Bars & Pubs

A proper, old-fashioned wine bar, Vats is a regular lunchtime haunt for Lincoln’s Inn barristers and various other characters in the neighbourhood. The backroom restaurant gets lively and raucous come lunchtime, while a separate bar at the front is more sedate, and warmed by a fire in winter. Here, the tables are closely set, and full-length windows front on to the pleasant, villagey Lamb’s Conduit Street. The wine list isn’t likely to win any awards, with superior mainstream labels such as Tyrell’s and Hennessy sharing space alongside Louis Latour. Latour’s light, minerally Château de Blagny Meursault is the pick, showing slight peach and pineapple aromas, and good intensity from 2002. You’ll often find folks whiling the afternoon away here, the dessert wine selection (including 1997 Château Coutet from Barsac, and a waxy, spicy, dried-apricot 2005 Muscat de Beaumes de Venise) offering a good excuse to linger. The food is pretty sound. A fish pie was filled with generous chunks of salmon and monkfish, as well as prawns and mussels; it was served with fondant potatoes and beans.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009