Review

I have never really thought of Oceana as anything but a nightclub somewhere to go on a Friday or a Saturday night after a few drinks. But now they are offering the various rooms in the Watford branch as venues for your work Christmas party.

We went along to their press event, and although it is only August, it was surprising that there were several companies there already thinking about Christmas.

To start with we had a tour of the various rooms and what each of them can offer – from a sit down meal in the main room, to buffets in the disco room or simply drinks in the Barcelona room. Oceana are offering three menus, a three-course sit down meal, a hot buffet and a cold buffet. We only got to sample some of the hot buffet, which consisted of braised beef in red wine, turkey tikka masala, pilau rice, vegetable lasagne, salad, and a selection of mixed bread, including naan bread.

My friend tried the beef, which although it was tenderly cooked, she said it lacked flavour as did the turkey tikka masala.

The vegetable lasagne was probably the nicest thing on the menu, it was spicy and full of flavours that blended well together.

The rice was well cooked, the salad had no dressing and the selection of bread was simply naan bread and a French stick – so not a great deal of variation.

Both the buffet menus did not include any desserts or hot drinks, which was disappointing - but we understand this has now been rectified.

As well as trying the menu, we also got a taster cocktail making session. We were shown how to make a vodka jam cocktail and the idea behind this was use items that you would normally find in your cupboards at home.

The cocktail consisted of vodka, lime, strawberry jam, orange juice and cranberry juice. Surprisingly this wasn’t as sweet as I thought it would be and I really enjoyed it – the cocktail is a bit like Sex on the Beach minus the Archers.

If you work for a small company or even have a group of friends, the cocktail making sessions are definitely worth it – they could work as an icebreaker or simply be just part of a night out... and you keep the bottles of alcohol, or whatever is left in them afterwards.

Having not been able to taste the full sit down meal experience in Oceana I can't comment right now, but the atmosphere was definitely festive. I would recommend booking a room for drinks or the cocktails as I think this would work well as a Christmas treat or any other celebration, so I'm happy to give it three stars.

Details: oceanaclubs.com