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The Best Bars in London's to Grab a Drink

We've rounded up our favourite watering holes in the capital, because you deserve it

By and The Esquire Editors
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London, as has been long established, is a city that loves a drink. From cosy whisky rooms and the opulent glamour of a luxury hotel lounge, to the buzzy, sun-filled beer gardens or sky-high rooftop cocktail bars complete with sprawling views of the capital city, there’s always a perfect drink waiting to be poured in a perfect spot.

And with London’s bars (and drinks) regularly being given the nod at events like the prestigious Tales Of The Cocktail or The World’s 50 Best Bars, alongside the ever-popular craft beer and natural wine scene, the city’s arguably never been in better shape for a bevvie. Here's our guide to the very best.

1

BEST FOR NATURAL WINE: Cave Cuvée

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If you’re not on a natty wine tip right now, are you even living? While the popularity of natural wines has flourished over the past few years, it’s the guys at Top Cuvée who really have led the biodynamic vino revolution in London (you’ll have seen their tribe everywhere with their signature orange tote bags). This bijou basement bar – a cave, we’re calling it a cave, just like the French call their cellar bars – just off the busy Bethnal Green Road is a spin-off of their original shop and restaurant up in Highbury, and this setting feels a bit more informal, buzzier, and more “fuck it, let’s get another bottle".

The staff are fully primed to fill you in on the skin-contact wines of the moment, guiding you through a globe’s worth of funky-tasting bottles, while they also do a mean negroni and margarita if you want something a little stronger. Of course, it wouldn’t be an East London watering hole without small plates, so expect oysters, mini charcuterie platters or even a hotdog to nibble on, and don’t forget to exit via their shop upstairs to take home a prized bottle of orange wine for yourself.

250A Bethnal Grn Rd, London E2 0AA, topcuvee.com

2

BEST FOR OLD SCHOOL COOL: Bar Américain

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Zedel

Brasserie Zedel is not only home to one of London’s most popular French brasseries, but also its most reasonably priced. So after you’ve had a pocket-friendly steak frites, pop next door to the super luxe Bar Américain and splash out on a digestif. The vibe in here is 1930’s Art Deco; retro leather booths and low, bejewelled lighting around an impressively-stocked mirrored bar; somewhere Jay Gatsby might go for a discrete tipple before a big bash. The drinks take you through a snap-shot of pre and post Prohibition-era history, with century-old cocktails such as the Aviation or the Blood and Sand on offer, but the bartender’s always happy to shake up any other classic that might tickle your fancy at that time. A few cocktails in, it’s easy to forget you’re underneath one of London’s busiest streets (Piccadilly Circus) so you’ll need your bearings about you when you finally emerge out of the spirit-infused bubble and step back into the present day.

Pro tip: as they don’t take reservations, pop your name down on the list before you eat in the dining room next door.

20 Sherwood St, London W1F 7ED, brasseriezedel.com/bar-americain

3

BEST FOR INVENTIVE COCKTAILS: Bandra Bhai

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PATRICIA TOBIN

As secret London haunts go, Bandra Bhai is one of our favourites. Hidden at the back of the excellent Pali Hill restaurant on Fitzrovia’s Mortimer Street, getting into the bar involves descending some stairs and moving through a secret concrete door (if you’re struggling, look out for the 'Sexologist Dawakhana Clinic' sign. Don’t worry, all will be explained).

It’s a beautiful space, which the team behind Bandra Bhai compare to a ‘retro Indian smugglers den’. The décor – full of velvet and animal print and posters – is inspired by the eclectic black market that emerged from India’s closed economy in the Seventies (which remained in place until the early Nineties). Drinking dens and other shady operations advertised themselves as legal businesses, hence the tongue-in-cheek sexologist sign outside the door.

The cocktail menu is impressive and inventive in both taste and presentation – we recommend the Gold Fashioned, made with Woodford reserve, jaggery, chat masala and aromatic bitters. The bar snacks are also a step above, especially the grilled lamb cutlets with crispy curry leaves and mint raita. A brilliant option to have in your back pocket.

