London's top 50 bars and pubs
A selection of our favourites from London’s ever-growing, ever-changing pubs and bars scene.
West End | Hotel bars | Spirits & cocktails | Real ale & good beer | Historic pubs | Good mixers | Wine bars Gastropubs
West End
Dukes Hotel
This discreet cocktail bar offers a famed martini
menu, eight Modern Classics and 25 Classics. Vintage malts and cognacs are another
speciality. Some 20 wines include a Châteauneuf-du-Pape Domaine du
Grand Tinel and a merlot Faucon Bleu.
Dukes Hotel, 35 St James’s Place, SW1A 1NY (020 7491 4840/www.dukeshotel.co.uk) Green Park tube.
Read review of Dukes Hotel
Hakkasan
Upmarket Chinese restaurant Hakkasan
plunges customers into a hidden
Narnia of oriental other-worldliness. The dining room is a three-dimensional woodcut of interlocking, intimate little booths. Cocktails are the stuff of Asian-influenced fantasy: Purple
Emperor is sharp with a mix of ten-year-old rum, saké and
jasmine tea, topped with a clipped purple pansy.
Hakkasan, 8 Hanway Place, W1T 1HD (020 7907 1888) Tottenham Court Rd tube.
Read review of Hakkasan
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Lab
What Lab does is exuberance with panache, its cocktail list among the finest
in town – and handled by some of the world’s best mixologists. Try a
Kool Hand Luke (Myer’s rum, fresh limes muddled with dark brown sugar
and Angostura bitters); or a Red Hot Chili Pepper
(lemongrass-flavoured tequila with ginger beer and Champagne).
Lab, 12 Old Compton St, W1D 4TQ (020 7437 7820/www.lab-townhouse.com) Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Rd tube.
Read review of Lab
Lamb & Flag
Covent Garden’s best pub, the Lamb & Flag wears its history on its sleeve, proudly
displaying its classic boozer credentials of real ale and, on the
walls, local memorabilia.There’s an excellent line-up of mainly Young’s
ales, supplemented by guest beers. Pub grub and doorstep
sandwiches are also available.
Lamb & Flag, 33 Rose St, WC2E 9EB (020 7497 9504) Covent Garden tube.
Read review of the Lamb & Flag
Long Bar
Quality spirits monopolize the cocktail menu at the high-design Sanderson's Long Bar: Wyborowa lemon and Polstar
cucumber in the Sanderson martini; Kurant Absolut in the Long Bar Hi
Ball; Sauza Gold tequila in the Apassionata martini. Four pricey wines of each colour come by the bottle and
glass.
Long Bar, The Sanderson, 50 Berners St, W1T 3NG (020 7300 1400) Oxford Circus or Tottenham Court Rd tube.
Read review of Long Bar
Match Bar
As well as a branch in Geneva, the Match
group still runs three London bars, this West End outlet being a narrow
but not squeezed space. Two rows of seating, one raised, connect a
convivial front area to the bar, suiting the sharing of bowls of punch, noodles and curries.
Match Bar, 37-38 Margaret St, W1G 0JF (020 7499 3443/www.matchbar.com) Oxford Circus tube.
Read review of Match bar
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| Milk & Honey |
Milk & Honey
This jazz-tinged speakeasy is a charming mix of semi-exclusivity and unprecedented friendliness. Non-members will need to book in advance, but are treated like old friends by the staff, and you don’t need to spend like a celeb to feel like a celeb in this fantastic little hideaway. The new Shoreditch branch, East Room, is also worth a try.
Milk & Honey, 61 Poland St, W1F 7NU (020 7292 9949/www.mlkhny.com) Oxford Circus tube.
Read review of Milk & Honey
Pearl Bar & Restaurant
Pearl is an expansively glamorous place. Much thought has gone into the drinks menu, which offers almost 500 wines by the bottle, glass, or as part of a £25 ‘wine flight’ tasting tour. Premium spirit cocktails (including a tobacco-infused, seven-year-old rum Nicotini) are similarly intriguing.
Pearl Bar & Restaurant, Chancery Court Hotel, 252 High Holborn, WC1V 7EN (020 7829 7000/www.pearl-restaurant.com) Holborn tube.
Read review of Pearl Bar & Restaurant
1707
At the heart of the new basement
in the famous old store, 1707 shows off
F&M’s outstanding wine collection in fine style, from the hand of restaurant
designer-to-the-celebrity-chef David Collins. You can bring in bottles from the
shop if nothing on the list appeals, with corkage at £10. Decent food
is a bonus.
1707, Lower
ground floor, Fortnum & Mason, 181 Piccadilly, W1A 1ER (020 7734
8040/www.fortnumandmason.com) Piccadilly Circus tube.
Read review of 1707
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| Shochu Lounge |
Shochu Lounge
In a setting that’s half 21st-century style bar, half feudal
Japan, there’s a pioneering focus on vodka-like spirit shochu, tinctured with the likes of cinnamon (for joy of
life) or lemon (for virility) and served neat or in cocktails by Tony
Conigliaro. Anything on Roka’s tempting food
menu can be ordered in the bar.
Shochu Lounge, Basement, Roka, 37 Charlotte St, W1T 1RR (020 7580 9666/www.shochulounge.com) Goodge St or Tottenham Court Rd tube.
Read review Shochu Lounge
Social
Fine beers, wines and cocktails; dad food (even Twiglets!); great music, including quality weekend DJs in an evening-only basement bar; intimate ambience, sparky bar staff and just the right crowd – it’s business as usual at the Social.
Social, 5 Little Portland St, W1W 7JD (7636 4992) Oxford Circus tube.
Read review of the Social
Wonder Bar
The showpiece ‘wine
jukebox’ that gave wine fans the chance to sample up to 52 fine wines
in three small measures has gone, its
departure forced by trading standards officials. Nevertheless, the bar still provides an
excellent chance to taste Selfridges wine department’s top wines. Yellow-fin tuna plus niçoise salad is a
typical food offering.
Wonder Bar, Selfridges, 400 Oxford Street, W1A 2LR ( 0800 123400/www.selfridges.com) Bond Street or Marble Arch tube.
Read review of Wonder Bar
West End | Hotel bars | Spirits & cocktails | Real ale & good beer | Historic pubs | Good mixers | Wine bars Gastropubs
