Pubs and Bars / Reviews
Aluna – bar review
“The light fittings! The light fittings!” Ian, the general manager of Aluna, moves from his position by the door to lightheartedly admonish a member of staff who has just caused flames to go shooting up towards the ceiling with the use of a blowtorch and some flammable powder.
It’s a recent Saturday night and he’s just made a secret concoction with classified ingredients (spoiler alert: it contains vanilla vodka, Licor 43 and Framboise) which tastes a bit too much like liquid raspberry yogurt for its £8.95 price tag but is made truly memorable thanks to its theatrical preparation as it is ignited, exploded and smoked.
“I didn’t know it would do that,” the barman apologises with a smile on his face. “It didn’t do that last time.”
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The next drink served is a marshmallow daiquiri (£7.95), the marshmallow squeezed onto the glass through a nozzle. It’s the cue for the next appearance of the blowtorch – this time with less danger to the hipster beards at the bar.
It eventually had to be drunk with a spoon – the marshmallow slightly cloying, the cocktail better.
Behind the bar there is a parade of items bringing to mind the conveyor belt from The Generation Game: a pineapple, a banana, a syringe, dry ice.
Drinks here in the sister bar of another Aluna in Birmingham’s Mailbox are divided into signatures, where you’ll find the old fashioned, margherita and mojito; midnight madness, “the science behind the cocktails” with such additions as “bursting balls of blueberry”, bubblegum and floating spheres of apple caviar; gels and sorbets; and hubble bubble with added fizz.
What used to be Thai Edge is also divided into distinct sections. Turn left and it’s the bar area. Turn right and it’s the restaurant, with salads, burgers, pastas, steaks and even a stir-fried lobster with celery, ginger, spring onion and a touch of Thai whisky for £28.
Arabian Nights meets Victorian boudoir is the feel here. Mirrors have extravagant metal frames, porcelain butterflies have attached themselves to one pillar and a grandfather clock stands proudly in the dining room. There is even a pair of angel wings on one wall which you can pose in front of. Instantly Instagrammable.
In one corner of the bar, flames rise as the blowtorch is taken to a table to please the pyromaniacs. The light fittings remain unblackened. General manager Ian breathes a sigh of relief.
Aluna, Unit 4, 12 Broad Quay, Bristol, BS1 4DA
0117 927 6829