The Best Bars in East Marylebone
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Rank 1. Three Sheets Soho
Cocktail Bar
The cocktail menu here is built around restraint, which sounds modest until you taste what that actually means. Three Sheets Soho is a neighbourhood cocktail bar from the Venning brothers, landing on both the World's 50 Best Bars and Europe's 50 Best Bars lists. Seasonal rotations sit alongside signatures, oysters come free with a Martini order, and the whole room feels like it's trying less hard than it should be able to at this level.
The awards
- The 50 The 50: #80 · The World's 50 Best Bars
- The 50 The 50: #41 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars Top 50 Cocktail Bars: 2026 · #11 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
- The 50 #80 · The World's 50 Best Bars
- The 50 #41 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · #11 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
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Rank 2. Bar Kinky
Cocktail Bar
A copper-vaulted room below Charlotte Street that fits maybe six people around a central island bar, which means the bartender is always close enough to explain why there's blue cheese in your cocktail. This subterranean cocktail bar leans hard into savory and unexpected, pairing vodka with beetroot and walnut or whiskey with horchata and milk tea. Named in the Top 50 Cocktail Bars, and the non-alcoholic menu gets the same treatment.
The awards
- The Pinnacle Guide The Pinnacle Guide: 1 Pin
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars Top 50 Cocktail Bars: 2026 · #37 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The 22 Best Bars In London
- The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · #37 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
- The Infatuation The 22 Best Bars In London
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Rank 3. Murder Inc.
Dive Bar
Neon red signs glow against the brick walls of this Soho dive bar tucked down a backstreet off Tottenham Court Road, and the name is the only thing scary about it. The team behind the Cocktail Trading Company runs the room, keeping cocktails at £11 and deliberately un-fussy while landing something that feels like beauty and filth in quiet agreement. Sick tunes, a pet piñata, and no pretension anywhere in sight.
The awards
- The Pinnacle Guide The Pinnacle Guide: 2 Pins
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars Top 50 Cocktail Bars: 2026 · #21 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
- The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
- Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · #21 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
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Rank 3. Swift Soho
Cocktail Bar
Two floors, two different nights out: the ground floor runs a tight list of classics and house cocktails, while the basement lounges deeper, with live music on weekends and over 300 whiskies to work through. Booking downstairs is advised, which tells you something. The cocktail menu leans into a travel theme the team rotates, and Swift landed at number 15 on the Top 50 Cocktail Bars list.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 5 stars · Difford's Guide
- The Pinnacle Guide The Pinnacle Guide: 1 Pin
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars Top 50 Cocktail Bars: 2026 · #15 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
- Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
- The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · #15 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
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Rank 3. The Spy Bar
Cocktail Bar
The entrance was once a guard room, and the spy theme here stops well short of kitsch. This cocktail bar at 57 Whitehall forbids photography, which feels appropriate given the building's history, and the moody, close interiors make the rule easy to respect. The Martini is the organizing principle, with drinks named for Cold War tradecraft and wartime intelligence networks. It ranked 43rd on the Top 50 Cocktail Bars list for 2026.
The awards
- The Pinnacle Guide The Pinnacle Guide: 2 Pins
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars Top 50 Cocktail Bars: 2026 · #43 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
- The 50 The 50: The 50 Discovery
- The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · #43 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
- The 50 The 50 Discovery
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Rank 6. Bar Termini
Italian Cocktail Bar
A narrow Italian cocktail bar on Old Compton Street that sells bottled Negronis to go, which tells you most of what you need to know. The menu is short by design, built around a handful of Aperol spritzes, Marsala Martinis, and wine cocktails, with enough burrata and charcuterie to keep you honest. The bar staff will make classics off-menu without fuss. Ranked eighth on the Top 50 Cocktail Bars list for 2026.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 5 stars · Difford's Guide
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars Top 50 Cocktail Bars: 2026 · #8 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The 22 Best Bars In London
- Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · #8 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
- The Infatuation The 22 Best Bars In London
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Rank 7. Archive & Myth
Cocktail Bar
A secret code at an ornamental door off Cranbourn Street gets you into this cocktail bar tucked behind the Magic Mike Live entrance at the Hippodrome. Inside, exposed brick and vintage memorabilia set a moody, cabinet-of-curiosities tone, and the drinks lean into the theme: vintage spirits from past decades appear on the menu alongside more experimental builds. It landed at number 18 on the Top 50 Cocktail Bars list for 2026.
The awards
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars Top 50 Cocktail Bars: 2026 · #18 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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Rank 8. Dram
Cocktail Bar
A 17th-century Grade II listed building on Denmark Street hiding two bars, a whisky shop, an outdoor terrace, and a private pool room with a cocktail vending machine, which feels either ridiculous or brilliant depending on your mood. This multi-floor cocktail bar puts serious thought into its drinks, with menus shifting by floor and cocktails available both on tap and made to order. It landed on the Top 50 Cocktail Bars list in 2026.
