The best bars in Dalston

A scruffy, tiki dive bar that always brings the party, rock up to Ridley Road and discover good times in an unlikely beach shack setting. Grab a can of Red Stripe, a signature ginger mojito, or even a piña colada and position yourself under the mirror ball on that groovy (and often sweaty) dance floor.

This Dalston restaurant-bar has a strong Japanese theme running through it, serving dishes inspired by the country’s izakayas. There’s also regular live jazz and DJ sets played through a top-notch soundsystem – well, it is named after Thelonious Monk album. Wash down ngiri with natural wines and sake. 

This Kingsland High Street veteran was once the face of east London’s party scene. And in true Dalston style it's home to all sorts: popular with a large and diverse LGBT crowd, but welcoming to all and everyone. DJs – mostly local, many well-known – keep people dancing with sets most nights. Drag brunch on Sundays is a big, boozy draw. 

Three Sheets has fast become a hangout for those in the drinks biz who flock here to sample standout, pre-batched cocktails and enjoy the low-key, stripped-back setting. The owners make sure everybody feels welcome, though, and will happily offer up suggestions to suit your palate to a tee. Bar perfection. Get there outside of drinking hours, and you'll find Dead Good Coffee slinging flat whites all day. 

East London's craft beer champs 40ft Brewery can be found right by Acme Fire Cult's outdoor flame-grilled restaurant and Dusty Knuckle's cult sandwich shop and bakery. Rock up on a sunny evening for 10 taps of fresh beer brewed on site as well as natural wines, guest ciders and cocktails as well as a short bar snack-sized menu from the Acme chaps.

Surrounded by Turkish grill restaurants and party-focussed nightspots is this bar where cocktails are king. The seasonal menu lists seemingly simple drinks with just a few ingredients, but they're all pretty delicious. What started out as a bit of a sophisticated cocktail joint has morphed into the perfect late-night watering hole. 

Take a few flights up to Dalston Roof Park, a bar that hosts some pretty impressive daytime parties and DJ sets. The venue offers the shelter of a covered bar and a roofed area in front of the decks, so you can dance whatever the weather. 

This enticing room is home to a wide range of experimental music that exists well outside the mainstream. Operating as a relaxed, light and airy café during the day and a live music space and bar in the evenings, Oto puts a strong emphasis on the more out-there of underground artists. Listen to Norwegian improv/free jazz/psych-rock while sipping fancy beer.

A friendly, vibey cocktail bar with famous Pamelas honoured in pictures on the walls. Cocktails are bright and summery and the beer list is down to earth. Best of all, if you can prove your name is also Pamela, your first round is on the house.

‘Mezcal is going to be massive this year’: London drink experts have been saying that for what feels like a decade. Hacha should speed things up. This ‘agaveria’ offers mezcal, tequila, soto and raicilla drinks as well as their signature Mirror Margarita, a clear, dangerously smooth twist on the classic cocktail. 

This bar is dedicated to bag-in-box (BIB) wine. You’d be forgiven for imagining it as an ironic hipster haven, but the ethos behind Weino is to provide drinking that’s more friendly on both your wallet and on the environment. Sample glasses from a wall of bagnums and pair a small plates menu featuring cheese from a deli counter also inside the venue. Turn up on Tuesdays for our favourite weekly deal; mussels and a glass of cider for £10.

Another jazz-club-meets-bar to suit the chin-stroking crate-diggers that have long frequented this part of town, Servant Jazz Quarters is situated just behind Dalston's cultural hub, Gillett Square. When the music isn’t in full swing in the downstairs basement, take your time mulling over the list of classic and original cocktails.

Modelled on Andy Warhol’s Factory, come here for a sterile, minimal setting with silver walls and swathes of grey concrete. So far, so wanky. Thankfully, the drinks are works of art, with the menu reading like a Holland & Barrett shopping list. As chic as Warhol himself. 

By day a bottle shop, by night a fairly chichi wine bar, Newcomer claims (and we’ve no reason to doubt it) to stock the biggest selection of Austrian wine and beer in London. The bar at the front pours a daily selection and is open until 11pm Thurs-Sat. 

In the basement of a five-storey townhouse, what used to be known as Ruby's, is now Corrochio’s. A cocktail bar, restaurant and taquería, on Friday and Saturday nights it morphs in Corrochio’s Cantina, serving all manner of Mexican and South American-inspired cocktails, as Mexican bar classics to eat. 

Open until 3am on Friday and Saturday nights, Dalston Jazz Bar is the lowkey party spot that you need have in your back pocket for those 'where shall we go now?' weekend moments. Don't miss their fabulous fish either – there's a 'pay what you want' menu of oysters, tiger prawns, mussels and more, and you pay what you think it's worth to help cover the live music (and it's definitely not all jazz, btw).