The first few times I went for Friday night drinks in Bank, I wondered if people actively worked towards fulfilling stereotypes.
It was mostly men - suited men - with briefcases tucked between legs as they sat outside with ice buckets containing what I presume were the most masculine champagne bottles money can buy.
It's common knowledge that Shoreditch has more hipsters than your average London square metre, but to the lesser corporate being, it's not as well-known that Bank is so, well, Bank.
Now I'm more acquainted with the area, it was no surprise to me that when I went onto Forge's website, they welcome you with the words "Work Hard, Play Hard", which appears to be the mantra of all people who work in the area.
A few minutes' walk from Leadenhall Market, through the bustling crowds of city-ish types, we reach Forge.
We walk through the bar to be seated in a corner of the restaurant area on the upper floor. There's raucous laughter, the music is loud and ties are all loosened as we wade through the front of the venue.
Sitting just a few steps below the bar makes me feel like a parent whose child is throwing a house party in the room next door, but we contain our end-of-the-week feverishness and set our eyes on the restaurant section.
After a £2 million refurb in 2014, their choice of conservatory-come-swanky bar-come-members club furniture says undecided, but no doubt upmarket.
The waitress takes down our choices, me feeling slightly ashamed at the idea of eating in the presence of the svelte all-in-black waitresses whisking past the tables.
But regret isn't a dish best served hot and I forgot all about the shame of splurging when the food arrived, momentarily distracting us from suits and skimpy black dresses.
The butternut squash and spinach risotto drizzled with extra virgin olive oil (£9.50) was creamy, delicious and a much larger portion than expected.
Everything tastes fresh and all the ingredients wind their way through your palate, the spinach, then butternut squash and good, strong parmesan.
My companion bites into a Chicken burger chosen "from the pit" (there's also from "the spit"). A spit roast pineapple and seasoned thick cut chips served with their coca cola sauce (£11.50), the burger is "super moist, in a good way".
Although from the murmuring, I'm inclined to believe the true delight for said companion lies in the pineapple on top.
The part we are really looking forward to is the drinks. This establishment has been featured in Made in Chelsea and mentioned in several different glossy magazines for their top notch cosmopolitans.
But I was mildly disappointed with my No 14, which was a lot of syrup, grapefruit juice, lemon juice and soda water and less smooth ambler barrel-aged gin.
Never one to do well with vast amounts of liquids, which took me back to the days where I disliked alcohol and so mixed everything with vast amounts of Fanta, it didn't tantalise the tastebuds as I had hoped.
My companion's No 3 was spectacular though, like a freshly made apple juice from a farm in some remote part of America, except with Bombay Sapphire Gin, St Germain liquer, topped with the most neatly sliced Granny Smith's apple. All of which pleased us immensely.
Perhaps it was my poor choice of cocktail - and who would've thought that from such a regular cocktail bar frequenter? I think a second visit is in order where drinks are concerned. And this time, we'll be joining the party.
getwestlondon gives Forge four stars out of five.
