London bar reviews

The Bear is one of those rare pubs that does great food but is also Actually Fun. Its kitchen uses seasonal ingredients on its constantly-rotating menu, which has a slight Asian fusion-style bent, while the bar stays open til 1am on weekends, with music courtesy of a solid roster of vinyl-first DJs from the local area. There’s a solid Sunday night quiz too.  Time Out tip Got a decent vinyl collection of your own? Bring some of your favourites down on a Wednesday for open decks night BYOB (that’s Bring Your Own Bangers).  Order this  The cavatelli pasta with XO sauce is another banger, as is the steak tartare with curry leaf, coriander and black sesame. 

Want to feel like you’re in Paris (when you’re actually in Waterloo)? Lower Wine Bar is here for you. Opened in 2024, Lower rolls out onto one of our favourite streets in the city - the resolutely old-school Lower Marsh - and offers wines by the glass and bottle, as well as providing a bottleshop take-out service. All your most in-demand wines are on offer, from chilled reds to pet-nats. There’s also a small blackboard food menu to power you through the list. Lovely stuff. Time Out tip Lower Marsh is also home to the excellent Maries, a tiny caff that by day is a full-on greasy spoon serving gut-busting fry-ups, but by night is an informal Thai restaurant packed with nattering cabbies and spice-loving locals scoffing authentic food at bargai prices – think chicken satay, sum tum salad, stir-fries, the aforementioned curries, noodles and desserts such as banana fritters. Find it at 90 Lower Marsh, SE1 7AB.

In recent years this brick and timber 1930s boozer has become south east London’s favourite unofficial queer venue, thanks to an array of campy entertainment including drag and cabaret, plus queer speed-dating events and nights like Flapjack and Pop-Up Dyke Bar. Drinkers and diners are also all happy here; the former get a sterling selection of cask and craft ales, plus cocktails and an acceptable wine list. The latter get a menu that changes regularly, depending on the pop-up kitchen – at the moment its some of the best pizza in London, courtesy of Dough Hands – plus hefty Sunday roasts. There’s plenty of seating: at large wooden tables next to the central bar, in the back garden and in the front yard facing Nunhead Green. It might also be the only pub in London with a shrine to Britney Spears. And the name? A nunnery once occuped this site; the rebellious Mother Superior was murdered during the Reformation and her head stuck on a pikestaff on the green. Lovely stuff!

Islington isn’t exactly wanting for good boozers. The fabulous Wenlock Arms and ultra-welcoming Britannia are both within spitting distance of the freshly-revamped William IV, which offers a more refined, gastro take on classic north London pub proceedings.  Head to the spacious ground floor for the kind of shabby chic backstreet experience you’ll also experience at places like the characterful Earl of Essex – but upstairs is where things get serious. The pub’s candle-lit Regency-era dining room, which comes with shades of the Quality Chop House, doesn’t just offer an excellent Sunday roast, but week-round dining that feels more King Henry VIII than William IV. We’re talking massive salty chops slathered with a Rorschach test of melted butter; an allotment’s worth of spuds with a creamy slab of plaice; meaty platters of perky oysters; chickpea panisse that are fatter than the fattest chips and William IV’s house speciality – malty and toasted Guinness bread which comes with a honking, ultra-savoury Marmite butter that looks not unlike a dollop of gelato. All of this to a sublime soundtrack of Scott Walker. Come hungry, and feast until you have to be rolled out of the joint like the decadent king you are.   Time Out tip This might be a pub, but the wine list is epic and they also make a marvellous martini. The 2:1 Coastal Martini is a light-touch take on the cocktail classic, meaning you can get stuck into a bottle of lovely Savvy B after.

Rare is the pub that opens at 8am and isn’t around the corner from an early morning meat market (or a Wetherspoons). The Angel – which is from the same team as Highgate’s primo gastropub the Red Lion & Sun – is bucking the trend with a classy breakfast bistro offering, before easing punters into lunchtime wine and evening feasts (though not on Sun-Tue, when it shuts up shop at 6pm - they’re not maniacs). Booze begins at 10am, if you’re wondering, with a kimchi bloody mary one of the more acceptable pre-lunch libations on offer.  Formerly the unremarkable Angel Inn, the Angel relaunched in 2025 on a prominent corner of the quaint Highgate High Street, well aware that it needed to offer something different in an area already packed with exceptional pubs. Despite being super close to the aforementioned Red Lion & Sun, ever-popular Flask, cosy Prince of Wales and Americana-themed Dukes of Highgate, the Angel stands out. Airy and bright, the space feels more like a Parisian brasserie than a north London boozer, with classy touches such as elegant fairground-styled painted logos for your pints rather than ugly branded pump clips. Kippers, full english brekkies and a selection of pastries are available until 5pm, after which the evening menu kicks in, with the likes of bavette steak and chips, confit duck leg, and Wagyu double cheeseburger up for grabs. But this isn’t one of the gastropubs where you’ll be sneered at for only ordering booze - from what we can see on our visit,...

