TLR @ Hauz Khas Village

Directions: Park in the Hauz Khas Village parking lot, walk down a little bit and it's to your left right. You'll see the people. 

Ugh, TLR (The Living Room) is ridiculously loud and ridiculously pretentious, but sometimes they have decent live music and it's always been super popular, so I guess the masses have spoken? I've never managed to get a table long enough to actually eat here, but I have fought my way to the bar and they do okay cocktails, so that's good. The dance floor is less of a floor than a space, and you sort of wiggle about, avoiding other people with drinks in their hands before you give up and make your way to the third floor where there is a lovely (normally uncrowded) balcony with seating space. You can no longer hear the music, but who cares? Do you? I don't. It's too loud. Fun fact: if you have guests in from out of town, they will love love LOVE this space, I take all my visitors here and it has always been met with appreciation.

TC @ Adchini

Directions:  Straight from the IIT flyover, passing IIT on your left, keep coming down that road, till you hit a traffic light and TC is on your left. Parking is a bit of a bitch.

Back in the day, TC was IT. And then it was short for Turquoise Cottage and I even named my cat after the bar (although I tell people it's TC for The Cat) and they had a basement section and you could go in and meet everyone you knew. NOW, TC (original) has reopened and done away with the basement, but little else has changed. You can still smoke inside (hello, burny eyes!), there are still people head banging to Rage Against The Machine, it's still very loud, and the crowd is still very young. Hurray! Or not! But, cheap-ish drinks and a chance to go down memory lane--if you like a retro song, in all likelihood they'll play it for you. Be prepared, if you're a short person to get jostled a fair amount.

4S @Defence Colony Market

It's time to revive this blog once more! But this time, I'm being unambitious, and will only do reviews in a single paragraph. (I'm lazy.) (I should be working.)

Also, in case you haven't been following my adventures on Twitter or my other blog, you should know, I've moved back to Delhi, and so the reviews now will be (mostly) of bars there.

Disclaimers over, let's get started.

4S is very cool and kind of like an open secret for most people who are in love with the idea of a dive bar. Cheap drinks, cheap Chinese. Don't be ambitious with your cocktail orders. Stick to tried and tested: beer, rum, vodka etc. It's likely you won't get a table if you get there past 10 pm (except Tuesdays, which seems a bit slow), but if you've been in Delhi a while, you could table hop and find someone. If not, sit by the bar.

4S, Defence Colony Market (and that's FOUR ESS, not fours, as some people think it is.)