Il Bar itself is incredible. It’s a large oval of black resin which is in front of huge windows overlooking a sumptuous garden. It really is amazing, and it takes a second or two once you enter just to take everything in.
We sat on the terrace outside, it had an unbeatable atmosphere, helpful friendly staff who certainly understand and know about cocktails. There were quite a few people around, but all were behaving themselves and having a good time without disturbing other people. Considering Italians usually socialise at 150 decibels while waving their arms about, this was very refined.
"The Bulgari hotel takes real pride in whatever is served to your table."
From 6 until 7 is cocktail hour where the bar has an aperitivo and cocktail session. This is where they bring small tapas sized dishes out to enjoy with your drinks. Anyone who has eaten in Italy can tell you they really know how to do bar snacks.
There were no nuts or crisps to be seen. Aperitvo are proper cooked snacks including, risotto, pasta with pesto, penne with tomato and garlic, fresh mozzarella, focaccia, pastries and more. The Bulgari hotel obviously takes real pride in whatever is served to your table.
We have had this kind of service before of course, but there was something fresh and exciting about the way they do things here. It added to the experience and created somewhere we could quite happily spent all day.
This is of course, a cocktail bar, so it would have been remiss of us not to try some. We tried an Americano, passion fruit Martini, Vodka sour, Pina Colada and a local cocktail with vodka, and fresh muddied black berries.
As you would expect from somewhere with real class, the cocktails were superb. The mixologist should win a prize. Each drink was perfectly balanced, with the right amount of alcohol. There was enough there to add a kick, but not overwhelm the flavours. If we didn’t have places to be, we would have tried so many more.
Our experience at Il Bar bar was simply brilliant. The bar is amazing, the gardens are a taste of paradise, the aperitivo sublime and the cocktails eminently drinkable.