If you find yourself yearning for red cups, beer pong and running around a stranger’s house while buzzed on rum punch, this one is for you. House Party, co-founded by rapper Stormzy, is a unique bar concept modelled around an old-school house party, slap-bang in the middle of Soho. Set across a seven-floor townhouse, you’ll find a teenager’s bedroom, complete with Page Three pin-ups tacked to the wall and a clunky, noughties-style PC; the parents’ room, where you can roll around in a double bed and queue karaoke songs; a kitchen (known to host secret gigs); a rooftop (for beer pong); a living room with game consoles and a DJ-soundtracked basement that fills up like a club. The attention to detail is quite wild – at moments I felt genuinely nostalgic (especially when I was belting out Avril Lavigne in the bedroom). It’s recommended you register for a party ‘invitation’ online for priority access, rather than risking not being let in on the night. Make sure you arrive before 10pm, so you don’t miss any surprise performances.  Order this The cocktail menu has all of the classics, but the standout is the ‘Kitchen Punch’, made with rum, blueberry purée and pineapple juice. It sounds like the sort of questionable concoction you made in university halls using leftover mixers and odd spirits, but actually tastes good.   Time Out tip Want a little privacy for you and your mates? You can book rooms – the basement, terrace treehouse, living room, parents’ bedroom and teenager’s...

Walk through the beloved, turquoise-hued Lina Stores deli on the corner of Brewer Street, past shelves of pasta and polenta, and, through an unassuming door at the end, you’ll find the entrance to their subterranean drinking den Bar Lina. There is no signage. If you know, you know. Small but perfectly formed, with room for just 28 quaffers tucked along the deep red velvet banquettes and high bar stools, it’s the low-lit, after hours antithesis of their bright and breezy upstairs shop. The menu, however, unites the two. Daily taglieri boards of meats, cheeses and fat slabs of focaccia vary depending on the deli’s current wares, while the all- Italian cocktail menu offers a comprehensive selection of spritzes and negronis, plus innovative signatures. A Bloody Martini remains almost clear with its additional tomato water element, while the Porto Nuovo - named after the Milanese district is heavy and sweet, made with grappa, vermouth and cola syrup. Advance booking is highly recommended.

This tucked-away test kitchen for nearby bars Discount Suit Company, The Sun Tavern and Parasol, weirdly might be the best of the bunch and finding it is all part of the fun. Head down an alleyway it doesn’t look like you should be heading down and you’ll be greeted with the site of a teeny, tiny 12-seater bar situated in a 19th century atelier workship. At once dramatic and extremely cosy, it would be perfect for an illicit liasion were you that kind of person. If not, use it as a place to try out a host of weird and wonderful cocktails that might end up on the menus of the other Umbrella Project bars. On our last visit we tasted a baklava old fashioned and saw God. Seats outside double the capacity, and there might not be a nicer place in the area to drink away a warm summer evening. Time Out tip You are but steps away from one of the best restaurants in London; Rochelle Canteen. Order this If none of the experiemental specials take your fancy, they can make pretty much any classic cocktail you care to drink.

A hotel bar can be a staid and stuffy thing but Seed Library has none of that awkwardness or exclusivity. Instead, this basement adjunct to One Hundred Shoreditch is a relaxed, impressively low-lit and supremely welcoming space with terrazzo tables, cool pine panelling and soft 1960s stylings. Megastar mixologist Ryan Chetiyawardana – aka Mr Lyan – is behind Seed Library’s menu, which features an unsurprisingly excellent and fairly bonkers selection of beverages. Their Breakfast Bellini contains ‘century beans’ - a twist on Japan’s century eggs - while their Orkney Breezer comes filtered through a sheep’s pancreas. All Bar One, this most certainly is not. The vibe is low-key, unobtrusive and great for a third date, with a muso-satisfying soundtrack oozing out of an expensive-sounding PA. Mr Lyan’s done it again. Order this: There’s nothing on Mr Lyan’s menu that’s going to be boring. A tequila-based Lada Lada with ‘lager sizzurp’? Sure! A gin-centric sipper containing lettuce that’s just called Salad? Why not!Time Out tip: A posh version of a nacho cheese dip, served with Japanese rice crackers, White Lyan Magic Cheese was first debuted at Mr Lyan’s original Hoxton bar and lives once more as a Seed Library snack. They don’t call it ‘stoner food’ for no reason.

It may style itself as ‘The Bar With No Name’, but in reality, everyone knows this place by its address, hidden away from the Upper Street hordes on an Islington backstreet. So well-loved is 69 Colebrooke Row, in fact, that it’s not easy to get a seat without booking. Punters come for the outstanding cocktails – some of which may push the boundaries of what can be put in a glass, but they always maintain the drinkability of the classics. Their upstairs laboratory, meanwhile, produces bespoke cocktail ingredients such as Guinness reduction, paprika bitters, rhubarb cordial and pine-infused gin. There’s a subtle jazz-age vibe in the small, low-lit room and – on certain nights – a pianist belts out swinging standards. The look is chic, the space is small, and the drinks are a cut above the rest.Order this: Not drinking booze? Not a problem. Their cocktail list includes a veritable smorgasbord of zero percent options, from a Blackberry Pie Bellini to the Orris Army and Navy, made with a combination of aperitifs.Time Out tip: As well as their in-house pianist on Wednesdays and Sundays, 69 Colebrooke also has live music every Thursday to ease you into the weekend.