Lounge Bohemia on Great Eastern Street: what to order and when to go

Go on a Friday or Saturday if you want the late seating, and book first. Lounge Bohemia, 1e Great Eastern Street, EC2A, has paused its usual service until 23 December for a ticketed, 20-course cocktail tasting. You cannot just turn up and order a drink at the moment.

What it is

Lounge Bohemia is an unsigned, reservation-only basement cocktail lounge near Shoreditch High Street station. Bar Magazine describes it as one of London’s original molecular-mixology speakeasies, with a retro 1960s, Czech-inflected room. The look comes from owner Paul Tvaroh’s Czech heritage.

The door is unmarked, next to a kebab shop on Great Eastern Street, just before Boxpark on the right. It leads down a couple of staircases. The corridor has been described as newspaper-lined.

The history

Tvaroh opened the bar on 1 November 2007. Before that he worked at The Prague Bar on Shoreditch High Street, and he is described as a self-trained mixologist. It was No. 43 on The World’s 50 Best Bars in 2011, and it has a Prague sibling at Mánesova 55. The bar is now marking its 20th anniversary, in its own words two decades, with the session below.

What to order: the 20-course experience

For two months the bar is pausing business as usual to host a twenty-course cocktail tasting, according to the bar’s own page. Tvaroh delivers each session personally. It runs three hours, for a maximum of 10 people at one shared table.

VisitChef describes the format as multi-sensory: flavour, texture, scent, sound and visual theatre. The bar names two signatures:

• A volcano erupting with jasmine liqueur and shochu bubbles.
• Tea candyfloss cocoons that dissolve into sakura cider nectar, revealing edible butterflies.

There is no choosing here: the tasting is the order.

When to go, prices and booking

• Dates: 2 November to 23 December only.
• Price: £175 per person, service charge included.
• Monday to Thursday: one session, 7pm to 10pm.
• Friday and Saturday: 6pm to 9pm, or 9.30pm to 12.30am.
• Sunday: no seatings are listed, so ask before planning around one.

Tickets are booked in advance through the bar’s site. The phone number is +44 7720 707000. If you have allergies or dietary needs, say so when you book, as a reviewer has reported a dispute over coeliac suitability.

After 23 December

No reopening date for normal service has been published beyond the end of the sessions, so check with the bar. Normal service is listed as Monday to Saturday 6pm to midnight and Sunday 6pm to 11pm, but confirm that too. Booking by phone has been compulsory, the dress code is “everything but a suit”, and big, loud groups are not welcome. Reviews describe walk-ins being turned away. Older prices, including cocktails at £14 and a six-course tasting menu at £35, should not be taken as current.

For after

For the early seating, Boxpark Shoreditch, 2 to 10 Bethnal Green Road, E1, is next door: shipping-container food and retail. Older listings give hours of roughly 11am to 11pm Monday to Wednesday, to 11.45pm Thursday to Saturday, and 12pm to 10.30pm Sunday. It is not a drinks-led finish, and it closes before the late seating ends.

For something with a cocktail list, Callooh Callay, 65 Rivington Street, EC2A, is about 450m from Old Street and listed as open daily from 6pm, with the Jubjub bar upstairs open Thursday to Saturday and invite-only after 10pm. Check before you go.

The nearest station is Shoreditch High Street, on the Overground, about 250m away.