This gorgeous little bar is one of Reading’s best-kept secrets. Located just to the east of the Oracle Riverside, the beautiful Mix Bar is awash with ambient lighting, cool, classy décor, chandeliers, gold sofas, and orchids aplenty. The bar has a great set of DJs and the music isn’t so loud that you cannot talk to your friends. The ambience is relaxed (very relaxed for Reading) and the bar tenders are friendly and affable in a way that is perfectly genuine and not forced.
The key thing about the Mix Bar though is that it is quite literally the best place to get a cocktail in Reading, bar none. The drinks are little bit on the steep side, at around £6.50 they are about £1.50 - £2.00 more expensive than your average cocktail, but my god are they worth it. Each cocktail is individually made and takes up to five minutes to complete. They use fresh fruit and freshly squeezed juice alongside the finest and tastiest spirits you can get, using Grey Goose, Finlandia and Bombay Sapphire instead of Smirnoff, Bells and your usual generic spirits.
It is not just the quality of the ingredients in the Mix Bar’s cocktails that is laudable however; the way the construct their cocktails is truly inspired, with rich, complex medleys of tastes and aromas. As an example, two of my current favourites of theirs are “Around the Garden Fizz”, made up of Grey Goose pear vodka, St-Germain elderflower liqueur, fresh mint, peach bitters and champagne, and their classic dry Martini, with vodka or gin, dry vermouth and orange bitters and a couple of olives. There is such an effort and consideration put into every drink, and it is a tasty treat I try to give myself every time I go into Reading for a night out.
If you are local to reading and you have not been to this bar yet shame on you – do try to check it out. It can get quite full, so you might have to either arrive early or be patient. But believe me, the drinks are worth the wait.
