London bar reviews

Tucked away on a backstreet between tourist-trodden Bloomsbury and start-up central Clerkenwell, The Duke is a good place to escape museumgoers and media types alike. Decked out with scuffed wooden booths, it’s a throwback with a heart. The drinks selection is limited at best – don’t expect much more than San Miguel and Becks by way of lager – but they’re served with a smile. In an area overrun with either soulless chain-pubs or pricey gastro hangouts, The Duke offers relief from both. A place to go with a newspaper – providing the elderly regulars don’t bend your ear first.

The Shakespeares Head may look a little daunting from the outside. Don’t be shy: this salt-of-the-earth local extends a warm welcome to all. It’s hard to imagine a pub with fewer pretensions than this place, done out in gloss-painted wood, standard-issue pub carpets and plump seating. But this old-school boozer is made notable by the people in it: the staff, for whom nothing is too much trouble; and the clientele, an easygoing mix of theatregoers (Sadler’s Wells is steps away) and talkative locals who’ve been drinking here since their dads brought them in for a pint on their 18th birthday. It’s a mix mimicked on the walls, where signed photos of thesps and hoofers jostle for attention with the pictures of the locals out on a jolly. Quite a treasure, in its way.

The Gowlett still looks like a proper boozer, albeit an antique wood-panelled, minimalist boozer – which is something of an achievement round here. The clue to its popularity is in the dough-scented air as you approach. This place sells the best pizza for miles around. The floury bases, pleasingly thin, taste sensational, and a special mention must go to the nutty organic spelt version, for gluten-free people and those who just love spelt. The delicacy of the base has many advantages: the toppings aren’t dominated by stodge, and you can justify piling on the extras for 50p a pop, since eating a whole pizza won’t leave you stuffed. We couldn’t resist the Gowlettini; few can, since it’s such a happy pile-up of goat’s cheese, prosciutto, pine nuts and rocket (for vegetarians, sunblush tomatoes replace the prosciutto). Our napolitana included tangy sun-dried tomatoes, and the egg on the fiorentina was fresh and firm.  

This Soho institution may have mellowed somewhat since self-proclaimed ‘London’s rudest landlord’ Norman Balon finally hung up his polishing cloth in 2006, but there’s still plenty to make it stand out from the crowd, including a rotating cast of excellent independent ales and their own line of merch. Decor, meanwhile, is stuck firmly in the past, with carpets worn threadbare by decades of post-work sessions as well as wood-pannelled walls from the 1970s, and vintage logos of Double Diamond and Ind Coop displayed behind the bar. It all adds up to a curious mix of old-timey standards and progressive ideas which, crucially, work together like a charm.  Time Out tip They might not serve food, but they do have an impeccable array of crisps aka ‘London's greatest tuckshop’. Make ours a bag of pickled onion Monster Munch. 

Tequila’s smokier hipster cousin mezcal was once essentially endemic to a couple of Mexican states (notably Oaxaca), and while that remains the case in terms of production of the agave-based spirit, there’s no denying that London now very literally boasts mezcal bars in the double figures. And the more the merrier. Handsome Bethnal Green addition Little Fires boasts warm, colourful decor, a slick listening bar-style downstairs area, and a short but impressive food menu made in partnership with renowned Oaxaca bar Sabina Sabe and its chef Rodolfo Castellanos. As with the food, the cocktail menu is very punchy – there are only actually four mezcal-based entries (also partnered with Sabina Sabe), but they’re all bangers. Time Out tip Mezcal is nominally the main event: the Espresso Cafe was my pick of the cocktails, a faintly revelatory distant cousin to the espresso martini that tastes like deep smoked coffee. But actually the duck tacos dorados were low-key astonishing – the comfort food of the gods – and Little Fires is as good a shout for a late night snack as it is a drink.

Located on a backstreet where the Old London of Caledonian Road meets the contemporary bustle of King’s Cross proper, the King Charles I is one of the capital’s finest examples of the inter-war boozer. Walk in to its cosy, wood-panelled interior on a winter’s night and you’ll find a welcoming, warm pub filled with knick-knacks, a rotating cast of ales and stouts, and regular, raucous live music nights. The pub was saved from closure in 2015 by a group of regulars, and in 2021 was listed as an Asset of Community Value, ensuring its status as vital King’s Cross cog for years to come.

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!

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,...