Bars & Pubs

While many of the kids around Carnaby Street opt for the Puma shoes shop and assorted style bars, those with more experience drop into Shampers. Pinstripe suits and cardigans from the advertising and publishing worlds pack the place, and staff have trouble keeping up, serving quickly to a rammed bar and dining room. There’s good British food such as potted Morecambe Bay prawns with sourdough toast, and smoked Rannoch venison with pickled fig to match some well-priced wines. The juicy, fruit-laden 2005 Ochoa tempranillo-garnacha blend from Spain comes in at under £4 a glass. Many wine bars mark-up the more well-known regions, but here you can drink them at a fair price. For instance, Sancerre and Chablis usually command a higher tag because owners know punters will pay more to drink them, but at Shampers Claude Fournier’s Loire white and Daniel Dampt’s northern Burgundy both fit in the £20 per bottle bracket – amazing.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009