Strongroom

Hidden down a side alley on Curtain road, it's easy to miss this bar.

But venture in and you'll find a fantastic selection of beers, ciders and unique drinks, makes this a great place to try some new beverages, or you can pop in for some cake or food.

Drinks can however be quite pricey, although you do pay for quality.

It's a friendly laid back bar, on two floors, the top is a bar with tables and the downstairs is more of a dance / club vibe.

They also have an outdoor area, which whilst limited in space is quite good for the summer.

Not a bad little place at all, it's very chilled out. However, it is a little dingy inside and the decor feels extremely dated (with a rustic, hippy festival feel), and I have been there a couple of times on the weekend and it's been dead.

With so many awesome places to go in shoreditch, it's hard to see why people would come here, but it's down to earth and chances are you can have a pleasant, social, drink with friends.

WOW, Shoreditch just keeps changing and not for the better.

My original review gave this place 4 stars (you can read below) but now it’s just become one of those places with a more strict doorman policy – just for a bar.

Have been going to this place for years and now, doormen won’t let 4 guys in together (even though we explained we were gay). I guess it has become yet another Shoreditch bar that has become a victim of being found.

So we went to The Griffin and had a blast.

This was my original review:

As a bar this is a great place (have never eaten here).

Great courtyard area for a drink and the music inside is indie/rock.

If in the Shoreditch area and you want a place away from the tourists, it’s a great place. No hen/stag parties welcome which is a good thing in my opinion. Mainly indie rock people and a good jukebox and/or djs if there is a party happening.

Very laidback!

Very nice garden area (however, not enough seating there to satisfy the demand).
Friendly environment, overall pleasant to be here.

It’s a hidden bar, off from the street, and has a lovely outside area. A nice place for a summer eve.

Pretty nifty bar on curtain road just before shoreditch high st coming from the Old St end. Now that we have location sorted... Certain elements were hit and miss here; we spent most of the evening outside after lucking out with a warmer evening. The clientele were a mixture; some of the classic shoreditch types but also many 'normal' folk here for decent drinks and decent priced food snacks. I can recommend the Greeky pitta, olives, dolmades and hummus plate (£5) and also the nachos weren't bad.

The bouncer wasn't letting in groups of guys without lasses; and for good cause it would seem as later on a group of very loud, very drunk guys were ruffling a few feather's outside and made for a pretty unpleasant environment until they moved off. Place gets pretty busy on weekends and when a few parties are booked they don't let non guestlisters enter which is a bit of a shame allowing for no spontaneity; and given the large outside area I imagine they'll have quite a few bookings this summer. Not my kind of music but yeah, decent spot for a night out and I'm sure I'll find myself there again.

Small and pretty inoffensive bar that manages to avoid raking in the hoards of skinny jeaned hipsters on fixed gear bikes on Curtain Road.

Nice place to have a long and, for Shoreditch, cheap drink and with friendly bar staff to boot. But the bar itself is pretty grubby and smells like a hobo has wandered in and died in the corner.

Otherwise a nice, non pretentious bar.

How many times do I have to praise Dean and his staff for this excellent establishment? Last week I came armed with laptop and was served a glorious breakfast to munch on whilst I worked away. Two hours later I'm still there - lunch menu - mmm quiche looks nice (cue my boss on Google Talk "are you just going to stay there all day and eat?"). Lunch time gets so busy - I've never seen anything like it. It seems like a lot of people know about this hidden bar! Will come back again, and again....

Stumbled across this one lazy Saturday afternoon and called in for some pints and food. The inside is pretty small and but is cosy enough. We got decent burgers which certainly filled a hole. Been back a few times since, were lucky enough to find a sunny spot in the courtyard a few times during the summer.

This is good, this is very good. I’d call it a hidden gem but then a lot of people seem to have found it. It was just me who couldn’t find my Harp from my E-Bow.

Just off Curtain Road in a courtyard this bar be located. In decent weather this doubles the capacity of the bar, or rather shifts it as most people like to enjoy the ambience outside. Although the pubs are very different, the courtyard hidden away from an otherwise bustling area of London reminded me of the courtyard outside The George in the London Bridge area.

But to be worth such a high rating, it needs more than just a nice area outside surely? What about the British Winter. OK…throw in possibly the best Juke box selection I have ever seen (admittedly a lot of stuff from my era so perhaps not for everyone), some comfortable sofas inside to recline upon, a drinks selection that is off the beaten track and a wallet friendly food menu (having eaten there…they are not going to win any Michelin stars…its just basic pub grub, but that’s what you want and you shouldn’t expect more at such a reasonable price).

They also have live music here (what?...there’s more?) in the otherwise chilled downstairs bar, whereas the upstairs bar is more restauranty (hey, if cupboardy is a word!) in it’s feel.

I expect to be back here on a fairly regular basis.

I am really struggling with my rating of this venue. I have been here twice for food/drink. The first time, the food was ok - but I later felt ill for the next 24-48hrs. Not sure if it was related, so I went ahead and gave it another shot yesterday.
I met a friend on his lunch break from work. It was a sunny day, so the outside tables were busy. We ordered and were told there was a 20min wait. We figured that was ok. 45-50min later there was no food. My friend left money for his lemonade, canceled his burger, and had to go back to work. I got my burger 5 min later.
The food is fine, but there’s nothing special about it that I cant get elsewhere. So two experiences have let me down a bit.
I’m pretty easy going, so I’ll still probably go back at some point -- but for drinks only.

