In equal parts baffling and intriguing, The Top Hat is a bar and restaurant based on Monopoly. Found beside the immersive 4D Monopoly Lifesized, this unique hospitality venture offers players the chance to refuel post-game should they have worked up an appetite next door. The theming on the classic board game extends throughout the decor and menu, with cocktails named after famous locations from the family favourite.
The menu is mapped out to look like the playing cards and is a celebration of good old British classic pub grub. Using local, seasonal produce where possible the kitchen presents familiar combinations like fish and chips with tartare sauce or a rich mushroom and chestnut pie served with generous quantities of veggie gravy. Elsewhere small sharing plates include lamb skewers with a minted lamb jus and stuffed belly pork with an apple sauce, perfect for sharing with friends. Sweets - naturally - celebrate all that is good and pure about our great shores and the dessert list deals in proper, unadulterated puds. Here you might find an Eton mess or a sticky fruit crumble topped with rich vanilla ice cream.
The cocktail list looks after both abstainers and drinkers with a mix of serves that offer both boozy and soft options. The Marlborough Street – a mocktail – is inspired by the district of Soho and combines flavours of blackberry, ginger, cinnamon, lemon and rose. Stronger stuff is found in the Hello Sunrise which the bar team says takes its direction from the Horses of Helios statue nearby. The results? A rum, apricot and lime drink of course.
Interiors are suitably glitzy for the area with golden feature lighting, a marble bar and petrol-blue furnishings offset by upholstered red booths. Nods to Monopoly include the use of reclaimed fabric from tube seating used on the Northern and Piccadilly lines.