Mary Jane’s

Burgers were excellent, chips could use some work. All salads were quite good, fresh ingredients and well combined flavours. Service was a little awkward but friendly and overall still a good experience.

I’d never been to this place until yesterday and despite being squashed in a table near the bar, this place wasn’t bad.
The happy hour is very generous at two of same cocktails for £8 from 5−8pm, including the champagne cocktail which was amazing! So yummy, pear vodka, champagne and elderflower. Mmmm hmmm cocktail perfection.
Food wise, the menu was small and not very accommodating for vegetarians. I went for the veggie burger which was yummy, feta, aubergine, peppers, oh yes please. The sweet potato fries were on point too.
Despite not eating beef, I was super intrigued by the beef burger with lobster and salmon. Seems like an interesting concept, sadly they ran out, so my friend never got to try it, but if you go there and you’re a fan of beef, I’d say do it!
All in all, if I’m in the area, would swing by again for happy hour. Hopefully next time they will open the bottom floor as there was loads of tables going spare…

This place was delicious!!! The burger I had was so tasty. So far the best meal we’ve had since being in London. Cool décor and good music playing

On entering the bar it felt welcoming and we were instantly greeted by a member of staff asking if we would like a table for two. The décor on the inside was very 1920/30’s with velvet gold framed chairs and booths.
Happy hour between 5−8pm with a good range of drinks available including a beer, cocktails and an extensive choice of gins. We ordered two Pear Rosy Lee which tasted fresh and slightly spiced, I would definitely recommend ordering one.
We were brought over some warm falafel in a tzatiki dip to the table before ordering. I ordered calamari and crab cakes, the squid was slightly too crispy and the sauce with the crab cakes looked a bit strange as it had sweetcorn in it.
The staff were friendly and attentive throughout. It was quite quiet as it was early on a Monday evening, I could imagine it could get busier especially on a Friday night. I would go back for the drinks promotions especially on Wednesday for their wine.

Wir waren während unseres Städtetrips hier und können sagen die Burger sind wirklich lecker und reichlich. Die Bedienung war sehr freundlich und sehr bemüht die kleinen sprachlichen Barrieren zu überbrücken. Die Preise waren für Londoner Verhältnisse ok — lediglich der Preis für unser Flaschenbier war sehr hoch — besser Fassbier nehmen, das ist preislich ok.

I’ve walked past Mary Jane’s a couple of times but have never been in before, thinking they only serve standard pub food. Well we went in for lunch yesterday and I’m glad we did. Their portions are massive and their prices are really excellent. Definitely good value for money.
I had the Crispy Salt and Pepper Squid with a side portion of Cheesy French Fries. At £8 for the main and £4, I was expecting a side dish and a couple of fries and I was very pleasantly surprised. My colleagues had the Holy Smoke burgers which looked delicious, with a juicy pattie and fresh brioche bun.
The service was friendly and very good, we were on a lunch break but were served promptly.
The best part was the comfy chairs. We were very reluctant to return to work after our meal.
All told we had a great time and I will certainly return.

The good
-£5 burgers on a Thursday night-​try the Holy Smoke Burger (smoked bacon and applewood cheese)
–Happy hour 5 – 8 pm every day
–Friendly service
–Clean bathrooms
The bad
–With the bumping music at 6pm on Thursday night it’s was hard for us 30 something year olds to carry a conversation.
The ugly
–Wish we had chance to come on a Wednesday night when all bottles of wine are 50% off

Venue is ok. Toilets are dated and smelly.
Staff are rude and try their best at ignoring people. There wasn’t anyone at the cloakroom more than half of the time, I kept seeing people go to the bar staff to ask for the cloakroom staff.
Drinks are NOT cheap, a very tiny shot is £5. A bottle of Jägermeister is £100 there! Lol! They sell retail for around £20.
It was slightly empty in there, the crowd is young and slightly immature.
Scene ain’t for me, but it ain’t a bad venue — the attitude of the staff bring it down.

Ok so unless all you care about is cheap drinks, I would NOT go here. We come in for a hen party and the waitstaff was super rude and didnt give us enough seats to hang out. They kick us out of our area into a «private room», which is on the side and in the basement, which was fine.
But what really irriitated me was the horribel service here. So when we go to order drinks at the bar, the waitress tried to charge my friend £6 for sparking WATER. Um, since when is nasty tap water with fizz costing more than champagne? The crowd was pretty lame too. but i guess you get what you pay for. Never again!

you can get punch in your eye, get pushed on the ground and kick in the stomach from a bunch of coward city boys just because you’re not of their same ignorant breed. dirty toilets, rude and useless bounces, pricey, shortage of choice,. no one reason at all to go there.

There aren’t a lot of sit down spots for lunch in the immediate area — so it is a shame the food is so mediocre. On top of it, the server was so incredibly pushy trying to up-​sell additional appetizers and deserts I thought she must be working on commission. For lunch, I think it is worth walking 10 minutes to Haz or Brick Lane for real food.

