First date locations: Basement State
Image credit Basement State
Do you like desserts with strange names? Yes? Do you like alcoholic cocktails made by a guy with a moustache like he’s going to tie a woman to a train track? Yes? Do you like dates? No!! Well two out of three ain’t bad. You’re about to read about a great place to see if getting your date on a sugar high works better than getting them drunk on fancy unpronounceable gin.
Basement State is a cocktail bar in Soho where you can treat your future booty call or regret to a fancy cocktail and or fancy dessert without having to hide cheesecake in your hand bag or brownie in your underpants.
Located: Soho
Address: 8 Broadwick St, Soho, London W1F 8HN
Hours: Open ⋅ Closes 12AM
Phone: 020 7287 3412
The space
Book it please!! What are you? A savage!!
Image credit Basement State
You can turn up and be placed in a mediocre section on a mediocre stool or if it’s a quiet day you can choose between several questionably low and quite awesome sofas, you should all be aware that I am always a fan of sofas. Booking increases your chances of getting said sofa locations just incase London’s in heat, a £20 pseudo deposit is needed to make a booking. They do this by taking your card details and only debiting you the £20 if you don’t show up, so… I mean… show up.
It’s a suave, trendy, tricky to find basement venue which will either get you points for knowing quirky locations to get tipsy or lose you points for being a little trendy Londoner,
it’s dimly lit and somewhat small in size but it makes up for all that with a post recession vibe and stylish decor, shortly after walking in you can turn your head to the right and witness the baker at work, it’s no surprise that he also has a curly moustache. One of my only gripes is that they have no where to hang your coat, least no where I’ve seen, you end up slopping it over the arm chair of your awesomely low sofa and occasionally cursing to yourself when it slides onto the floor because of your constant excitement about the dessert you ordered. Which brings us into the next section.
Consumables
Image credit Basement State
They have deep fried milk!! What is deep fried milk? Well if I’m honest I didn’t know till I had it there and I gotta tell you, deep fried milk is awesome. Ahem.. As I mentioned earlier, Basement State is a place where you can get cocktails and desserts. There’s a decent selection of treats ranging from deep fried milk, banofee, carrot cake and so on, take a look.
The only thing that may put you off the desserts is having to reprogram your mind into thinking £10 for a dessert is normal, but you may be getting laid by the evening so stop making a fuss about it
, besides you can always just share one. I’m not critic on what makes a good dessert but from my in-experienced pallette I can firmly state that they are nice crafted and the fun kind of edible. If deep fried milk doesn’t tickle your fancy then you can just settle for alcohol, they have a few oddly named beverages as well as a few classics that you can find here, but in all honesty why are you here if you’re not going to get a dessert?! That’s the whole novelty of it.
The staff
Image credit Basement State
Remember the mustache I wasn’t kidding, there’s a dude there who wears a moustache like a cartoon villain, I think it’s a growing trend because I’m starting to see these twisty moustache guys on my day to day!! The staff are very friendly and approachable, more than happy to invest a little time describing your choice of cocktail and a decent dessert to accompany it while wearing a smile and an imaginary cape and top hat that I pretend they wear.
The service is incredibly quick, I mean it’s a cocktail it shouldn’t take the time it takes to deliver a baby and luckily the dessert comes shortly after too, they also don’t seem to make much conversation but you may be on a date and they have cocktails to make.
Basement state is a great place for a first date if you’re looking to show your interest a slightly different take on drinking too much. The price is a bit over average since it’s a cocktail bar, so drinks are about £9-£10 and so are the desserts, but it’s a great cozy place to start to get to know each other, and hey if they suck you can just tell everyone about the awesome deep fried milk you gobbled up. One more thing, why do bars insists on hiding their signs these days? It took me a good 10 minutes to find the entrance to the place then realised I was right in front of it the whole time.
