Bars & Pubs

This Mexican bar/cantina - not themed as such but dressed in neatly appropriate bar shack distressed wood and generic Latin American propaganda posters - is an absolute triumph. You can drop in for a hangover-straightening Michelada (your choice of beer - from Bohemia, Dos Equis, Sol or the imperious Negra Modelo - 'seasoned and spiced', around £4) with a 'brunch' of Jaliscan bar snacks, or wade into the unparalleled selection of premium tequilas, perhaps best encountered as a 'tasting flight' of three shots (£12 to £59.40, accurately reflecting the range of quality). Grab a stool at the counter in the small, ground floor Cantina Bar for quality cocktails: perhaps a tall diablo (tequila, lime juice, ginger ale, crème de cassis) or pomegranate margarita (salt and sugar rim) accompanied by pan-fried chorizo and 'yam bean' salad with cucumber and peanuts. When we admired his craftsmanship, the gently evangelical barman was pleased enough to provide discreet tasters of one of the superb visiting tequilas. But don't let such gourmandism suggest a po-faced attitude: Green & Red is as comfortable dishing out litre-jug cocktail options to Friday night tables of work carousers as talking you through the niceties of £50 a shot aged tequila.

Time Out Bars, Pubs & Clubs Guide 2008/9