Fluid

I kinda liked this place — it felt like a dive bar though and first impressions weren’t great. The bartender was lovely — and that goes a long way! I enjoyed the fusion style cocktails though I know others said they were a bit weak. The Unilocal deal of 3 for 2 was pretty good. They could deffo smarten up the loos though! And the people picking up empty glasses seemed a bit clueless!

I wanted to like this place, because my friend had chosen it as a birthday venue, but I didnt really.
I liked the japanese theme, complete with japanese cinema/​animé on, and the food. I also really liked that this place served some great japanese whisky (Suntory).
What I didnt like was the bar area and the subsequent service.
The bar is pretty small which I am not faulting, space is at a premium in central London, but what I do fault is that although the bar is small, literally half of aforementioned small bar is used up for glass stacking. Really inefficient use of space.
Additionally, I dont know if I was being impatient, but the service was painfully slow. At one point, I did just consider returning empty-​handed, but realised my mates would have beaten me so decided against it.
Other reviews seem to love this place, so perhaps I’ll return on a non-​Friday night to give it another go, but Im unlikely to venture there specifically.

Really cool bar, decently priced japanese food. Tasty too.
Seating’s a bit awkward if you have a group and want to share lots of little dishes but, oh well.
There’s a pub quiz

The first wednesday of every month. It’s really great and interactive.

Eating lunch in dimly lit pubs isn’t really my style but for the quality of Fluid’s chicken katsu curry I’m willing to do it. Their dumplings and seaweed salad are also noteworthy and the fact that it’s never rammed at lunch make Fluid a good spot if your lunch involves a catch up conversation.
The couches are comfy and the lone server is perpetually sweet and accommodating. Not a lot more I could want out of my midday meal, except maybe to feel I’m not still surrounded by last night’s excesses at the bar…

If you’re in the area for food at Smithfields of a weekend and fancy a boogie after without queing for hours to get into Fabricthen Fluids the place for you, nice and intimate, door charge is cheap (£3 when we went), djs were really good (two floors of them too! :0) and lovely cocktails! Check it out! :)

I had bookmarked this place from the Unilocal reviews and decided to try it out. Excellent spot near Smithfield Market that you probably wouldn’t notice unless you were looking for it. Called in on a Friday night. Good crowd inside but managed to find a seat.
Inside there is a funky Tokyo animé vibe with animé videos and dark urban interior and DJ on the turntables. Music was good and not too loud so we could actually talk. Plus points for that too.
It’s a bar, it’s a restaurant, it’s a club, all rolled into one very compact corner site.
We ordered Asahi beer. Good prices. Will try the cocktails next time.
We ordered the set menu for two and it was great. Good, nicely presented fresh sushi with some miso soup, gyoza and crispy fish balls which just fit the bill perfectly.

Go and have a bento box… go on! Trust me!
I’ve popped over a couple of times for lunch recently and both times have opted for the daily special.
The first was a bento box with pumpkin katsu curry (yep — it was Halloween week!), sashimi, salad, sushi rice and a miso soup. The sushi rice is seriously good stuff. The second time was the same deal but with pork katsu, sashimi, vegetable gyoza, sushi rice and a miso soup. That miso is great stuff for a cold. I can’t comment on the quality of it as, I’ll be honest, it’s my first miso soup… hot and salty!
The special is £10, I think the other bento boxes are a bit cheaper but they don’t come with a curry/​hot option. I’m just praying for the day the bento box special comes with the duck teriyaki! Come on Fluid — do it for me!

Ok it’s official, I’ve pop my katsu curry cherry, and it was good!
This week the Fluid chef delivered big style, with a pork katsu bento box. It was tasty, well presented and jolly well filled the hole!
The thing about Fluid is that from the outside, it is so unassuming, and you would have no idea that housed within those four walls, was one of the best curries known to man! Yes, I know this was my first so I don’t really have much to compare it to, but… these taste buds know talent when they taste it, and this was it!
Don’t believe me? Good, that just means there is more for me!

Mugen has officially been replaced as my favourite chicken katsu curry in the Clerkenwell/​Farringdon area.
Funky/​chic leather seating, R-​rated animé playing on the telly, and Asahi on draught. What more do you want from a bar/​lounge? A typewriter?

