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Please note, Sisu is now closed. The space will reopen as Woody Bear for winter 2017.
There are few things that make Londoners more smug than sipping cocktails on a sunny rooftop. Unless, of course, you’re sipping cocktails on a sunny rooftop while looking down on stressed-out Oxford Street shoppers, knowing you’ve successfully escaped hell on earth for a boozy rooftop haven. That’s the case at Sisu, the bar formerly known as Notch (and Roofnic before that). Each year the space gets a new look, and this year it’s had a Scandi-inspired makeover with wooden trellises, green chairs and plenty of foliage.
The cocktails in jam jars remain, though, which means minimal queues at the bar – staff just add ice and shake. But old fashioneds and negronis in tuna tins are so last year; now it’s a DIY job, using a coin-operated machine to produce these two favourites. If you don’t fancy mixing your own drink, try the Mamba, a delicate mix of gin, rhubarb and pear.
On my Friday night visit, it was buzzy but not uncomfortably rammed, which was refreshing for a rooftop bar. It probably helps that its unsuspecting entrance is somewhere between Primark and a tacky tourist shop. Fingers crossed the crowds stay on the ground.