The best bars in Soho

This wonderful bar occupies the hallowed ground that began life as Dick’s Bar, when Brasserie Zédel was the Atlantic Bar & Grill and the late, great Dick Bradsell was the man shaking up cocktails. Zédel has installed a great crew, of both bartenders and front of house staff, though. And it’s kept the beautiful art deco fittings and the widely spaced tables, which are a major factor in keeping noise levels down. We love the brevity and simplicity of the cocktail list, which is stacked with tried-and-tested classics.

Bar Termini does coffee, cocktails, wine and a couple of teeny small plates to soak it all up. Every one of them is perfection. Its leisurely day-to-night opening hours make it a perfect place to pop in for a morning brew, an Italian aperitivo or a classy nightcap, and it's an always impressive date spot. 

If you like your cocktails with a twist, Wun’s Tea Room serves them up in relaxed style underneath Bun House restaurant. Many of the drinks on the list are filled with baijiu, China’s national spirit. Get to know it in the glow of neon and to a soundtrack of 1960s hits straight out of Hong Kong.

Indian-inspired mini chain Kricket's first foray into the bar world, Soma has a tasty 3am licence, which makes sense seeing as it’s named after the Hindu god of the moon. With an epic nine metre-long hand-finished stainless steel bar – perfect for either draping yourself over or getting your all important 2.55am last orders in – Soma has space for 23 people. Drinks are inspired by the Indian subcontinent and neighbouring countries, meaning a cocktail menu that’s more than basic martinis and margs. Instead there's fun twists on the classics, including a gooseberry chaat Margarita, a savoury pickled mooli Martini and a coconut and jaggery Old Fashioned. 

This smart bar split across two floors is one of the best places to drink in London. That’s thanks to affordable, simple, stand-out aperitivi up top and deliciously dark spirit-based cocktails in a brooding basement down below. There’s something here for everyone – even Irish coffee. If you’re into cocktails, Swift has to be on your London bucket list.

A pretty chilled out, very comfortable cocktail bar specialising in excellent drinks, gourmet hot dogs and tater tots. It’s worth checking out the downstairs, if you get a chance. It's decked out like a posh person’s cosy living room, with its own bar and (when it gets late) a soundsystem too. Upstairs, meanwhile, is a more conventional affair with a decent amount of space and a very friendly vibe. Drinks-wise don’t sleep on the spicy Margaritas or the very impressive mezcal Negroni. A very decent spot for your next night out.

A quirky tube-themed cocktail bar that’s hot with tourists. It’s a little confused about which era it’s portraying, but you’re not really looking for historical accuracy – Cahoots sure isn’t taking itself seriously. You’re allotted two hours of drinking time, so book in advance. Our advice: ask for a seat in the carriage, the best spot in house, and save a trip for when friends visit from out of town. 

A sharply turned-out wine lounge on the edge of Chinatown, it’s part of The Blue Posts, a revamped pub from the The Palomar and The Barbary restaurant team, and it’s a gorgeous spot for cosseted drinking. The drinks list is seriously on trend thanks to wine director Honey Spencer and head sommelier Sarah Wright. 

There is a rather splendid touch in the entrance to this basement bar under Milroy’s whisky specialist – you enter via a hidden door in a fake bookcase. The main cocktail list is heavy on experimentation, and the bartenders’ evident expertise might make it worthwhile dipping in there. Soho’s not short of cocktail bars, but Milroy’s has a bright spark in its underground cavern.

The Pink Chihuahua (hidden below El Camion) is Mexican-themed but, unlike the kitsch Baja Californian restaurant above, it’s more a discerning basement drinking den where Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) iconography sits above a series of snugs. It’s a temple to tequila and rum, there’s swift and smiling table service, and it’s open late – what’s not to like?