79-81 Mortimer St, London W1W 7SJ, bandrabhai.co.uk

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4

BEST FOR A CHINATOWN HIDEAWAY: The Mulwray

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The Mulwray

Serving as the cherry on top of one of a trifecta of good food, good beer and good wine (and cocktails), the Mulwray is nestled neatly above the Blue Posts on Rupert Street. An excellent pub which is in turn sits atop Evelyn's Table, a basement eatery with just a few seats at a bar surrounding a frenetic kitchen. The building is a one-stop-shop for a great night out, and though we love the Blue Posts for its boozer 2.0 vibe, we always relish the chance to settle into the banquets upstairs and while away the night. Come for the wine and stay for the Earl Grey Negroni, and certainly don't leave without sampling the excellent cheese board.

28 Rupert Street, W1D 6DJ, theblueposts.co.uk/themulwray

5

BEST FOR A LATE-NIGHT DRINK: Nightjar

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Nightjar

It’s easy to see why this east-London institution has built up a fine reputation over the past decade. Firstly, there’s the speakeasy vibe of a place, with its excess of candlelight and oak-and-leather decor making it feel like a member’s bar that you can actually get into. And, what's more, it’s open at the weekends until 2am. As for the drinks, they’re quite rightly award-winning, with the mixologists drawing from the heritage of stylish, lesser-seen classics (dating all the way back to the 1600s) and giving them a modern twist. Our recent favourites? The umami-heavy gin ‘n’ seafoam Pearl, and the fragrant soft-touch of the vodka-sake Yokohama. Not out east? Head to their sister restaurant in Soho for more of the same japes, but slap bang in Carnaby Street.

129 City Rd, EC1V 1JB, barnightjar.com

6

THE BEST FOR WINE: Passione Vino

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Esquire

“You might not know what your favourite wine is… but we stock it already”

That’s the opening gambit from Passione Vino, a celebrated Shoreditch wine bar that started as a shop in 2013. The three-floor townhouse, run by former importer Luca Dusi, is as unpretentious as it gets; it eschews wine lists for daily specials and personal recommendations from the owner and his team, who’ll base their choice on the information you give them about your own mood and tastes, although they’re more than happy to take you on a journey of discovery and challenge your preconceptions, too. They’ve even worked on an online quiz of sorts – 'Take the Flight' – which will help you identify the right wine to pick out on your visit or in the bar’s shop. If you do decide to sit down and enjoy the ambience, then you can soak up all the wine with beautiful, fresh, humble Italian food – cold cuts and pasta dishes.

85 Leonard St, EC2A 4QS, passionevino.co.uk

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7

THE BEST FOR FRENCH SOPHISTICATION: Coupette

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Esquire

A “London neigbourhood bar with a French accent”, Coupette opened in Bethnal Green in 2017. While it occupies a prime location on this hectic stretch of East London, right by the tube station, Columbia Road flower market and Victoria Park, its exterior is unassuming… in a good way. Pass it once; pass it twice. Inside it feels just how a great cocktail bar should: busy, intimate, dimly lit, the sound of rattling ice and a great playlist. A third date place, a fourth date place! There is exposed brick, gilded mirrors and French paraphernalia. The drinks menu, freshly revamped, is split into chapters and features left-field concoctions like the Golden Pearl Tea, Brick By Brick and the Corny Gimlet. There is a focus on Calvados, but all the big hits are covered. If you’re after an exceptional Negroni, Old Fashioned or Martini (or four), there’ll be no eye rolling from the bar staff, the philosophy here is “simplicity and discovery,” an open-minded outlook that saw it voted one of the world’s best bars last year. Coupette is a place to try something new or stick with what you know. Just how a great cocktail bar should be.

423 Bethnal Green Rd, E2 0AN, coupette.co.uk

8

THE BEST FOR A SOHO HIDEOUT: The Black Book

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Esquire

It's getting increasingly hard to boast that you “know a place” in London, unless your suggestion is a slightly less packed Sam Smiths. A lot of our favourite back pocket bars have been forced to shut down over the years (the problem with being a hidden gem is often the ‘hidden’ part). So praise be to The Black Book, a former member’s club on Soho’s bustling Frith Street (down an easy-to-miss flight of stairs on the corner of Old Compton Street) that’s recently been transformed into a boutique basement wine bar. Founded by two master sommeliers, you’re provided with a (wait for it) black book (hurrah!) which holds London’s largest ‘by-the-glass’ list. The food and cocktails options are impressive too, and the dark wooden interior is a welcome reprieve from the chaos of the streets outside. Top marks.

