Nine Lives – Review

Dedicated to its own anti-tourist trap malaise, Holyrood Street sits slap bang in the middle of SE1 but, equidistant from Bermondsey Street and Borough Market, lacks the freneticness of either. Cobbled and dead end, (for cars at any rate), arches line one side and a large former factory type building, the other. There’s no gentrification here, no expensive cheese shops or clothes shops, no pubs either. Just some fairy lights and a bouncer to suggest that actually, well, maybe there is something here after all. 

Header image credit Percy Walker-Smith

The bouncer sends us down metal stairs into a pitch black basement which zings with clusters of hanging lanterns while a tiled bar on the left provides a gentle but expansive glow. It’s a Friday night and Nine Lives is packed to its proverbial rafters. Design is best described as living room shabby boho chic. Ferns and green leaves curve and hang from various nooks and crannies and a score of tall bamboo shoots seem to physically prop the room up. Clear reeded glass panels provide visual diffusion and distraction and a DJ stands in the far right corner spinning 4 to the floor deep house which occasionally veers into dub and Euro disco. We sit next to the DJ in a cosy booth backed with distressed brickage.

The cocktail list is split into Classics and nine new House Cocktails ‘Each with a life of its own – a story to tell, a technique to flex and a flavour to savour.’ As with all cocktails, trying to decipher the names and rationales for names is half the fun. Wax On comes with bee pollen velvet fallernum, The Cobfather comes with corn liqueur, Sundae Service is inspired by London summers and ice cream vans and offers up, therefore, a clarified combination of strawberry and vanilla. 

Our waitress, Olivia, expertly guides us through our choices, my first of which, S.M.S. is inspired by the owner’s obsession with oysters, Described as a clarified Margarita it could also be a Tequila Martini. The oyster taste is subtle to the point of being non-existent but it’s an appealingly pure cocktail with a fresh, see through appearance and no frills in its presentation. It’s sweet with a slightly sour undertone. My friend’s Piña Noir is a contemporary take on the Piña Colada which was the owner’s mum’s favourite holiday sup. Structured around homemade tapacha (fermented pineapple), it’s another pure drink, is light, a lot less stodgy and rich than its inspiration and has a fling of desiccated coconut decorating the exterior glass. It elicits happy words. ’Wow! That’s amazing! Wow again!”

Although Nine Lives calls itself a bar which serves food, with its extensive Mexican inspired menu, it could also be a restaurant which specialises in cocktails. We take yellow and blue nachos with fresh, chunky, lemon infused guacamole and some chicharron which is double cooked pork belly. The pork is practically piglet in size and is a mixture of crunchy and succulent and comes with salsa verde for dipping and a red onion salad. Dishes are designed for sharing so we also take a Camarones taco – King Prawn with avocado cream and pineapple salsa. Also served in blue tortillas, the prawns are chunky, chargrilled, a little spicy and decorated with stringy, pickled onions. 

We feel we should take a cocktail from the house classic list and Olivia recommends a 50/50 Paloma which is smoky and vivacious and adds an equal portion of mezcal to the more traditional and solitary tequila ingredient.  Grapefruit soda provides a refreshing fizz while the lip of the glass is decorated with paprika for an earthy aftertaste and a blush visual flourish which contrasts the table’s splattering of black, white and turquoise, not dissimilar to a Damien Hirst spin-painting.  Described as a big and beautiful soul food dish designed for the hungry and the sharers, we chose to share a Hamachi A La Plancha. This succulent and flaky yellow amberjack is presented with crispy skin on a bed of vegetable ribbons cooked al dente, practically raw and crunchy. 

Espresso martinis have become quite the after-dinner phenomenon but Nine Lives serves its own twist which is lighter and purer but serves an equally strong punch. Inspired by coffee’s transformative power, it’s made up of coconut tequila, white cacao and coconut water and has a froth of dalgona coffee on its top. If you’re a coconut nut like myself, this is the evening’s showstopper; I liked it so much, I had two.

The Churros de la Calle looks like a sweet twist on a bunch of bananas or a sugary cactus plant. The churros are sprinkled in cinnamon and come with dipping bowls brimming with luxurious chocolate salsa and dulce de leche. It’s an indulgent way to finish a flavourful evening which we leave satiated and light-headed.