The Electric Birdcage SW1

On a difficult Theatreland site (most recently home to Dune, RIP), a somewhat tacky bar offering some surprisingly good oriental snacks at very reasonable prices.

In most industries, a good site is a prominent site, but it doesn’t necessarily work that way in the West End bar/restaurant world. The site of the Electric Birdcage had formerly, in quick succession, been an Antipodean fine dining outfit, an upmarket American diner and a nightclubby North African bar/restaurant.

The latest attempt to make a go of the site involves furnishing it grandly in a lurid and loungey sort of way; a style which – never having been there, you understand – we imagine you might find in Bangkok. It‘s too early to judge how the place will develop as a bar. That will depend on the sort of crowd it manages to attract (on which front the proximity of, say, Tiger Tiger is not especially encouraging).

As a handy site for a West End snack, though, the place is worth tucking away at the back of your mind. It offers a straightforward pan-Asian menu with many dishes for £3, and almost all under a fiver. No foodie hotspot this, but our dim sum and spring roll choices were perfectly competent, and a green chicken curry and rice was very good indeed. Don’t hesitate to ask for a spoon though – you really won’t be able to eat it with the chopsticks provided.