£4 killer cocktails?! Woohooo… now that’s a way to make a Tuesday night spectacular. And even better is when Quiz ‘n’ Paste are hosting a quizzie bingo night!
I dragged my sorry suited self (actually I changed but I like alliteration) down to this bar which turns out is just a 10 minutes walk from my work for a sort of UYE with the Unilocal brass (our lovely CMs were both in attendance). I got there around 6.45 just in time for the first and second round of happy hour cocktails.
Let’s see, in aggregate, we had the 1) Wasabi Martini (name kinda speaks for itself, 2) the Mortal Kombat (a light citrusy martini with a chilli kick and a massive red chilli as garnish, 3) Lychee martini (again self explanatory), 4) Bushido (Plum wine, ginger liquer, elderflower liquer, and a bit of lemon juice garnished with pink peppercorns), 5) Japanese Slipper (midori, tequila, and passionfruit and somehow it was pink coloured), and of course several beers (asahi/​guiness).
Overall, I think the favourites were the Mortal Kombat and for me the Bushido went down very easily. The massive chilli less so although I think the Queen B had more trouble with it than my heat-​experienced tongue. The drinks aren’t that strong but are refreshing and go down a treat.
Food wise, the chicken katsu curry is pretty damn good. I’d like a little more body to the curry but the katsu was fried superbly (moist sliver of breaded chicken… brilliant!) and the rice seasoned just right. Plus they have table service (I’m assuming not on a Friday/​Saturday when its packed but Tuesday’s are a go!) so I didn’t even have to get off my comfy seat. The sushi the girls got also looked pretty mouthwatering so might have to go for that next time.
Prices are pretty good… cocktails are 7.50−9 at full price, the chicken katsu curry was 8 for a fairly large bowl, and the beers 3.20 for a pint and roughly 4 for a bottle.
I won’t give away much of Quiz n Paste’s line up for the quiz night as its much more enjoyable when you are surprised the first time. Needless to say I haven’t laughed that much for ages (literally hurt afterwards) and the London CMs know how to make a quality Joystick!

Decent music, not too expensive, decent cocktails, central, easy access, decent selection of (asian)lagers, stylee, and they’ve a 80s video game table.
Haven’t eaten here, only had a few drinks. Fairly typical, though the music is loud. They go on late and have upstairs and downstairs DJs, though I don’t think I’d come here for that.
If they had the DJ going with the tunes they were spinning but more as a backgroundy thing… that’d be sort of OK. As it was, it was just a bit desperate.
But all in all, an OK sort of thing.

2 words. Porn star martini. A passion fruit martini served with a shot of champagne. You can easily knock down 3 and get a good buzz going.
Atmo wise, I prefer the likes of Purl, or The Nightjar… as I’m more of a speak easy kinda guy… but the cocktails (or at least the one above) are solid. Price is about 10 pounds per.
Was there on a Friday pm at around 4pm… very quiet but then started buzzing around 6pm… but still not too crowded. Less cool than Gloglo’s… but still a good place if you’re in the area… although I do want to try Neo Barbican not too far away.

I have FINALLY made it to Fluid.
I can’t really vouch for the prices b/​c I went there for a work do, but lets just say we had a medium sized budget and the AMAZINGLY FRIENDLY AND HELPFUL staff helped us to make it last for a very long period.
As I said the staff was lovely, and everyone was really polite and eager to help, and I don’t like to judge a bar by the matchboxes that they give away, but lets just say they had REALLY nice, big matchboxes.
I might have been easily pleased b/​c I ate my own weight in delicious avocado sushi, and Tom might have drank his weight in free Jaegermeister, but I have to say that Fluid knows how to host a party.

I really like this cocktail bar. Not only is it super close to my office but in an area filled with twats in either a suit of flannel shirts, this place is actually quite cool.
I’d also like to point out their fabulous happy hour. £4 cocktails. 2 of those after work and the 55 home is actually quite bearable. For me this was actually a five star bar, I tried their food last time I was there and it was, lick the pattern off the bowl tasty. I also love, love, love their bar staff. I’m a real thinker when it comes to a menu. I want everything on it so it does take a while to whittle down the choices. Here I get no tutting, or sighs. Thank you.
So what killed it for me? The music. On Friday, after work you want a few drinks and a catch up with a friend. It’s getting too cold to sit outside so you choose one of the comfy sofas. Only you can’t actually hear yourself think as the music is too loud. I’m one to mention something like this. I mean, this bar now feels like my second home. So I say something, and nothing happens. I finish my food and drink and leave, with a headache, and a sulk.