23 Frith St, Soho, W1D 4RR, blackbooksoho.co.uk

9

THE BEST FOR ECLECTIC COCKTAILS: Wun's Tea Room

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Wun's

Usually, drinking alcohol in a tea room would be grounds for strong-armed removal – but not at Wun’s, a neon-laced restaurant and bar on Greek Street, Soho. Inspired by the drinking scene of 1960s Hong Kong, the drinks menu is full of classic cocktails with a Cantonese twist. The food is delicious too, especially the barbecue beef spare ribs and sour plum braised duck. Soho isn't short of late night haunts, but Wun's offers something a little different.

23 Greek St, Soho, W1D 4DZ, tearoom.bar

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10

THE BEST FOR A CIGAR: The Churchill Bar, Hyatt

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Hyatt

As you might expect of a bar named after our most famous wartime leader, the Churchill does a mean line in cigars from Cuban importer Hunters & Frankau. It also offer the perfect alfresco terrace to enjoy it in - not to mention one of the best cocktail menus in the city.

30 Portman Square, W1H 7BH, hyatt.com

11

THE BEST FOR LATIN-THEMED COCKTAILS: Amazónico

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Esquire

Amazónico is one of the most distinctive restaurants in London. If you’ve walked through Berkeley Square in Mayfair, then you’ve no doubt ambled past the tropical plants that stand outside and had a cheeky peer inside its window, at the copious amounts of flora, woodwork and hanging lights within. If you’ve had a meal there – whether it be in the London, Madrid or Dubai locations – then you know the deal: food inspired by ‘the countries the Amazon river touches’, meaning a long menu full of sushi, slow-cooked and grilled meats, zingy seafood and Latin American bites, as well as some deliciously creative alcoholic concoctions. But they’re best enjoyed downstairs, in the restaurant’s altogether more understated bar area, where you can catch live music as well as guest DJ performances (playing Amazónico’s signature ‘electro-pical’ tracks.) A great shout for those after-dinner drinks if you’re in the area.

10 Berkeley Square, W1J 6BR, amazonicorestaurant.com

12

BEST FOR A RELAXING DRINK: Below

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Below

Not too far from Green Park tube station, if you know where to look, you’ll find Below – the calm basement bar to chef-owner Ollie Dabbous’s Michelin-starred restaurant Hide. Spearheaded by Swedish bar manager and part-owner Oskar Kinberg, the ethos is clear and simple: beautiful drinks, nice lighting, good music and an overall sense of understated luxury. The (not inexpensive) cocktails are unfussy but inventive and often crafted with an inventive twist – the dry martini, for example, is stirred with frozen birch sap instead of ice to give it a silkier mouthfeel – and the menu itself is seasonal for optimum freshness. What’s more, there’s a walk-in brick-walled wine cellar and three different private dining rooms.

85 Piccadilly, W1J 7NB, hide.co.uk

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13

THE BEST FOR LATE NIGHT REVELRY: Meraki Bar

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Meraki

Meraki Bar has something for everyone with a secret bar beneath complete with live DJs and giant private booths. From founders Alain Dona, Laurent Manuel, Adam Bel Hadj and the Waneys - the brains behind Zuma, Roka and Coya - Meraki is a welcome late night addition to Fitzrovia. A fusion of London glamour and the relaxed atmosphere of Greek islands, drinks and food are modern with timeless flavours.

30 Foley St, W1W 7TJ, meraki-restaurant.com

14

THE BEST FOR DEAN STREET DEBAUCHERY: Groucho Club

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After more than 30 years, The Groucho still retains its Cool Britannia feel. On its night, the now-venerable Dean Street member’s club is still home to the great and the good – from Sir Bradley Wiggins to Sheridan Smith and Stephen Fry – letting their hair down in private.

45 Dean Street, W1D 4QB, thegrouchoclub.com

15

THE BEST BEER GARDEN: The Faltering Fullback

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Step into the tiny backyard of this north London pub, then gaze up at the enormous tree house-like beer garden featuring stairs, gangways and terraces. Outdoor heaters make it the perfect winter retreat.

19 Perth Rd, Finsbury Park, N4 3HB, thefullback.co.uk

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16

THE BEST FOR NEW ORLEANS COCKTAILS: Plaquemine Lock

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Plaquemine Lock

Bocca di Lupo owner Jacob Kenedy’s Louisiana-inspired pub on the Regent’s Canal is the best place in London to find famous New Orleans cocktails, from Hurricanes to Mint Juleps. What's more, live jazz acts perform regularly in the space.

139 Graham St, The Angel, N1 8LB, plaqlock.com

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