London’s best bars and pubs
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By Time Out critics
Updated: Wed Jun 30 2010 Map | Hotel bars | Spirits & cocktails | Real ale & good beer | Historic pubs | Wow factor | Gastropubs | Wine bars
Spirits and cocktails
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Booking Office
St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, London, NW1 2AR
The superlatives come easy when describing the Booking Office: it is epic, soaring, dramatic, magnificent. George Gilbert Scott's Midland Grand hotel has been restored to impressive effect, and this bar is a sympathetic adapation of the room that shows off its best Victorian features. The cocktail list, by Nick Strangeway and Henry Besant, is an agreeable journey through the history of British drinking. Read more
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69 Colebrooke Row
69 Colebrooke Row, N1 8AA (07540 528593/ www.69colebrookerow.com).
Like his culinary counterparts, Tony Conigliaro’s innovative Islington bar divides opinions thanks to his outlandish cocktail creations and slight mad scientist vibe. Blumenthal, Adria… meet Conigliaro. Before setting up this corner site, the man (known as one of the UK’s pioneering drinks experts) worked at the likes of Isola, Roka and Shochu Lounge. Don’t expect anything but extraordinary; Conigliaro’s inspirations and influences are far-reaching, from his interest in bartending and chefs to perfumes, alchemy and design. With just a handful of tables supplemented by a few stools at the bar it may seem smaller than your front room, but the understated, intimate space proves a fine environment in which to enjoy the pristine cocktails (liquorice whisky sours, El Presidentes made with own-made grenadine and Havana Club Barrel Proof rum), mixed with quiet ceremony by an elegantly bow-tied Conigliaro. Still, for all the excellence of the drinks, it’s the little touches (impeccably attired staff, handwritten bills, tall glasses of water poured from a cocktail shaker) that elevate this lovely enterprise from the pack. It's no wonder this place won the Best Bar award in our Time Out Eating & Drinking Awards in 2009. Read more
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Callooh Callay
65 Rivington St, Shoreditch, EC2A 3AY (7739 4781/ www.calloohcallaybar.com).
Callooh Callay doesn’t immediately stand out from the crowd of Shoreditch bars. At first glance, the mismatched furniture offset by self-consciously quirky touches (a wall of cassettes by the toilets, modified gramophones on the bar, a page of the drinks list devoted to ‘Random Shit’) and trendy staff might have you yearning for a fireplace and a pint of nut-brown ale. But the most appealing characteristics of this Lewis Carroll-inspired bar aren’t apparent from the street. For a start, there’s the handsome back room, hidden behind a heavy wardrobe door (not a looking-glass, but a nice touch regardless) and more atmospheric than the front space. The shelves of unusual spirits, creative cocktail list (based on tube lines) and dedication of the bar staff ensure that a drink here is a worthwhile and, most importantly, fun experience. Read more
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Cottons
70 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QP (020 7833 3332/www.cottons-restaurant.co.uk).
It can be a disorienting experience to enter the unassuming entrance to Cottons, only to be transported, through its spirits, to the tropical West Indies. The large lounge bar is stacked high with around 250 varieties of rum – gold, dark, aged, white – that inevitably find their way into most of the mixed drinks on a menu titled ‘cocktails from the islands’. Served with a wink and a grin, the refreshing and deceptively potent cocktails include the likes of a China Breeze (Appleton White rum, Coco Mania coconut rum, lychee and lime juice), various delectable daiquiris and a chest-thumping Strong Black – a blend of Dragon Stout, Wray & Nephew Overproof rum (63 per cent ABV), condensed milk and nutmeg. You can sip serenely at the bar, outside on the pavement tables or, if the mood strikes, downstairs at the wild Rhum Jungle, where DJs play at weekends. The Camden Original (55 Chalk Farm Road, 7485 8388) offers a similar vibe. Read more
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Experimental Cocktail Club
13A Gerrard Street , London, W1D 5PS
Perhaps the closest thing we have to a genuine speakeasy, ECC's opulent two rooms are accessed through a scruffy door in the middle of Chinatown. You'll find some of the best cocktails in London here, at very decent prices, made by a team of clearly fanatical barmen in front of a back-bar that includes a few rare vintage spirits. Read more
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Happiness Forgets
8-9 Hoxton Square, N1 6NU
In an area increasingly filled with screeching hens and bellowing stags, Happiness Forgets is a haven of good taste and thoughtful drinks. It's a dark, consciously low-key basement bar with seriously skilled bartenders, unobtrusive music and friendly service. Read more
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Hawksmoor
157 Commercial St, E1 6BJ (020 7247 7392/ www.thehawksmoor.com)
This American-inspired steakhouse and cocktail bar is good at the former, excellent at the latter. The bar succeeds despite being stuck at one side of a plain brick room, with no dedicated seating of its own beyond a few barstools. Those stools are among London’s finest ringside seats, however, for Hawksmoor’s laid-back bartenders are cocktail intellectuals. The menu tracks classics such as juleps and ‘aromatic cocktails’ from their inception: Gin and Pine (conceived in 1862) was served in a cold glass of perfect proportion; Scoff Law (1924; whisky, Noilly Prat, pomegranate and lemon) was a smooth, unfussy blend. Purist means neither severe – there are also more frivolous daquiris, tikis and punches – nor expensive, with much at £6.50. American beers (Anchor Steam, Brooklyn Lager) go nicely with their ‘dictionary-thick’ steaks, and well-chosen international wines provide further options. Read more
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Lonsdale
44-48 Lonsdale Rd, W11 2DE (020 7727 4080/ www.thelonsdale.co.uk).
