London's drinking scene rewards the curious. The city's top bars have little in common beyond good drinks — some are theatrical and glitzy, others scruffy and hidden behind unmarked doors — but each has a strong personality of its own. Condé Nast Traveller UK has just refreshed its round-up of the 25 best bars in the city, and it doubles as a proper bar crawl itinerary whether you've got one evening or a long weekend.
The martini is clearly having a moment. Brutes of Mayfair, a slick 12-seater on Bruton Place run by ex-JKS bartenders, hands you a pencil and pink card to spec your drink — gin or vodka, wet, dry, dirty or 'brutal', with garnishes ranging from blue cheese olives to pickled onion Monster Munch or a scoop of caviar. Over at the Nomad hotel in Covent Garden, Twenty8 Nomad pours a whole martini menu tracing the drink from its 1860s Manhattan ancestor to a 2016 New York original. And in Soho, tiny Bar Termini pours four kinds of Negroni into ice-cold coupes — book ahead, walk-ins are near impossible.
If you'd rather hunt something down, options abound. Tramps Bar in Islington hides inside painter Peter Doig's former studio, marked only by a handwritten sign, with weekly-changing cocktails and lunch from a former River Café chef — closed Saturdays, naturally. Waltz in Shoreditch, from Tokyo-born Gento Torigata, builds its menu around Japan's 72 micro-seasons (the matcha old fashioned is a keeper) and landed at number 32 in the World's 50 Best Bars — arrive early, no reservations. Space Talk in Farringdon is a full-on listening bar with a '70s conversation pit and vinyl until 2am.
Wine drinkers get looked after too. Bruno in Hackney is Sager + Wilde founder Michael Sager's candle-lit natural wine spot with a cobbled patio; Oranj, near Brick Lane, is where the young fashion crowd goes Thursday to Saturday for low-intervention bottles under a tangerine glow; and The Dreamery in Islington pairs low-intervention wine with ice cream flavours like oolong and prune. For grand old glamour, it's hard to beat The American Bar at the Savoy — Britain's oldest surviving cocktail bar, open since 1893, where you can still order Ada Coleman's 1920s Hanky Panky — or the blush-pink Red Room at The Connaught, hung with Louise Bourgeois and pouring rare vintage wines by the glass.
Budget travellers should note Forza Taps, the new terrace bar inside the National Theatre on the South Bank, pouring affordable beer, wine and Negroni Sbagliatos on tap with Thames views. And for a proper night out in Notting Hill, Naked and Famous — reportedly a Dua Lipa favourite — serves agave-heavy cocktails and a tasting-tray of mezcal and tequila shots in a compact 35-seater.
Who's this for? Anyone planning a city break in London who wants more than a pint. Pick a neighbourhood, book the ones that take reservations (Brutes, Termini), and turn up early for the ones that don't (Waltz).
