Green and Red - London

We stumble out of the Diagio cocktail competition; a sureal masterclass event where the Maestro (Calebrasee) hugged me and Peter Dorellie called me a lier! Someone shouts tequila and I know this cool little place around the corner.

Green and Red is the brain child of a small indipendant company who have decided to set the difficult task of hitting a niche croud (tequila drinkers) and do it in a personal way. It's the bigest tequila bar in europe and obviously deserves the title with one glance of the huge bar.

Having met the General Manager three months previously I knew a few of the more select tequilas but still was massivley overwhelmed by the backbar; rabbit in the headlights moment.

I asked the bartender to make me something simple with his favourite white tequila, he made me a dry tiquini with an onion and a zest spray of lime. Quite possibly the best one I've ever had. They made a selection of tequila mojitos with an unusual twist of elderflower and apple.

What nocked me off my feet was not the knowledge or skill of the bartenders (juicing fresh lime as they go along and using jiggers to ensure that every drink is perfect) it wasn't the tequila selection but it was the bartenders welcoming nature. It really is incredible to walk into a bar and be welcomed by the bartenders over a crowd of people.

The food was very uncommon tapas which was clearly made fresh and importantly served hot (you won't believe how difficult some venues find this) and the drinks were universily accepted even by the members of our group that swore they didn't like tequila.

This bar is truely a pleasure.

Vanilla Rooms - Cardiff

There is something brilliant about a best kept secret. It makes you feel very special going there and telling people about it. So excuse the fact that this post is a little bit of kitch social masterbation.

I love the idea of phoning the bar, knowing the bar manager and taking a lovely something into Cardiff's only members club worth mentioning.

The current manager Christos, is one of Cardiff's finest; winning every competition he can and snapping up prizes left right and centre, not to mention being the only reason to go here.

I had a debate with a friend of mine in this venue; he said that the party was made by the venue first and by the customer second and that this was a bad example of how to run a bar. It was clean, the drinks were perfect and the atmosphere was subtle. My friend agreed with me and stated that he could easily see my point but in this fast paced, post 80s businessman generation where we don't need it now we need it two weeks ago, where is there a place for an unknown speakeasy.

This bar is a fine example of what a bar should be in an ideal world. It is the bar based equivilent of heston blumenthal; it is brilliant and clever, and interesting but it would never work on the grand scale. Christos has put forward a brilliant menu which compliments the space and the location but don't expect to get this in volume.

Cardiff's best kept secret - and personally I'd like to keep it that way... I've never waited on a Saturday and Friday night and I've never had a bad drink... Shhhhh... don't tell your friends...