Rendez Vous

This light and airy hotel bar has been spruced up and it's ideal for quiet business drink.

The Venue
Rendez Vous is the small bar to the Thistle Hotel and has benefitted from the building’s recent £15 million refurbishment in the form of more seating, new windows and a general lightening up. Perhaps most importantly — especially for the diners — it’s been separated from the restaurant area. Now it’s much airier and gives the impression of more space with its white walls and the mirrored bar.

It has a stone floor and a big chunky pine dividing wall in the middle with ledges to rest you drinks on and tall wooden stools with tied-on dark pink square cushions. The stone bar with a wooden counter is on one side and on the other is a stone-enclosed raised seating section with a ramp leading up to it. There are metal studs in the turquoise wall and pairs of spotlights in the ceiling.

The People
Although it can be quiet in the day that can be a bonus for the business people who stay at the Rendez Vous or who use is as a meeting place. Residents can drink all night and, with the number of stag and hen dos and conferences passing through here, that happens more often than you might think. It’s handily near the station too so is a perfect…rendezvous.

The Food and Drink
There are sandwiches and wraps — a smoked salmon and cream cheese is £6.95 and a chicken Caesar wrap is £6.50. Mains include a chicken and leek pie for £6.95. There are a dozen whites and the same number of reds divided into sections such as “fruity and fresh” and “full-flavoured and complex”. They range from £14.49 to £28 a bottle. It’s £21.50 for a Chateau Moulin du Barrail Bordeaux 2003 which is bilberry and blackberry. A new cocktail menu is on it's way, apparently.

The Last Word
A pleasant bar with a light and airy feel, which is better for a quiet drink than a party (unless the hens or stags are out and about).

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