This cocktail bar is decorated in a kind of 1970s sci-fi-funk style, complete with brass ‘bubble’ walls and red leather seating. A whole chapter of the 18-page drinks menu pays homage to mixmeister Dick Bradsell classics, such as the rose petal martini or the Bramble (Bombay Sapphire, crème de mure). The menu is a sweeping historical tour of England’s love affair with the mixed drink, from claret cups to sangarees of the Antilles and sours of the 1700s. The bar staff here are proud of this heritage and it shows. The fair prices (around £7-£8) in this W11 gem are a bonus. Read more
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Lost Society
697 Wandsworth Rd, SW8 3JF (020 7652 6526/ www.lostsociety.co.uk).
Clapham’s destination venue Lost Society can’t have failed to capture your attention and your imagination. Possibly Britain’s most glamorous barn conversion, Lost Society offers two levels of sheer indulgence. Crystal chandeliers drip from the ceiling, an eclectic collection of gloriously barmy knick knacks line shelves – from gramophones to bird cages – and South West London’s most gorgeous folk prop up the bar, champers in hands. When it comes to the restaurant, expect to find ‘40s gentlemen’s club meets lady’s boudoir, the perfect accompaniment to a menu of innovative world food to excite the senses and impress even the most jaded palate. Read more
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Mandarin Bar
Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, 66 Knightsbridge, SW1X 7LA (020 7235 2000/ www.mandarinoriental.com).
Despite the overly slick decor – the atmosphere is halfway between a nightclub and the business-class lounge at an airport, as you might expect in a five-star Knightsbridge hotel – the drinks here are excellent. As well as catering for whisky aficionados (the 16-year-old Lagavulin is a choice option), the drinks menu offers a fine selection of well-prepared cocktails; our frothy French martini (£12.50) was vast and delicious. Attentive table service and nightly jazz round off a sophisticated but unstuffy experience. Read more
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Mark's Bar
66-70 Brewer Street, Soho, W1F 9UP (020 7292 3518/ www.hixsoho.co.uk).
Restaurateur Mark Hix’s ‘Hix’ restaurant won over London critics when it opened last year, but its basement bar has become as much of a destination in its own right. Descending into the leather-clad, dusky room feels like entering a members’ club, and although you’ll need to wait if there are no tables, everyone is welcome. Both restaurant and bar follow in the same robustly British vein, taking local products and traditional techniques and bringing them up to date. The drinks list is a treat: legendary London mixologist Nick Strangeway was coaxed away from his position at Hawksmoor in Spitalfields to create a compact homage to British, European and US heritage cocktails, with ingredients that include roasted Bramley apple purée, lemon sherbet and bullaces (a type of wild English damson). Most cocktails cost around the £7 mark: extremely good value given the level of expertise and invention that goes into every drink. There’s also a thoughtful selection of (bottled) British real ales, including a couple of Hix-branded brews. Due to licence conditions, drinkers must order a small plate of food to share, but fortunately they come from the same fine kitchen that feeds upstairs diners and include quail’s egg ‘shooters’ with wild boar bacon, and fish fingers with mushy peas. Service at table and bar is warm and consummately professional. Read more