A pint of Asahi for £2.50?
Yes. I’m in.
This place oozes Japanese-​cool, yet it’s unpretentious, which I can totally get behind. Furthermore, the service is friendly and *actually* helpful. As I sat down at our reserved black-​leather-​couch lounge area to wait for my friends, I saw some people in their late 40s hanging out at a nearby lounge area. And I saw some people in their mid-​20s hanging out at another lounge area. Some people might not like the heterogenous nature of a drinking establishment’s clientele, but I am not one of those people.
ASAHIS FOR ALL!

There’s not much not to like about Fluid… except perhaps how much other people like it.
When aren’t 2−4−1 cocktails in a Japanese funky fusion tv-​fishtanked bar fantastic? Answer: never. I’ll sign up to the Friday-​Happy-​Hours religion any day of the week. In fact, I may already be a disciple, and am looking to learn and grow in the coming days.
The Tokyo-​sleek atmosphere is, as mentioned, fabulous. However, not fabulous enough to justify mediocre sushi. Luckily, that’s where the exceptionally friendly bar staff and expertly mixed cocktails gallantly swoop in to save the day. (i.e. Skip the sushi, stick with cocktails.)
Overall, I will now be adding Fluid to my favourite cocktail spots in London list. And hopefully I’ll be back to party in the downstairs Tokyo disco before long. It’s pretty radtacular.

Fluid does not disappoint! I love the Japanese themed décor, they do sushi and other snacks and have a GREAT cocktail list that I’ve tried one of each… no really… if you’re in the mood for a drink, and i mean a drAnk, you need to pick up a singapore sling.
The upstairs has lots of cozy couches and places to claim with your group of friends and sometimes has a dj, the basement is busier on the weekends and will usually have a drum & bass vibe to it. I think on Wednesdays they were running this thing where you could be the DJ and bring your ipod in and sign up to play your own tracks! Not sure if it’s still running, but bring yours just in case. I’ve always had fun at fluid, either getting off my face wasted or watching some of the people that come in. The weekend crowd is hilarious, they’ll start off with some after-​work suits and slowly transition into the bar-​hoppers, then late night fades into the party kids out for a late night. They’re open extra late on weekends which is a biiiig plus for the area.

The word that comes to mind when thinking of Fluid is: interesting
Like others said, the bar has a very «creative» décor. The walls are covered in pictures of asian models and there are tables set on retro arcade games.
I came here on a thursday and was a quite disapointed by the after work crowd I was met with, that was attempting to have a dance off. At this point, I had decided the night was a fail… however my trip to the bar made all the difference. I was met with attentive bartenders and an impressive drink list that I had not expected. The bar staff was eager to help me find a cocktail that fit my liking and then I watched them cut the fresh fruits and whip up a delicious drink. Though I’m not dying to experience another night here, I might stop in just to check off a few more drinks on their menu.

A nice place to get some drinks instead of to go to the Fabric nearby. Often Live music by a DJ, bar waiter are nice even if busy and prices are correct!
The Japanese menu looks good, but I did not get a chance yet to try it
Big sofas where you can relax & talk.
According to my experience, the main dancefloor is downstairs

Well, one problem I had with this place is that for so long I thought the name of the bar was Fuji. Searching for it on the Unilocal site, on the internet to find the address, was a bit of a struggle. ‘Mount Fuji?’ do I want google? No! So it’s called fluid, just written in mightily funky text. I made the link in my head I think, with the Japanese theme. who knows.
What I do know is that as soon as I walked in I was impressed. This place just oozes coolness, and for so many places that try to look cool for the younger generation, the students and the college kids, go here for a little lesson. The black leather sofa motif is awesome and what actually makes it even better is how god damn low the chairs are! You feel like you’re sitting in someones exceptionally well furnished living room, and isn’t that what you’re supposed to feel like when you’re relaxing? At home? I know you can’t get exotic £7.00 cocktails at my house like you can here, with lots that sample the large range of Japanese spirits on offer behind the bar.
When I sat down, I was instantly asked what I wanted to drink, to which I replied (I can see you mouthing it now, thinking about it in your head) ‘Tap Water, please’. She returned swiftly with a tall glass, ice and a straw. A straw! Height of coolness, like I said. The arcade machines sealed the deal for me though, and you cannot understand how awesome Space Invaders truly is until you waste at least £1 on it like I did. The last ship got me twice for christ sake! So annoying. The multi-​game arcade machine to the left of it is even more awesome (seemingly) but it swallowed my 30p! Huge financial losses. However I moved on from this pain and left this bar, knowing truly I will be back with my girlfriend one night very soon…