With literally hundreds of cocktails on offer, you might be overwhelmed, but fear not, the helpful mixologists will help you choose your poison.
Lurking in a hole-in-the-wall space on Boundary Street, Sling Lounge would be right at home in a grungy Melbourne laneway. Part Belle Epoque and part bomb shelter, the space - like the crowd - is eclectic. With bare brick, concrete and a dimly lit trove of top-shelf tipples, the air is decidedly apothecarian. Never mind the ceiling of fake grass - it's unpretentiously hip and oh-so-West End.
With a 49-page drinks list and some serious talent behind the bar (and I'm not just talking drinks mixing here), it's an aficionado's paradise. There are the usual suspects available of course, but Sling is the only bar in Brisbane to truly get behind molecular mixology. With 12 types of American whiskey, a sickle-sized vodka selection and more than 20 wines available by the glass, it's a potential migraine for the indecisive.
If all this sounds more like studying the periodic table than something you'd want to do on a Friday night, fear not. The guys that own Sling also run it, and they're keen to help. Their pedigree includes Lychee Lounge, Sunbar and Press Club, and it shows - these boys know their negronis.
Food's not the focus here but the kitchen's open till 10pm every night, the bar's open till 2am, and if you keep the high-wire hijinks to the drinks list, Sling won't disappoint.
I had a party at Sling and was overall quite disappointed. The atmosphere there is quite lovely in the back garden area, and the cocktails are amazing, but take far too long, and overall it's trying too hard. It is confused between a swanky cocktail bar and a relaxed pub garden (if you like your beer bottled & exy). The huge cocktail list is at first impressive, but then just plain cumbersome, and there aren't enough lists to go around. There is too much furniture in the garden so it doesn't work well for a function where you want your guests to mingle. In fact it doesn't work well for a big function at all. For a few people I imagine the experience is quite different, but I found the food and drink service extremely slow for a larger group. I paid for a per-person food package but the amount of food that came out was very light-on and there was no communication by the staff about when the food was coming out or how much despite me asking them several times. Some tables had lots of food and other tables had none. The food tasted fine but I felt it was overly pretentious and expensive for something fairly ordinary. In fact, this sums up my overall perception of the place pretty well!
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Visit: Tue 31 August 2010
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Posted by:
Penny7b
|
17 August 2009, 10.10am
yes it's over rated
It was probably something special when it first opened. But over the years it has deteriorated and not been refreshed or refurbished.
The service was pretty terrible. It took me a whole week to make our booking. All via email (with very slow response times) because not once could I actually get to talk to anyone over the phone.
We ended up arriving about 15-20 mins late, which I feel is late enough to apologise, but not late enough to call ahead. When we got there both the chief barman and our waitress had a whinge about how late we were and how they were thinking of giving our table to someone else.
When we got to our table it was sticky and obviously too small for the number of people we had. The menus were dog eared, stained and worn, as was the card for our bar tab. It's a small niggle, I know. But for this kind of place I expected better.
The waitresses had trouble remembering our order and didn't know the cocktails well enough to be able to help
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Visit: Sat 15 August 2009
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Posted by:
chelsea_l
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21 October 2008, 9.07pm
over rated
Unfortunately this bar is over-rated for the person that actually knows it's there. The front bar is tiny and you would be lucky not to get hit in the head as people walk past. The outside is slightly better yet good luck getting served. The tables are very sticky and the time it takes to actually get your drinks you could of gone over the road to Rumpus Room and sank a couple of shots. There is only one toilet so ladies prepare to queue. The cocktails are over-rated (again) and over priced. They have yet to serve me a decent Mai Tai.
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Visit: Tue 21 October 2008
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