The Piccadilly Lounge is light and airy and a good place to meet up in the day for a coffee with a friend or for an informal business meeting.

The Venue
The City Inn is one of the new buildings which is rapidly modernising the part of town around Piccadilly station and, along with Malmaison and Abode, has brought up the tone considerably.

The Piccadilly Lounge bar is light with its pale wood flooring and off-white colour scheme. It’s spacious and airy and there are burgundy stools which line the black and white bar, while bucket armchairs nestle around the small tables.

There are larger tables for bigger groups and moveable screens provide varying degrees of privacy, too. The ambient music creates a chilled-out atmosphere. It’s very quiet in the day but, as such, is good for business meeting or as a place to meet someone off the train. It has wi-fi and is a good spot to finish off that novel you’re writing.

The People
Hotel guests make up much of the clientele, but not exclusively. They need to get the word out more that it’s open to all comers.

The Food and Drink
There’s Bitburger and Deuchars IPA on draught, as well as some more unusual beers in bottled such as Baltika, Duvel and Krin Ichiban. The wine list is very strong with bottles starting at £14.50 (for a City Café rosé) and includes an Argentinian Mendoza Chardonnay £6.25 for a large glass).

The cocktail menu features over fifty different vintage and contemporary cocktails and martinis, including the signature Piccadilly Fix (fig-infused Solera-blended rum combined with Cheshire honey, lemon juice, fresh ginger and pressed organic apple juice) for £6.50. It’s served with organic ginger shortbread, which is a nice touch.

There’s a good selection of coffees and teas too. There are salads, as well as hot sandwiches and mezze (£7-£9). The beef salad was fine although the fat could have been trimmed off and it should have been thinly sliced - and the wait was unacceptably long seeing as it wasn’t busy.

The Last Word
Although tastefully designed, smooth and modern, The Piccadilly Lounge could do with a few more punters to give it a boost in atmosphere, but the potential is there.

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