London’s Bunga Bunga to reopen in September
Following a transformation, Bunga Bunga in London’s Covent Garden will reopen later this year with the new name Bunga 90.
The new bar will be a ‘multi-sensory’ playground themed around the 1990s, offering retro cocktails, draft beers, karaoke and pizza.
The bar’s ground-floor façade is styled as a video rental store with a plethora of 1990s references and items. It features Sega Megadrives, Super Nintendos and VHS tapes, as well as CRT televisions looping ‘iconic’ trailers from the era.
Guests can access the bar behind the ‘Adults Only’ curtain, after watching a ‘long-forgotten time-travel movie’ on the Pepsi Time Machine.
The next area is styled to be a ’90s Anglo-American family home with ‘chintzy’ furniture, family holiday photos, and the sound of the internet dial-up noise. The space features a teenager’s bedroom, complete with fairy lights, posters and Tammy Girl fashion.
Meanwhile, the main bar area offers a towering wall of TVs playing music videos, movie scenes, and adverts from the decade.
Guests can use a fully functioning arcade claw machine to create their own cocktail, made with Bombay Sapphire gin, Bacardí rum or Grey Goose vodka.
As with many of Inception Group’s venues, the toilets feature a surprise. In Bunga 90, they are described as ‘London’s smallest M25 style warehouse rave’, created in partnership with Southern Comfort and Tequila Rose. Alongside UV lights, smoke bursts and glow sticks, guests can host karaoke performances in the bathroom lobby.
The drinks list is based around ’90s classics, including Cosmos, Watermelon Margaritas and Appletinis, all priced at £9 (US$12).
Other drinks will be served in ceramic recreations of the decade’s icons, such as Will Smith, Britney Spears and a Nokia 3310.
The food offering ‘stays true to Bunga’s pizza roots’ while adding ‘fully loaded American-style’ creations. The menu includes 20-inch pizzas for sharing, as well as garlic twists, nachos and ‘chicken in a basket’.
The bar has two private karaoke rooms alongside the singing areas in the video store and the bathroom. The ‘star of the show’, however, is the central stage in the main bar. Here, guests can perform to a 300-strong crowd.
Inception Group co-founder Charlie Gilkes said: “We are hugely excited to be launching Bunga 90. We opened the original Bunga Bunga back in 2011, and this is a complete reimagining of the brand – while still keeping the pizzas, karaoke, and sense of fun that people know and love.
“Bunga 90 is both a love letter to the 1990s and a bold new chapter.”
Inception Group is behind venues including Cahoots and Mr Fogg’s.
Its sales grew to £26.5 million (US$34.8m) in 2023, a 16.7% increase on the previous year.
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