minutes was more than enough time.

The cold – at least while wearing the cloak – didn’t cause too much discomfort so you shouldn’t have any concerns about freezing. My camera on the other hand was not so lucky. The cold sapped the energy out of my battery making it almost unusable by the end.

Maybe I should just stop taking photos.

I’m glad that I went to the Ice Bar I had a great time with my friends and it is something to cross off my list – especially as I never went to the ice bar in Sydney. However, unless you’re a die hard ice/vodka fan, on its merits the ice it is not worth the money.

For the real experience going to Sweden and the Ice Hotel may be the better experience.