The best bars in Mayfair

Brutes is here to quench the thirst of anyone with a penchant for the strong stuff. Stepping inside is like a time machine to old school New York, complete with white-jacketed bartenders and branded mini matchbooks. They deal in martinis, of course. Dry, wet, dirty or brutal, depending on your preference and tolerance. Luckily for those with a weak constitution, your stiff drink comes with a snack. Choices range from gildas and blue cheese olives to Monster Munch (the giant kind) and bumps of caviar served atop a pearl spoon. We are in Mayfair after all, darling.

There’s a classy restaurant at the back, sure, but you only need to set foot into the front of The Dover to enjoy their walk-in bar. With gorgeous walnut wood walls that seem lifted directly from a 1930s cruise liner and a giant black curtain behind check-in – meaning there’s no chance of prudish daylight ever seeping inside – hunker down for the evening, picking from a list of potent martinis. Hungry? Get stuck into a very decent menu of bar snacks, including burger and fries, and feel very swanky indeed. 

Wine Bar isn’t out here trying to impress you unlike some other Mayfair spots. Instead, it feels a bit like a kitchen in the Cotswolds; all white-washed brick walls, and a rustic, rural energy that seems ideal for eating large hunks of cheese and washing them down with big, bold glasses of red, or juicy whites with a hint of skin-contact. It’s part of the Artfarm family, the hospitality wing of mega gallerists Hauser and Wirth, who also run the glitzy Mount St Restaurant and tarted-up Audley pub across the road, as well Farm Shop upstairs, where you can buy wines from their own estate and cider from their orchard. Classy but cosy,

Claridge’s remains one of London’s best hotels, and the bar inside the main restaurant is one of the best spots in all of Mayfair to set sinking cocktails and feeling extremely sophisticated. New York cocktail bar Dante is now in permanent residence, meaning excellent martinis and a chic Manhattan-style menu. Use your perch wisely - to spot the high-end celebs who frequent this gorgeous room.

The flagship bar at The Connaught is luxury on a different level. The cocktails served up are world-class wonders, light bounces around the room in pure elegance and service is nothing short of exemplary. Get them to wheel over the Martini trolley for one of London’s best drinking experiences. 

Over-the-top decor in the Rivoli Bar harks back to the golden era of cocktails and suits the glitzy location within the Ritz Hotel. Prices only appear sensible if money is of no consequence, but if it’s a celebration you’re after, you’re in the right place for putting on the ritz.

For a single, mind-blowingly strong, heartbreakingly delicious cocktail head for Dukes, one of London’s true classic bars, and justly famous for the theatrical presentation of martinis created on a tray brought out specially for you. It can feel a little too old school in here sometimes however; men need to wear proper shirts or risk being turned away at the door.

Down a Gaudí-esque spiral staircase and in the basement beneath Ollie Dabbous’ acclaimed restaurant Hide, this bar has the feel of a modern, minimal Nordic cabin, with barely-there lighting and dense wooden surfaces. But supreme cocktails served in dainty glassware cut through the intensity of it all. These are among the best mixed drinks you’ll find in the neighbourhood, every tipple a masterful original you won’t want to end. 

Drinks at the Brown's Hotel bar are served in gimmicky glassware – no Mayfair snootiness here, then. The setting is also playful, paying homage to the swinging sixties and with cocktails conjured up by mixmaster Salvatore Calabrese. It’s a pricey spot, but a good shout in hotel land when out of the ordinary is what you’re after.

The lobby bar of this understated art deco hotel has impeccable service and top-notch tipples in a low-lit and discreet setting, where only the tables are bathed in pools of light. Pure class. 

The Connaught has always had the most country house-like feeling of London’s great hotels, and the effect reaches perfection in the effortlessly beautiful Coburg. Sip flawless classic cocktails in style.

Mr Fogg’s theme is a little much but you have to admire the execution, with this bar looking every bit the part as the residence of fictional explorer Phileas Fogg. The cocktails continue on that adventurous note, with smoke, flames, sprays and novelty glassware galore. 

A Mayfair wine bar with all the posh tipples and small plates you’d expect, but with a light, bright soundtrack of pop hits. Comptoir is brought to you by Master sommelier Xavier Rousset – formerly of Michelin-starred Texture and now proud parent of Blandford Comptoir and other wine-heavy restaurants – so the wine list is expertly curated. 

The bar within upscale Mayfair restaurant Corrigan’s crafts cocktails using ingredients ferried across daily from Irish chef Richard Corrigan’s County Cavan farm. Cocktails are divine and the setting is swanky, but the atmosphere can be a little flat after the pre-dinner rush.

This hotel bar is a long thin room with subdued lighting, chestnut panelling and a convex mirror at both ends, with dark leather and velvet furniture sprinkled with the occasional hotel guest. There are various riffs on the Negroni to be sampled here, plus house cocktails named after literary giants like James Joyce.