Technically an upstairs adjunct to Jason Atherton’s celebrated Social Eating House, The Blind Pig is a worthy destination in its own right. It’s not immediately obvious how to find it at street level: look under the vintage ‘Optician’ sign for the blindfolded hog doorknocker and boom, you’re in. The decor is authentically retro but never schmaltzy, and creativity with the names on the cocktail menu is employed with abandon.

Book a table here for date night and things are sure to smoulder (request a space in one of the plush pink booths for extra blushes). The basement bar has a slightly convoluted cocktail menu, but stick with classic Martinis to feel classy as hell in what is mostly a pretty glam setting.

While the 2010s saw wave after wave of bars launch under the ‘Brooklyn Prohibition’ template, Experimental Cocktail Club was one of the OGs. It’s hard to find, sure, perhaps more so than any other speakeasy in London, but inside remains opulent and elegantly aloof to trends. Although no longer as zeitgeisty as it once was, it’s arranged over three floors of an old Chinatown townhouse, flatteringly lit and expensively decorated.

Soho Grind serves coffee by day and caffeine-fuelled cocktails in the basement bar by night. If coffee in your booze isn’t quite your thing, this (trend overload alert) speakeasy-style bar also serves a range of fruity cocktails, straight prosecco, wine and beer. Either way, you’re definitely leaving with a buzz.

This Soho drinking den is so named because it aims to ‘emulate the old, infamous louche Soho culture’ of times past. Devised by the team behind Old Street Records, Venn Street Records in Clapham and Northcote Records in Battersea, it’s definitely ambitious. Housed in an old three-storey townhouse, it has space for 260 punters, two bars serving classic and bespoke cocktails, and two stages for live music and cabaret.

It’s quality cocktails in a lacklustre sky-high setting at Aqua Spirit. But it’s a rooftop bar in Soho, so it’s worth knowing about. The roof terraces are set awkwardly at the opposite end of the room to the lift entrance and can only be accessed by sashaying through the slick Japanese restaurant. It’s a shame the terrace doesn’t have the same chic international style as the dark, sexy interior bar, circular in shape and ideal for perching and people watching.

This Soho nightspot offers a compact list of cocktails, the promise of desserts, and a rota of DJs throughout the week. Half the menu lists ambitious desserts; the other half is a roster of hit-and-miss cocktails. Some are truly exceptional, others less so. Try the Cosa Nostra, an Aperol-based cocktail that swaps out the usual prosecco for a champagne syrup.

The Gin Club sells nearly 200 gins, and there are four ways to order it. G&Ts are poured in double measures and there are a raft of unusual gins. Served in whacking great goblets, each gin with a particular brand of tonic, they look fabulous and make a foolproof Friday-night muscle relaxant. For the hardcore curious, there are tasting menus. If this all sounds a bit gin-geeky, don’t be put off. The atmosphere is that of a bar not a lab, all high ceilinged and dimly lit.

Comb your way through the wash of chain bars scattered across Soho, you’ll find the best cocktails in London’s buzzy hub lie in more understated spots. Henson’s Bar and Social, on the ground floor of Mimi’s Hotel, is just that. With its oak-panelled lounge, fuzzy red velvet curtains and low ceilings, it has an old boys’ club vibe, but thankfully minus the stuffy men. There’s nothing OTT about Henson’s, but it still maintains a sense of grand, classic bougieness. It’s the sort of place you’d take someone if you wanted to impress them, but also show that you’re both down-to-earth and refined.

Someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to make this Chinatown cocktail bar and dim sum parlour look shabby. The design is Eastern smoking den meets Western hipster hangout, with Chinese vases and burning incense mixed with deep funky beats and retro armchairs straight from granny’s sitting room. Be sure to visit the loo: there are motion-activated lights and the speakers will blast you with terrifyingly loud Mandarin announcements.

This new Soho nightspot is the saucy little sister of existing venues The Little Orange Door in Clapham, The Little Blue Door in Fulham, and The Little Yellow Door in Notting Hill. It features house party style decor, comfy sofas to sink into, and a list of cocktails inspired by hit films.