Charlotte Street Blues

Charlotte Street Blues is an amazing venue, the music is brilliant, always providing the best live music entertainment in town. The soul food type menu is fairly good value providing an excellent range of burgers. Their side orders of chips and onion rings are some of the best I have tasted yet.

However on the downside Charlotte Street may want to consider being a little less rude to their customers and to provide the correct information on their website. I used to visit Charlotte Street once a week, on some occasions twice a week. Bit by bit this place have gone down, as they attempt to really squeeze every penny the customer has, which is fine by me as long as the service and product of the venue meets our every expectation. Which in the last few visits unfortunately has not. On several occasions bar staff have been somewhat arrogant with me, ignored me and decided to serve pretty girls instead. As soon as the evening calms down the staff eventualy have less workload, only to have more time to play amongst themselves rather than serve their customers.

However what had really put me off, was when I came for a Soul Immigrants night and they started charging £5 entry fee, which is fine by me, however it was not mentionned on their website and it had to be strictly in cash only. The lady at the door was being excessively rude for no reason. I was a friend of the musicians inside (was not looking to gain free entry from guest list) I simply wanted to borrow some cash to pay the entry fee, instead I was not even allowed that, so ended up waiting at the door for up to 45mins trying to get hold of my mates to lend me some money, which they eventually did. Being a friend of musician I was eventually allowed free entry but this was not the case, £5 was cheap for me, however I expect people to understand the situation a bit better.
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Nolan Regent
7 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Loud, busy blues bar with a decent bourbon list and live music seven nights a week. Music on our visit was amateurish but they seem to have some good stuff on at the weekends. Food looked pretty good (burgers, 'soul food' stuff) but I would probably recommend this place for drinks rather than food. (There are plenty of good eating options on Goodge St and Charlotte St).
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-K- - View all reviews by this user
7 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Monday, November 16, 2009

went here last week with a friend for a quick drink... it was sooo loud we could barely hear each other so not sure i would recommend for anyone wanting to chat. food looked good but i would make it clear that its not a restaurant and the food is stuff like burgers and bar snack stuff. that said you can eat very well on charlotte st and goodge st so maybe just come for drinks.

the white wine was a bit vinegary so we switched to cocktails, very nicely made... quite nice bar staff, bit vacant. loved the mint julep served in a little tin cup.

also i would say if you are going for the music make sure you check who's playing before you go because the 'blues' when we went was very amateurish so i think it depends on which band you get.

overall i would recommend for a quick drink especially if you like bourbon and maybe for lunch when it is probably quieter and you can get a good deal on a burger etc.
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Leila
7 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Monday, November 02, 2009

Stumbled across this new-ish addition to Charlotte Street after dinner at Roka. What a find! Having lived in America, including the Deep South, for many years, I'm a sucker for a 'dive bar' and this place is damn near perfect. There's live music most nights by the look of it but the main draw, for me at least, is the huge range of bourbons. Their signature julep is really good so we got a jug (£13).

Food seems to be bar snacks rather than sit-down dinner style stuff, so maybe eat nearby if you want a proper dinner. Ideal after work though cos the menu is heavy on the burgers. Good to see old favourites like pulled pork and sweet potato fries too. Pool table is downstairs, FYI.

Ok it's starting to sound like I own the place now... I just don't get to rave about London bars very often. Most of them rely on cheap spirits to get the local office types nicely wasted or at the other end of the spectrum you get stung paying £15 per martini. This place just seemed to have its heart in the right place and I, as a bourbon bandit, appreciate that.
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Greg
8 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Tuesday, August 18, 2009