Bars & Pubs

This broodingly handsome Will Ricker bar-restaurant serves high-end cocktails and exquisite dim sum bar snacks (four cubes of crispy pork belly with black vinegar, £6.50). There's a funnelled, glassed-in flame heater in one corner, an organic cluster of chandeliers, black roses on the cream wallpaper, black furniture - and a lighting level that purrs along never a tweak higher than intimate. Even the array of premium spirits behind the bar are lent a serious demeanour by their steel shelving. City-sleek funk does little to disguise this bar's emptiness early in the week, but a sazerac of H by Hine cognac, Woodford Reserve, Peychaud's bitters and absinthe rinse (£6.50) may well soften the void.

Time Out Bars, Pubs & Clubs Guide 2008/9