Elegant and leafy, this beautiful bar serves well-made cocktails to a relaxed crowd.

The Venue
The Gate is the sister venue of the Secret Garden Restaurant. It's an elegant bar, with a modern design. Their trademark is a black floral pattern and this is printed over the many mirrors. The rest of the colour scheme for the room is deep green, black and white. There are white leather booths surrounded by green plants, and there are wood logs used as seats. More seating comes in the form of large brown couches, tall benches in grey, large retro chairs with green upholstery and vintage armchairs in brown leather. Round tables sit groups of four, and there are many private corners. The Gate is intimate, but you can still watch and be watched.

The People
It's no surprise that The Gate, despite not being a particularly expensive venue, gathers a fashionable crowd. The regulars vary in age and there's a good mix of people. However, a certain level of formal attire is pretty standard. So wear a jacket and shirt, or a dress, if you're planning to go here.

The Food
The benefit of this bar being part of the Secret Garden is that you can sample restaurant-standard dishes in a less formal setting. The Gate serves brunch (£2 to £6.50) throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday, and you can tuck into omelettes, a full Scottish breakfast and French toast. What an excellent way to start the day.

During the week you can order sandwiches and wraps (£4 to £4.50), pasta and salads (£5 to £6) and grilled and fried mains (£7 to £11). Pick from chicken and Thai green mayo wrap, penne pasta with mushroom and blue cheese, spicy lamb burger, chicken salsa burger, chickpea and potato burger and Toulouse sausage and mash. The indulgent desserts (£3.50 to £5) will make you want to have a little snooze afterwards.

The Gate also offers a tapas menu of small, intriguing dishes like tamarind or ginger fried chicken, prawn piri piri, tamarind green scallops, baked spiced vegetable tempura, Indo spiced okra, vegetable baht and more. Chicken tapas are £4 to £5.50, meats are £5 to £5.50, seafood is £5.50 to £6.50 and vegetables dishes sell for £3.50 to £4.50. Express lunch is also available between noon and 3pm.

The Drink
The Gate is a good choice if you’re after cocktails. You can choose from classics like martinis, tall and short drinks (£5 to £6), alongside the more typical ones (margarita, lychee martini, strawberry daiquiri and mai tai). You can also order a bamboo shot (rum, sake, mango and raspberries) or a cherry truffle (Grand Marnier, chocolate and nuts).

There's a long selection of wine, which numbers two dozen bottles (£11 to £24). They’re all well-described and many are available by the glass (£3.25 to £4 for a small one, £4.25 to £5 for a large one). They have a selection of five Champagnes, with one to suit most budgets (£20 to £55). Beer may not be the first choice for some people, but it's nevertheless popular (mainly with the guys) and their selection includes draughts (£2.50 to £3.20) of Kirin Ichiban, Kronenbourg Blanc and San Miguel, and bottles (£2.80 to £3.50) of Zywiec, Estrella, Red Stripe, Singha, Tiger and many others. There's also a decent list of spirits selling for £2.30 to £3.20.

The Last Word
The Gate is an ideal place to enjoy cocktails. But the thing that really sets it apart is that they not only have the drinks, they have the atmosphere as well.

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