If you like the idea of standing in a corridor having people push past you every two minutes, and you fancy paying £160 for less food than you’d get in a Glaswegian munchy box, then I’d wholeheartedly recommend Mary Janes. Otherwise, steer well clear saved from the bottom rating by OK music and reasonable drinks, but otherwise too packed, badly laid out, and unfriendly. Far better places to spend an evening around the City.

Nice Décor but drinks are very expensive and can become uncomfortably hot downstairs as the air-​con doesn’t seem to work. Good for a quick drink if nothing else.

A horrible place. Full of Essex boys and girls who work in the city. I come from Essex and moved to London to get away from this sort of place.

If you’d like to have a drink in this bar on a Friday night, try turning up on Thursday, with 24 hours in front of you, there’s bound to be enough time for the bar staff to get around to you before you go home for the weekend.

Great happy hour values (2 for 1 drinks) and solid cocktail concoction but the crowd was a typical bunch of loud suits getting too drunk after their impressive day at the office. (i was also there for a business meeting so perhaps i shouldn’t talk — but we weren’t drowning out a 10 foot radius with our showmanship like others) Downstairs seems to be the better location, larger and more spread out compared to where we were sitting upstairs. The service was spotty (despite having table service we twice went to the bar ourselves after not being able to locate our waitress, and were delivered the wrong appetizer. does hummus sound like quesadillas?) The real saving grace was in the quality of the cocktails — and not just the fruity fussy ones, but they made me a delicious vodka martini with a twist, something i order often but not as often is that good. the duck rolls with plum sauce also quite yummy. i would return if in the area and wanted a quick drink, but given other interesting options nearby not sure it would always be my first choice.

Call me fussy but I like a bit of soul in a drinking establishment. However, if you have a magpie-​like attraction to all things shiny then Mary Janes of Tower Hill may be just the place for you. It’s split into two areas; the large upstairs level has a multitude of booths which are perfect for large groups and the décor is classy, angular and completely lacking in personality; downstairs is much more intimate with low-​level lighting and… an aquarium (why not?).
Due to its location and close proximity to the City, Mary Janes generally attracts a crowd of loud-​mouth city boys eager for the opportunity to yell at the well-​meaning bar staff. I found the atmosphere quite nauseating.
Admittedly the drinks menu is pretty impressive with a large selection of cocktails incorporating high quality ingredients and at just under £7 they’re not the most expensive either.
I’m not one for the glitz and glamour; give me a grimy basement over Mary Janes any day.

Talk about bad timing… The owners of Mary Janes, I am told, spent all of last year refitting their City-​centre bar, ploughing over £3 million of recdecorating into the place in the hope that it would remain the hottest spot for high flying hedge fund managers and their retinue of cigar chomping, ‘Bolly’ slurping flash Harrys.
Now the credit crunch is here, that doesn’t look to have been a particularly farsighted decision. Then again, the owners are probably hedge fund managers themselves — and what’s a few mil to them?
Well it can’t buy character, thats for damn sure. There are lots of horribly overwrought elements to the interior: black reflective walls, a two storey bar, tacky gold leaf on everything. The clientele are, as is to be expected in these Lamborghini loving parts, not much better. Armani suits and trout pouts abound, not to mention the £4.50 pints. Not my thing, I’m afraid.

Went here on Friday night for a friend’s birthday. Music was cheesy and so loud I couldn’t hear what my friends’ were saying. The drinks were overpriced (£6.40 for a double shot of Midori and then 90p on top for the mixer!)
The only thing that saved it from getting a one star rating was there was no queue for the ladies loo! The boys will have a different experience however — my b/​f had to queue for five minutes for the toilet.
Clientele are those that work in the area who were pretty drunk by about 10pm. Felt pretty sorry for my mate’s sister who was getting slobbered over at the bar — poor thing.

When a bar is located in the heart of City it is pretty obvious what the customers are going to be — and as expected on a Friday evening the bar was packed with men’s in suits. It was very lively and the music was about the basic hits from the radio.
Mary Jane is still very classical and stylish. The dark decoration is a bit of an show off trying to make the place more intimate as spread in two floors there is space to fill. The bar is for proper cocktails and drinks and the staff knows what they are doing. The only problem was the lack of the staff as the waiting just took forever!
I can see this bar is a great place after work, but maybe just not my own style as I found it so polished.

The website for this city bar gives the impression of a funky, burlesque themed lively bar. After being invited to check it out as a venue for Christmas parties I was disappointed to be greeted by rude staff and soggy nibbles.
The general clientele were much as you would expect given the location. The bar staff were friendly and attentive but if I was actually paying for the food I had then I would have been very disappointed. I doubt I will return there and I most definitely would not book a Christmas party there, most of my guests would probably be turned away by the incompetent staff!