Puttshack, an upscale, tech-infused mini golf with venues around London and America, does mini golf differently.
Forget score cards and keeping track of whose turn it is, Puttshack does all the work for the players. It is a truly high tech establishment with a total of four UK venues: Lakeside, Watford, White City and Bank and a few in America such as Atlanta, Boston, Miami, Chicago with more to follow.
We attended one in Bank. On a Friday evening it was buzzing with couples, groups of friends, a few families and corporate gatherings. There are a few rooms for private events.
The Bank branch is a large spacious venue with three mini golf courses to choose from, a contemporary looking bar and a dinning area. After ordering a cocktail each, to get us ready for the match, we headed to Ruby golf course.
Puttshack Bank also has Sapphire and Emerald golf course rooms each consisting of 9 hole courses. We were told Ruby is the combination of the two merged together. Hence, the most interesting one and I have to add quite a tough one too. You’ll be lucky to get the ball in two strokes.
The track is quite challenging but fun for sure. First things first though – the registration, after sign in at the entrance the system was expecting us at the golf course. All I did was enter my name on the screen at the entrance to the Ruby room for us to receive an assigned golf ball each.
The golf course is pretty neat and very interactive with plenty of screens. The system tells you when to begin, it knows if you knocked the ball accidentally, and it keeps count of the attempts.
There are the easier paths to reach the hole, and more challenging ones for extra points, but if you miss, and I did a few times, points get deducted.
The penultimate hole, Wheel of Fortune, has a competition. It is a roulette wheel with prices such as free pizza, drinks, free game or extra points. That is of course if you get it in one par. It took me two, so I guess I’ll be coming back again to try again.
The venue is a perfect spot to spend an evening. I was pleasantly surprised by the cocktails. I watched bar tenders making them from scratch, no pre mixers, which is impressive for a venue that focuses on entertainment rather than food and drink.
I had a pornstar martini, which was made perfectly. While my friend sipped on a pineapple cooler. I normally avoid cocktails at entertainment venues, due to poor spirit brand choice, but these both had Ciron vodka, which is not too bad and priced at the going London cocktail rate of £12.50 for a pornstar and 9.50 for pineapple cooler
After the game it was time for food. The menu has a wide choice from burgers, sourdough pizzas, skewers, loaded fries, baos, gyoza and crispy sushi dragon rolls. Sadly they were out of the latter.
We ordered lamb skewers, which were probably my favourite. There was a lot of flavour happening. The dish had red pepper hummus, crumbled goats cheese, pomegranate, cucumber and mint yogurt, grilled flat bread, and of course the spiced lamb koftas themselves.
It was one of those create your own dishes, load up the flatbread with desired ingredients and off you go. We also went for jackfruit baos, which were very high on the five spice, I’m not a huge fan of the spice but the bao dough itself was impressively soft and fluffy, shame about the filling.
For mains we shared a goats cheese sourdough pizza and a Nashville hot chicken burger. The pizza arrived with plenty of toppings but I found the dough itself lacking that sourdough kick I love. It was a little wholemeal even.
We were pleased with the chicken burger though, perfect crisp coating with juicy fillet and plenty of veggie filling. We paired it with sweet potato fries instead of regular, which were satisfyingly crisp.
The four dishes were more than plenty for two of us, we could not finish them all. I’m not a carbs enthusiast myself, but as far as those go the restaurant was packed with visitors happily munching away. I’ve noticed loaded fries – Canadian recipe with bacon seemed to be a star dish on most tables.
Although some may consider crazy golf outdated there is no denying it is incredibly fun, especially in winter when the weather starts to hinder outside activities. Puttshack regularly runs themed events such as Halloween just gone and soon to come Christmas, it is a good spot to spend colder months for all family, friends and colleagues.
Puttshack Bank, 1 Poultry, London EC2R 8EJ