Forget sweaty nightclubs and noisy bars packed to the rafters - the hot new nightspots are refined, engaging and sexy… cabaret is hot again. Across London cabaret club nights have been popping up from Soho to Shoreditch in recent months, with sexy names like Afternoon Tease and Friday Follies, and then there's cabaret's cover girl, Dita Von Teese, the curvaceous burlesque performer whose evocative poses - straddling saddled and wrapped around poles - have propelled her onto the centre spreads of countless magazines.

It sounds like a passing trend, and knowing the fickle nature of London night owls it would be easy to denounce cabaret as just that, but the decision by London's leading listings magazine, Time Out, this month to launch a cabaret listings and reviews section suggests the cabaret renaissance is more than just a flash in the pan.

From afternoon tea with tassels to transvestites, here's a guide to some of London's glittering cabaret outings:

Afternoon Tease at Volupté

The unassuming location, tucked behind Chancery Lane, was an odd choice for Volupté, a venue that's been dubbed the latest neo-burlesque opening (its neighbours tend to cater to a post-work suited crowd). But passing traffic is unlikely to fill the place - it will rely on the burgeoning network of burlesque blogs and grapevines to attract its customers.

The intimate bar upstairs, which is party to feather-fan dancing on some nights, is used as a reception area ahead of the Afternoon Tease where innovative cocktails, such as a Japanese Slipper (tequila, fresh lemon juice and Midori) are served. Downstairs, the décor screams girly boudoir, with stylish printed wallpaper, chairs draped in lustrous fabrics and a folding screen in a space cleared between the tables from which sultry performers with names like Tallulah Mockingbird emerge during tea.

The champagne is a good start to set the tone, and is followed by delicate finger sandwiches and patisseries, then sweet-smelling fresh scones with jam and clotted cream and teas, served by "Teasmaids" in the traditional housemaids' black and white outfits, but with a sexy twist (fishnet tights and plunging cleavages). Performances range from husky singers belting out Nina Simone to bold burlesque strip tease acts. It's a perfect girly outing - women make up most of the audience - although the three couples who were there also looked like they were having a good time.

Need to know: Afternoon Tease is on the first Saturday of every month 2.30-6pm, and costs £6 on entry and £18 for the full menu or £10 for a cream tea with champagne and tea. Volupté, 9 Norwich St, tel. 020 7831 1622, www.volupte-lounge.com, reservations@volupte-lounge.com, tube station: Chancery Lane

Kitsch Cabaret at Madame Jo Jo's

Madame Jo Jo's is a Soho institution. The club has been generating queues of colourful characters outside its doors for years. Shows include music, comedy and burlesque shows, but Saturday is Kitsch Cabaret night, unashamedly camp, louche, and loud.

The clientele on the night I visited was exclusively female, and almost exclusively hen nights, doing their best to out-sing, out-scream and out-dance each other.

Pinot grigio flows and the extravagant transvestite performers whip the crowd into a frenzy of sing-a-long, dance-on-the-tables hysteria led by the brash compere, Miss Terri (pictured, left). Waitresses, dubbed "The Barbettes", are mostly over six foot tall, and teeter on their size ten heels with money stuffed into their skimpy outfits and trays groaning with cocktails. It's a girls' night at full volume - gen-up on your Abba, don your sparkly heels and leave your dignity at the door...

Need to know: Tickets for Kitsch Cabaret start from £20 and must be booked in advance and guests be seated by 7.30pm, when dinner is served. Madame Jo Jo's, 8-10 Brewer St, London, tel. 020 7734 3040, www.madamejojos.com, tube station: Piccadilly Circus

The Whoopee Club at various venues

If you're a burlesque/cabaret fan the only thing you need to know is that the movement's bible, The Erotic Review, dubbed this night "the dog's bollocks".

The monthly burlesque night is London's longest running, whose performers sound like Bond baddie cast-offs: "Katherine Delish" and "Miss Immodesty Blaize", are two regulars. Entertainment ranges from circus acts to sword swallowing and nipple tassel twirling, and strip teases feature highly. The girls who perform mostly train at London's Burlesque Academy or the London School of Striptease, where classes include belly dancing and fan dancing, as well as strip tease.

It's an education for many Londoners who regard strip tease as seedy, and would be taken aback by the sophisticated crowds - bar the occasional rubber fetishist - that gathers at Whoopee Club nights. The audience make as much effort as the performers, the girls in tea dresses, fascinators and elegant shoes and men in brogues and Panama hats. It's a night to show off some well-rehearsed dace moves and dress up - think Ascot Races in the 1950s.

Need to know: The Whoopee Club night changes venues regularly, and has in the past been held at the Great Eastern Hotel, Bethnal Green Working Men's Club and the Cobden Club in west London - which regularly hosts cabaret nights. To find out about the next dates, keep an eye on listings magazines and register your email on the Whoopee Club website, www.thewhoopeeclub.com.

Cabaret night at The Play Room

Cabaret clubs tend to be dark and intimate, but The Play Room is spacious and grand, with oodles of red leather, leopard and zebra print, chandeliers and sleek lacquered tables. Located on the former site of 10 Rooms, just off Piccadilly Circus, it's not a pure cabaret club and on Saturday nights functions as a high-end West End night club with DJs and dance music.

Fridays, however, draw a different crowd to enjoy sultry cabaret over supper and swanky drinks. Jack Valentine is a suited, smoothy crooner who belts out Sinatra hits, while Delilah, a former underwear model, appeals to the male audience with her burlesque show. The venue has also hosted the very hot-right-now cabaret act, The Puppini Sisters, a brunette, blonde and redhead whose stylish outfits are as smooth as their jazz and swing tribute numbers.

The club serves a modern European weekly-changing menu for a reasonable £27.50 for three courses, which includes cabaret and a VIP table in the club until 3am (normally you'd need to buy a bottle of premium spirits or champagne to get a table). Dishes include options such as tiger prawns flambéed in Absinth to start, and wild mushroom risotto to follow.

Need to know: Cabaret nights are on most Fridays and some Wednesdays and Thursdays (check the website for details). Entry costs £7 before 10pm, but is free if a table for dinner has been reserved. After 10pm only guest-listed people are admitted. The Play Room, 10 Air Street, London, tel. 020 7734 9990, www.theplay-room.com, tube station: Piccadilly Circus

Viva Cake at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club

The unlikely venue is over 50 years old, and while it still attracts its grey-haired groupies, a wave of youthful patrons has flourished in the last three years, to the point where popular nights now spawn snaking queues around the block.

One such night is Viva Cake, which starts with free cakes, tea and sandwiches from 4.30pm over dominoes and cards - not a mile away from the geriatrics' past times, with one exception… the waitresses are on roller skates. Tea is over by 7pm and gives way to live bands, dance classes, fortune-tellers, a beauty parlour, and any other entertainment that's been dreamt up by the organisers that month.

Music careers from jazz and indie to big band and swing, with performances from fashionable acts such as The Pipettes, a girly poptastic three-piece who wear matching polka dot dresses. Forget West End prices - bottles of beer are £2.50 - and forget West End antics - there's no blubbing or spewing in the loos and definitely no drugs.

Need to know: Entry costs £6 and Viva Cake is on every third Saturday of the month, from 4.30pm-2am. Bethnal Green Working Men's Club, 44-46 Pollard Row, London, www.workersplaytime.net for the club or www.myspace.com/vivacakebitches for the night, tube: Bethnal Green

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