This has been the scene of many a long night’s drinking and dancing in Shoreditch – birthdays, leaving dos, works parties, lunchtime drinks – I’ve lost count how many times I’ve been here.

It was originally a private club attached to the recording studios next door (still there and on the same website), tucked down a little cobbled entrance off Curtain Road.

(There was much excitement at work when Oasis were spotted hanging out here, and presumably using the recording studios at the time.)

And since it opened to the general public, it’s proved very popular and you’ll often find a pair of bouncers on the door in the evenings.

Split over two levels, there’s a DJ booth and dance floor downstairs, and a bar and tables upstairs. It’s usually open until 2am, so you can dance away until the wee hours.

In the daytime, it makes a good retreat from the hubbub of Shoreditch and there are tables outside for when the sun shines!

There is a discretion and demure to this bar, filtering out the chavs and freaks who career down the main stretch of Curtain Road. You certainly get served with far more civility than so many of the generic Old Street offerings. Cocktails here are unusual but not particularly inspired (French Martini has a tendency to have the consistency of soup), but this is still a secluded spot which definitely harks back to the days when Shoreditch was slightly more underground in a non-pretentious way.

Good outside heated patio space and open until 8pm Sunday, probably the right time for me to be getting on my merry way, after an afternoon of drinking games! In summary, it’s dependable and neighbourhood-y lacking the attitude of its brethren ilk.

A great little bar with a good jukebox and, when the door people aren’t being stupidly picky (ie, claiming the venue is full when there are only about 15 people inside) a great place to meet friends.

They do decent food during the day, and a good mix of drinks both at the large upstairs and small downstairs bar.

This is probably the worst bar experience i’ve ever had. The most incompetent management and a terrible service makes this place one of the places you feel more sorry for than everything else. The music is good but the bar in general is pathetic.
THIS BAR IS NOT RECOMMENDED!

ey, such a cool place,
the music is very original and unusual most of the time. i mean, bands like the specials where you won’t listen anywhere else (but ska-punk places i guess)
inside is cool and comfy, and not too busy, basically because all the attention is drawn to the terrace, something in the middle between a dead end and a very special place. huge, open air but hidden away from the busy old street in where it is.
and then, large beer menu with many more options than the ubiquitous lager.
I loved it.

I visit this place pretty regularly, rather late on weeknights. I quite like the fact that there usually isn’t music playing loudly and I can talk with my friends. (Wow, I must be getting old) The staff are always friendly, I can find a table to sit at, and I like the furniture.

Though I can’t classify this as a good traditional pub, as there has yet to be one of those very interesting old conversationalists hanging out by bar just waiting to regale me with tales of yore. Strongroom is just good mellow night drinking with friends.

I work near here and it’s a common venue for work drinks. I find it depressing. It’s not truly awful, but there’s nothing much good about it. The staff are ok, but border on being miserable and unfriendly.

Oooh, what a great find. Smack in the middle of the arty bit of the East End, I imagine this place gets packed at night when all the cool Hoxtonites come out to play. Until then, it’s the perfect place to hang out.

It’s a huge open kinda warehouse space. Two floors, but the top floor seems nicer in the day, it’s lighter and airy. They have comfy battered old sofas and I could have sat there all day.

The staff are kind and they made me a yummy hot chocolate. For a POUND! Really! It was in a tiny cup but it was yummy and quite rich so I wouldn’t have wanted to drink anymore. And it was a pound! This made us sneak a peak at the rest of the menu. You can buy a veggie brekkie in here for less than three quid. Blimey.

I don’t know if they have free wi-fi in here, I should have asked. The whole of Shoreditch is going free wi-fi anyway soon which will be nice. This is the perfect creative place to work. I’m looking forward to popping down here with my laptop and books and for once, I might actually get some work done.

They have bands on in the evening and djs and cool things. They’ve got art on the walls and a great selection of indy music mags. It’s fun here. I intend to pop back and see what it’s like after dark too.

Curtain Road has some cracking bars, and The Strongroom is almost one of them. Entry is via the courtyard - very useful for you smokers and probably great fun once summer decides to show up. Sizewise though, I was a bit surprised that somewhere with a courtyard this big was quite so dinky and intimate inside.

The upstair room (probably the larger of the two) has its own bar and the times I’ve been there, staff have been friendly, quick to serve and usually playing some decent 90s Indie.

There’s not a lot else to tell about the place, which is why I can only give it a 3. Casual and attitude-free though.

Strong Rooms is this tiny little bar just of Old Street that is probably one of the coolest places that I’ve ever been to. The bar is so tiny, separated in two levels with a Juke Box, comfy sofa’s, great burgers and a relaxed vibe. Strong Rooms gives off the vibe of chilling in your living room, it’s very chilled and very cool. You can wear anything from converse to twelve inch heels, you don’t have to pay to get in and you can spend you’re whole night there sitting and chatting. Music is not a main feature in Strong Rooms, although once one has consumed enough alcohol I’m sure one may dance. The last time I went to Strong Rooms me and my friend arrived at seven in the evening, I ordered myself a Mozzarella, Tomato and Pesto burger …mmm – it was absolutely delicious and only cost me six pounds, we chilled for a while, then my other friends came down and then at about eleven o clock my partner turned up and we literally mucked about and drank until two o clock, which is closing time. This is an ideal place to go to when you’re in a chilled but sociable mood.