Claridge's has long been London's grandest hotel, but its restaurant space has struggled to hold onto a resident star. Since Gordon Ramsay departed in 2013, the dining room has cycled through big names — Simon Rogan, Daniel Humm and Will Guidara among them — plus an in-house concept, without finding a permanent fit. Enter Dante, the New York cocktail institution run by Australian husband-and-wife team Linden Pride and Natalie Hudson.
Their story starts at Caffe Dante, a modest Greenwich Village hangout opened in 1915 that once hosted the likes of Al Pacino and Bob Dylan. The couple bought it in 2015, added outposts in West Village and Beverly Hills, and in 2019 the original took the top spot on The World's Best Bars list. Their formula is deceptively simple: care, cocktails and a real neighbourhood feel.
Dante Mayfair began as a pop-up at Claridge's in July 2025 and has now gone permanent. Hudson worked with Bryan O'Sullivan Studio to soften the imposing, high-ceilinged room with greens and blues, botanical murals by Beth Rodway and Amalfi Coast photography by David Yarrow. The aim, in Pride's words, is to be "the living room of Mayfair" — more relaxed and better value than the hotel dining norm.
The drinks are the draw, naturally. Martinis dominate, with a martini-forward menu that runs from a classic Dirty 5:1 made with olive brine and blue cheese olives to a pickle-brine Dirty Cornichon and a Caviar Martini topped with fish roe. Better still for visitors: a daily happy hour from 3pm to 5pm pours martinis at £10 (about A$20) — remarkable for Mayfair. Music matters too; the room runs on blues during the day and live piano and vocals by night. Pride has form here — his grandfather Bob Rogers was an Australian DJ and promoter who put on some of the first Beatles and Rolling Stones shows in Australia.
The food leans American, from a New York kale caesar and shrimp cocktail to a grill section of lobster, minute steak, rib-eye and halibut cooked simply with olive oil and lemon. Casual options like the smash burger, veal Milanese and truffle-topped cacio e pepe keep prices within reach. Service comes in crisp black-and-whites but with easy warmth — the kind of place where an empty glass gets refilled almost before you notice it's empty.
For travellers, this is a genuinely useful new booking: a World's Best Bar pedigree inside one of London's most storied hotels, open seven days from breakfast through dinner, with a happy hour that makes it accessible rather than exclusive. Whether you're staying at Claridge's or just passing through Mayfair, it's worth planning a late-afternoon martini stop.
