BYOC Camden

I’ve been to BYOC Covent Garden but this experience was sufficiently different that it deserves its own review. BYOC Camden, you were one helluva night!
And by that I mean: I am currently typing as suffering from a true ‘two-fer’…the hangover that stays, like an unwanted house guest. Hi, Monday morning!
So, as Shaun D. really helpfully laid out, concept at all BYOC locations: bring your own unopened bottle (s). Pay 25gbp. Have 2 hours to drink as many fancy crafted-​just-​for-​you cocktails as possible. Done.
BYOC Camden isn’t big, but it is a larger space than Covent Garden. Consequently it’s (a lot) louder, and has larger parties: we were in the company of several birthdays /​hen dos. Con: less intimate. Pro: LEADS TO A TABLE-​TO-​TABLE SING-​OFF TO ‘GOLDDIGGER’. So weigh the pro/​cons carefully, readers.
Each table (it was our party and another sharing a large one) is appointed a bartender. Our dude… slayed it. Certainly wanted us leaving… at a crawl. He asked us what sorts of drinks we liked, mixed in interesting syrups (best: almond syrup and bourbon, who’d ha thunk) and in between cocktails was… proferring…SHOTZ. We had a riff on an old fashioned, a rose-​flavoured whiskey sour, a lychee tequila combo, a cassis and Chambord somethingsomethingsomething, a blackberry and lemon gin mix, a rosemary-​studded something, a prosecco cocktail, a…*see, memory does NOT serve*.
Bottom line: you will leave *not* thirsty.
Unilocal note: conveniently a kebab takeaway right next door.

I absolutely love this place. Quirky, unique, fun and you’re guaranteed to walk… stumble out after your visit.
Concept is great. Pay a set fee to enter, bring your own bottles of booze, as cheap or as expensive as you want and your mixologist will do the rest within your two hour slot. Let them be creative and don’t bring Malibu or Gordon’s Vodka. Get something special and you’re bound to get an amazing drink in return. You also walk away with anything that’s left in your bottles.
They currently have three venues and I would say that the Brighton one is still my favourite.
I feel this venue is slightly more regimental. Strict with your two hour slots. More expensive than the others, however saying that it was a while since I visited the others, so prices could’ve gone up over them all. You are told at the beginning you will only get a set amount of cocktails in the two hours as they also look after other groups. Plus, as it’s Camden you are bound to get a mixed munch of people that could improve or spoil your night. So it could be hit it miss.
Recommend a visit, but make sure it’s not a school night. (Visit — 22/​05/​2015 Evening Drinks)

My initial thoughts: £25 and you bring your own booze. Hmm… Not convinced.
I was brought here by my little brother. We arrived at a door with simply the letters BYOC above it. We entered and peered down the concrete steps. Were we at the right spot? Yup!
We walked downstairs into a different era. The music and décor gave the place a decadent vintage feel with soft lighting and extravagant patterns.
The hostess explained that we had two hours and showed us to our seats where we were greeted by our first bartender. He checked to see if we had any allergies, took a peek at our choice of drinks (gin, Finnish vodka and Captain Morgan’s).
Our strategy was to throw caution to the wind and ask each of our bartenders to surprise us. I would highly recommend that strategy! Each of our 5 drinks was totally different from vanilla and strawberry to cucumber and ginger. All were delicious in their own way! My poor mother had to give up after cocktail number 3 but my brother was happy to pick up the pace for her.
TL; DR: great value, cool concept and all in all a brilliant way to celebrate an evening in London

Never again, all our cocktails were sour and tasted the same. Staff were rude and took a really long time to serve us.

My friends and I came here on Saturday night, as one of them had recently returned from a holiday in the Caribbean and had a bottle of rum that he was eager to share. I had heard of this place through a friend a while ago and it seemed like the perfect place for this occasion. I took a look at the available reservations early in the week and saw that Covent Garden was fully booked but that there was availability in Camden. However, the venue asks for a credit card deposit and seems quite strict about it, so I waited to check with my friends to see if the time and date was ok. By the time I had heard back from everyone, someone had booked so that a table for 4 was not available! I called the venue and asked them if there was anything they could do, and the staff kindly moved one of the reservations (I think to another table) so that a space for 4 opened up again. They were equally accommodating when another friend wanted to join (but had to call since you can’t just amend the booking online due to the deposit issue) so that in the end, we were a group of 5.
The bar is very nicely decorated like a casino, as we were seated at a blackjack table and there was a roulette wheel behind us. There were probably about 6 tables in all, some accommodating parties as large as 8 or 10 people. I definitely think that this is more of a venue for groups as opposed to dates. There are about 3 bartenders serving and this is the deal: you pay 25 pounds per person at the door, and you get 5 cocktails made for you over 2 hours. They recommend half a bottle of alcohol per person, but we had two 750mls of rum and tequila and we had a good amount left over at the end. You don’t really have a say in what drinks are made; the bartenders like to call it a «surprise,» and I did get a strong drink the one time that I mentioned that I wanted one, but the rest of the time they just did as they pleased and served us a concoction of their fancy. It is probably best for people who have versatile palates, but I honestly enjoyed all of them.
The one thing I found frustrating was that at times service was really slow, and we weren’t able to get our 5 drinks during the scheduled 2 hours since the bartenders were so busy. To make it up to us, they agreed to extend our time by another 20 minutes. But after that, since we still had alcohol left over and there weren’t people waiting after us, we asked if we could pay for another drink somehow, and they refused. They also told us that the venue was closing a little after midnight, which is earlier than I would expect for a bar. It’s definitely a different business model that your typical bar that serves non-​stop and makes money off each drink, whereas this has a fixed fee at the door and must only have 2 or 3 rounds of scheduled seatings per night. But it is a very cool concept, and perfect for bringing visitors that you want to impress.