Catch - London United Kingdom

A real catch 22 for me when reviewing this place My Yelp buddy Andrew M had set up a trip here to eat Dante's Fried Chicken pop up. If you see that my Yelp secret is that I like KFC, you know that I like my fried chicken and the colonel's version with its secret blend of 11 herbs and spices is the benchmark It was an (unusual) sunny day and I arrived to find some of our party sunning themselves outside like reptiles. We had to pre pay £20 for tickets to the 3pm seating So why the dilemma? Well, purely based on the food, Chef Dante's fried chicken was fantastic moist from brining, an American technique we don't use enough in this country. The coating was crispy and thick enough for a satisfying crunch with each mouthful. It had great flavour and the recipe was helpfully printed on the piece of paper the chicken was served in The chicken came as part of a 3 course meal. The starter of toasted okra breakfast taco was OK but nothing special. The chicken as great and served with nice sides of honey coconut biscuits, cranberry almond coconut slaw, smoked cheese crispy leek polenta and apricot crack sauce. The dessert of white chocolate black sesame sweet potato pie was rich and the small portion was enough Unfortunately, the star rating drops because of the chaotic organisation. Despite pre booking and paying for a table of 7, we had no reserved table on arrival and had to sit in a row at the bar, making conversation very difficult. Then, it took 2 hours to serve us including 50 minutes before any food arrived. Then, we were promised a round of drinks in conpensation only to be be told after we had ordered said free round that it only included a limited menu and so we had to fork out for that not so free round. We were then asked 5 times in 5 minutes whether we had had any food A shame as the chicken was better than KFC and in my book that's high praise indeed!

Terrible bar. Went there on a Tuesday with 8 friends. The bar was totally empty but they required a £50 deposit in advance to secure the reservation (which they said would be fully redeemed in drinks). When my friends went to the bar to order drinks they charged them. In the end there was £30 remaining from the deposit that they said they would not give us back nor give us in drinks. They said it was OUR fault that the barman charged us. The manager was really really rude and disrespectful with my friends. Got really embarrassed of choosing that place to take them.

When you find yourself stranded in Shoreditch after a pub night that ended at 11 but do not feel like going home yet, go to Catch. This place is open later than other venues, has a free entrance but has still magically managed to retain its cool. Catch is a fun place to go for late drinks. I prefer the downstairs area for its music and seating, but the upstairs can also be good fun and is gifted enough to hold a performing area for bands and DJs. Catch is a good place for experiencing the Shoreditch vibes.

I love catch, as already discussed here it really is the kind of place you end up in when you just wanna keep going.... It gets so packed at the weekends that you have to literally fight your way to the bar, but the dj 's play some really awesome music it 's almost worth it. The booths mean it 's great if you go with a large group and manage to all squish in, although the general feeling of the place is friendly and I 've made momentary friends with others sitting around 'my ' table. Really good to go see local bands, they have a full events lineup in their window for you to peruse. Oh, and being 'Shoreditch ', you see some absolutely mental clothing choices!

This is my first time shooting night life in London with a camera. Actually this is the first time shooting night life period. The images remind me of earlier eras in other big cities like Los Angeles, Chicago or New York. I was told by my Hackney hosts that this isn't a night club because there isn't a charge to get in and, as you can see the action inside is clearly visible from the street. What do I know? I'm old enough to be the patrons' grandmother.