Shake up (or stir up) your evening at our favourite cocktail bars in London — the ones that are nailing that magical alchemy of drinks, atmosphere, and a frisson of who-knows-where-the-night-might-take-us.
Whether you're looking for a legendary institution or a moodily-lit listening bar, for a sake brewery or absinthe parlour, for an art deco basement bar or a late-night Irish cocktail joint, London has you covered. In a city not short of great cocktail bars of all kinds, these are the ones that have made it into our regular haunts.
The Sun Tavern, Bethnal Green
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Many a debauched night's had the Sun as its launchpad. The hybrid lovechild of an Irish dive bar and a high-concept cocktail joint, with a late licence and a lot of poitín on the menu, the bar's from the same team behind the (also great) Umbrella Cider House in Bethnal Green, Parasol in Dalston, and Discount Suit Company in Whitechapel. Cocktails are a mix of regularly changing specials and immaculate classics — along with surprisingly reasonably priced (for London, don't @ us) beer on tap, and the joy of knowing that pretty much any day of the week or time of the night you find yourself there, it'll always feel loud, rowdy and welcoming.
The Sun Tavern, Bethnal Green
Hacha, Dalston and Bermondsey
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One for the agave-fans, Hacha's been serving up tequila and mezcal in Dalston for several years from a rotating collection of rarely-seen-in-the-UK bottles and an inventive cocktail menu, including the deservedly (in)famous Mirror Margarita: crystal clear and deceptively pure-looking. Both of their bars — there's a second site in Bermondsey — also come with some sun-trap outdoor tables, and kitchen residencies serving solidly good tacos and Mexican small plates; at time of writing it's Nopalito in Bermondsey, and in Dalston it's Tigre Tacos.
Hacha, Dalston and Bermondsey
Satan's Whiskers, Bethnal Green
Divey meets romantic, Satan's Whiskers is all leathery, dimly-lit booths and a faintly seedy red-lit feel, with some of London's most carefully dreamed up and beautifully served cocktails being shaken-or-stirred in their little, dark-windowed spot on Cambridge Heath Road. Their signatures are constantly changing and always great, but they're equally good at the classics — it's among the elite ranks of bars where you can ask for your martini dirty and they automatically make it filthy.
Satan's Whiskers, Bethnal Green
DUKES, Mayfair
You might not have heard of Gilberto Preti, the barman thought to have created the Vesper, but you'll almost certainly know its most famous fictional drinker. Preti was working at DUKES Bar in the early 1950s when he invented the drink, for author Ian Fleming. Fleming was so impressed with the cocktail's suave cred that he wrote it into Casino Royale, with 007 explaining to a barman how to make it: "Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet [now called Lillet Blanc]. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?"
Some things have changed since Fleming's era; there's now a two-martini-per-person cap, which becomes extremely understandable as soon as you've had one of the frankly enormous serves from the martini trolley — but it's still legendary for a reason. One of the few bars we'd recommend despite having a pretty strict dress code (no sportswear, shorts or t-shirts), because the sense of ceremony's part of the pleasure, and these are martinis that are worth putting on your Sunday Best for.
DUKES, Mayfair
This is a sponsored inclusion on behalf of EatClub.
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Several of our favourites are in the mix: head to Homeboy in Islington for outstanding Irish hospitality and DJ sessions, Opium in Soho for speakeasy-style romance, or Coupette in Bethnal Green for French-slanted cocktails and decadent barsnacks.
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Freud Bar, Covent Garden
Very much on the beaten track, on the edge of Soho, Freud still feels like a secret. The basement level bar looks like a house party being thrown in a concrete bunker, with a minimalist line in decor but maximalism ruling the cocktail list. It's improbable that anywhere with such a sprawling cocktail menu, stretching across multiple blackboards, can be doing all of them well... but after extensive research, we've still never found a miss among all their hits.
Freud Bar, Covent Garden
Kanpai, Bermondsey
From their under-railway-arch space on the Bermondsey Beer Mile, London's first sake brewery's serving a rotating mix of their own sake on tap, plus a stock of specialist sake imports, and a good selection of Japanese beer and whisky. But their short, elegant cocktail list's great in its own right, with umami-rich, sake-laced versions of classics — think pear sake negronis and shiso martinis.
