London cocktail bars
The Vivi editors' London cocktail-bar hub. Our ten-strong, always-updated list, plus the rules of engagement and where Nathaniel drinks when off-duty.
There are more cocktail bars in London than any one drinker can reasonably visit in a year, which is why lists like this exist. I drink for a living and these ten are the ones I keep going back to.
The giants
- The Connaught Bar, Mayfair - the martini trolley is still the benchmark.
- Dukes Bar, St James’s - a colder martini than the Connaught, in a much smaller room.
- American Bar at The Savoy, Strand - old guard, still excellent.
The bartenders’ bars
- Satan’s Whiskers, Bethnal Green - new list daily. Walk in.
- Tayer + Elementary, Old Street - two bars, one building.
- Silverleaf, Liverpool Street - Pan Pacific hotel bar, surprisingly serious.
The hidden corners
- Swift, Soho - both floors.
- Discount Suit Company, Aldgate - the basement bar that looks like someone’s uncle’s shop.
- Lyaness, South Bank - Mr Lyan at the Sea Containers hotel.
One classic
- The American Bar at The Stafford, St James’s - old-school, slightly fusty, unreasonably excellent.
How to behave
Sit at the bar if you can. Order one drink at a time. Ask what the bartender is working on. Tip in cash.
Nathaniel Ashford
Senior contributing editor
Nathaniel Ashford writes about bars, cocktails, pubs and the London neighbourhoods that hold them together. A former drinks-trade journalist, he now contributes a weekly cocktail column for Vivi and leads the Vivi Neighbourhoods series.
He knows more about vermouth than is strictly respectable. Based in Fitzrovia; generally found two doors down from wherever he is supposed to be.