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Milk & Honey
61 Poland St, W1F 7NU (020 7292 9949/ www.mlkhny.com).
Hands up, how many of you have walked past this Soho speakeasy without knowing it was there? Plenty – and that’s probably just how the owners want it to be. While the members-only policy relaxes for mere mortals until 11pm each night – as long as you phone to book at the start of the week and stay for no more than two hours. Still, it’s worth the effort. The perfectly executed classic cocktails are crafted with quality ingredients, from the daily squeezed juices to the twice-frozen ice and a stock of premium spirits. The Prohibition theme is carried through to the vaguely art deco interior (a secretive, dimly lit space) and a toe-tapping jazz and ragtime soundtrack. If you’re a fan of cocktails, and have £250 (plus a one-off £50 joining fee) to spare a year, we couldn’t think of a better way to spend it, because it’s after 11pm that the beautiful people start to arrive. Read more
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Portobello Star
171 Portobello Rd, Ladbroke Grove, W11 2DY (020 7229 8016).
The Notting Hillbillies that prop up the bar at this handsome local are in for a shock, as Portobello Star is having TV screens brought in for the World Cup – showing England games with volume, but other games silently. If you can snap your attention away from the goggle box, you might be able to appreciate that this bar is where you find some of the best examples of mixology to be found ’round these parts. The USPs are the confident renditions of both traditional and modern cocktails by the team of slick bartenders. A mint julep is richly flavourful, with Woodford Reserve bourbon, while agave goes into a not-quite-orthodox margarita. There’s also an eyebrow-raising collection of antique bitters (spirit flavourings, not beer). But it’s not all about appreciation of the game, or even the drink here (though you’re very welcome); in the evenings, the resident DJs get the punters throwing some shapes to anything from indie pop to infinitely more danceable tunes. Read more
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Zetter Townhouse
49-50 St John's Square, London, EC1V 4JJ
Decked out like a wonderfully eccentric antique shop, the lounge of Zetter Townhouse is one of the most visually arresting places to drink in the city. Cocktails, created by head bartender Tony Conigliaro, are deceptively simple in description but incorporate a host of impressive historic and contemporary techniques. Read more
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Zetter Townhouse
49-50 St John's Square, London, EC1V 4JJ
Imagine an eccentric antique shop where the owner seems reluctant to actually sell anything, and instead sees an empty shelf, table or bit of wall as an invitation to show off a seemingly discordant but holistically pleasing collection of curios. Read more
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Purl
50 Blandford St , Marylebone, W1U 7HX (020 7935 0835/ www.purl-london.com).
This brand new cocktail bar in Marylebone has a speakeasy/Prohibition feel, helped along by the discreet basement location and squiffy swing jazz on the speakers. It’s low-lit, furnished with brown leather chesterfields, dark wooden paneling and lots of alcoves, arches and nooks, and a (working) retro phone booth. The four young chaps behind it claim inspiration from the golden age of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century bartending, using hand-made bitters plus premium spirits. But many of their techniques are utterly contemporary, such as the use of one huge, crystal clear chunk of hand-cut ice in a Negroni (£9). A lot of effort goes into each drink, such as Mr Hyde’s Fixer Upper (£9). This concoction involves using a Smoking Gun hand-held food smoker to pipe applewood smoke into a glass flask of rum, cola reduction and orange bitters. The flask is then sealed with candlewax before serving it with a silver goblet. Blimey! Or there’s the Backwards Bellini (£8), topped with pomegranate foam from a charged soda siphon. There are also wines and beers, but that would be missing the point. Read more
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Shochu Lounge
37 Charlotte St, W1T 1RR (020 7580 9666/ www.shochulounge.com).
Japan’s other national drink, the vodka-like spirit called shochu, is the feature of this basement bar below landmark Japanese restaurant Roka. Swizzled into cocktails and healthy tonics or drunk neat over ice, this distilled firewater is made from grains such as rice, barley, buckwheat, or (sweet) potatoes. Cocktails see the bartenders crank up the creativity scale, with delicious combos taking in traditional Japanese flavours. Tokyo Baby infuses white peach with Calpico (a Japanese soft drink derived from milk) and shochu. Plump for a signature Plum Plum and you’ll get a treat including ume-shochu (plum shochu) and plum vodka. Everything is served with style and, if you so desire, the full Roka menu is available for when the munchies strike. DJs do their thing Thursdays to Saturdays from 8.30pm. Read more
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Worship Street Whistling Shop
63 Worship Street, London, EC2A 2DU
The Victorian theme in this atmospheric basement bar is taken to great lengths, but never taken too seriously. Cocktails are superb – the team behind VOC and Purl have created a list of historic drinks that are as interesting as they are perfectly made. Read more
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