Kanpai, Bermondsey
Equal Parts, Hackney
You might think this part of east London, in the borderlands of Shoreditch and Bethnal Green, already has enough great neighbourhood bars for a lifetime's cocktail drinking. But this is incorrect: we needed one more. This one. From the brain of Michael Sager — of the also excellent Victoria Park wine bar Bruno — Equal Parts is serving high-precision cocktails in a low-pretension space. The decor and record collection, like the drinks, seem to be less a heavy-handed concept, and more curated around 'some things we like a lot'. On the drinks front, that includes riffs on classic cocktails around a regularly-changing ingredient — in the past, things like artichoke infusions lacing delicately and beautifully bitterly through their negroni and sbagliato — and longer-running creations like our favourite, the fino sherry/tomato/olive oil Flor, like a dirty martini filtered through a rainy Italian garden.
Equal Parts, Hackney
Coupette, Bethnal Green
A very fancy bar menu in an unstuffy setting, Coupette's a French-influenced spot where the Frenchness takes the form of a penchant for Calvados — both solo and as a cocktail base — cider, some very decadent bar snacks, and a louche elegance scattering everything from the glassware to the lighting. Cocktails lean towards the high-concept, but they'll happily make the classics on request. Probably most famous for inventing the Champagne Piña Colada, probably not famous enough for their £10 champagne-and-fries order (anytime, every day): Coupette contains multitudes.
Coupette, Bethnal Green
Opium, Soho
This Soho cocktail bar's fitted out with the kind of red-hued low lighting and opium-den-channelling decor that makes everybody look like a smoulderingly attractive extra in a Hollywood neo-noir. Cocktails are as theatrical as the interiors, you can order dim sum by the basket or platter — and there are three separate bars tucked into the double-level building, so you can conduct a whole triple-locale crawl without ever having to step outside.
Opium, Soho
Bar Américain, Piccadilly
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For when you're after some old-world glamour, the cocktail bar sitting alongside Brasserie Zédel delivers the same hit of 1920s opulence as the restaurant. Hard to beat for pre- or post-theatre drinks, Bar Américain has to be some of the most dramatic escapism legally available to you in Piccadilly Circus: even a quick pitstop in their gloriously art deco basement bar, reached via a chandelier-hung, marble-paved entrance hall, feels like an act of time travel.
Bar Américain, Piccadilly
The Last Tuesday Society, Hackney
Conceived as an absinthe parlour, though in reality a great cocktail joint covering a lot of spirits, the in-house bar at The Last Tuesday Society was founded a few years back by Allison Crawbuck and Rhys Everett — the now-owners of Devil's Botany, London's first 21st century absinthe distillery. Expect an eclectic cocktail list (including, during the summer only, our favourite use of a slushie machine in the city: the frozen absinthe piña colada), and regular events including B-movie screenings, lectures on occult London, and deep dives on topics like the influence of hallucinatory drugs on the development of psychological research. In the basement of the bar you'll find the Viktor Wynd Museum Of Curiosities, a trippy collection of the mysterious, the beautiful, and the ugly housed in a small, crammed warren of rooms.
The Last Tuesday Society, Hackney
Homeboy Bar, Islington
All of the decadence of a great cocktail bar, with the nonchalance of a pub, Homeboy's delivering 'modern Irish hospitality' via the medium of an exuberant cocktail list — think blue cheese-infused martinis, frozen Irish coffee with spiced Guinness demerara, and tasting notes referencing everything from Jolly Ranchers to Craig David — along with cheese toasties, Taytos and DJ sessions.
Homeboy Bar, Islington
Bar Termini, Soho
For lovers of train stations, negronis, charcuterie served up in delicate slices on greaseproof paper, fierce espresso — all the good stuff — Bar Termini's an Italianate dream come true. Looks like a classic Italian railway station café, and infamous for their bottle-aged negronis, served in tiny, ornate glasses throwing back to 20s Rome, it's nonetheless a great place to come if you're not drinking alcohol: most of our pitstops there have actually been for their bicerin (espresso, chocolate, hot milk), an outstanding way to start, round off or just punctuate a Soho evening.
Bar Termini, Soho
Zapoi, Peckham
It took us several visits to Zapoi before we clocked it for an all-vegan bar; it wears its ethos lightly. Equally good if you're committed to aquafaba-topped pisco sours, or if you just want a great cocktail with a chaotically-decorated, old-Savannah-garden-party backdrop. Determinedly lo-fi, apart from the high-fidelity sound system, it's crammed with tropical plants (apparently 1,000+), and studded with faded armchairs, ceiling fans and romantically-lit alcoves. Walk-ins only.
Zapoi, Peckham
Alligator Bar, Covent Garden
Laissez les bons temps rouler at the Alligator Bar, the New Orleans-channelling bar hidden at the rooftop level of Louie. The terrace looks out over the London skyline, but the interiors (ceiling fans, warm lighting, scattered greenery and wicker, gilded statuettes), the regular live music evenings, and late licence could be straight out of Louisiana.
Alligator Bar, Covent Garden