The awards
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars Top 50 Cocktail Bars: 2026 · #39 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
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Rank 8. Opium Cocktails & Dim Sum Parlour
Chinese Cocktail Bar
A small nameplate and a rather larger bouncer mark the entrance on Gerrard Street, with red stairs climbing past Chinatown's rooftops to one of London's few cocktail bars that also runs dim sum until late. Three floors, three distinct moods: a casual lounge at the top, an apothecary bar where you sit amid the bartending action in the dark, and a curtained back room for 30 if you know to look. Ranked among the UK's top cocktail bars, and the menus alone are worth examining.
The awards
- Top 50 Cocktail Bars Top 50 Cocktail Bars: 2026 · #46 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 8. The French House
French
Seven tables in a handwritten-menu dining room above one of Soho's most storied pubs, where the portraits of former regulars like Lucian Freud watch you eat calves' brains with brown butter. The kitchen, now run by Angela Hartnett's husband Neil Borthwick, keeps the menu brief, French, and unapologetically meaty. Madeleines arrive fresh at dessert. Downstairs, no phones, no music, and thirty champagnes by the glass keep the bohemian faithful happily off-grid.
The awards
- Top 50 Gastropubs Top 50 Gastropubs: 2026 · #47 · Top 50 Gastropubs
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Selected Restaurant
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The 24 Best Restaurants In Soho
- Top 50 Gastropubs 2026 · #47 · Top 50 Gastropubs
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The Infatuation The 24 Best Restaurants In Soho
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Rank 8. Velvet by Salvatore Calabrese
Cocktail Bar
Velvet is a hotel cocktail bar in the Corinthia, dressed in so much red velvet it could pass for the inside of a very expensive jewelry box. Salvatore Calabrese, a famous bartender, is behind it, and his Negroni svegliato pairs Campari with coffee. Live jazz plays most nights, the lights stay low, and the menu includes a cocktail that costs £450, so budget accordingly. It's open until 1am Tuesday to Saturday.
The awards
- The Pinnacle Guide The Pinnacle Guide: 1 Pin
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The 14 Best Hotel Bars In London, Ranked By Most Expensive Cocktail
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The 22 Best Bars In London
- The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
- The Infatuation The 14 Best Hotel Bars In London, Ranked By Most Expensive Cocktail
- The Infatuation The 22 Best Bars In London
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Rank 12. Yauatcha Soho
Chinese
Chrome-topped bar, white marble front, stools that look like they'll punish you by the second drink but somehow don't. Yauatcha's ground-floor cocktail bar is a relatively recent addition, carved out at the back of the room after someone noticed the basement was already producing thousands of drinks a week and thought perhaps a proper bar was in order. The crowd drifts in from Soho looking like they've made a decision, not a reservation.
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Selected Restaurant
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 13. Quo Vadis
British
A first-floor members' bar tucked above one of Soho's oldest dining rooms, in a building where Karl Marx once rented a dingy attic and, apparently, never bought a round. The room has the kind of worn, comfortable gravity that only old Soho townhouses carry, and the crowd skews toward people who know exactly where they're going, which is the whole joke of the name.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The 24 Best Restaurants In Soho
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Rank 14. Punch Room
Cocktail Bar
The punch bowl is the whole point here, a cocktail bar tucked behind the lobby of the London Edition that has committed to the format so thoroughly that sharing is basically mandatory. Dark wood, candlelight, and an open fire make it feel like a private club from a century ago, if private clubs had taken reservations. Go with people you like enough to split a drink with.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
- The 50 The 50: The 50 Discovery
- Spirited Awards Spirited Awards: 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Hotel Bar – Europe
- Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
- The 50 The 50 Discovery
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Hotel Bar – Europe
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Rank 15. Kioku Sake Bar
Japanese Wine Bar
The awards
- The Pinnacle Guide The Pinnacle Guide: 2 Pins
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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Rank 16. Cartizze
Venetian
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Flute is the rooftop cocktail bar at Broadwick Soho, where someone clearly signed off on an unlimited budget for pink cushions. Expect velvet everywhere, fruity cocktails that can climb to £40, and a wraparound terrace built for staring wistfully at the London skyline while a friend takes the photo. It's a dress-up, spend-a-bit kind of place, and The Infatuation has ranked it among the city's best bars.
The awards
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The 14 Best Hotel Bars In London, Ranked By Most Expensive Cocktail
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The 22 Best Bars In London
- The Infatuation The 14 Best Hotel Bars In London, Ranked By Most Expensive Cocktail
- The Infatuation The 22 Best Bars In London
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The paparazzi camped on the mews out back are, in their own way, part of the ambience. The Ladder Shed is the bar tucked into Chiltern Firehouse, the gothic Victorian fire station turned celebrity hotel on a quiet Marylebone backstreet. It draws the kind of crowd that arrives by arrangement and leaves by the side door, which makes ordering a drink feel faintly conspiratorial and, depending on your outlook, either tedious or a good story.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 16. Scales
Modern Cocktail Bar
The awards
- The Pinnacle Guide The Pinnacle Guide: 1 Pin
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
-
The awards
- The Pinnacle Guide The Pinnacle Guide: 1 Pin
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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The Coral Room is a hotel bar in Bloomsbury that appears to have been painted by someone who was told pink was a personality. Afternoon tea with finger sandwiches gives way by evening to a crowd drinking champagne under a Murano chandelier, so a French 75 is the obvious order. The cocktail menu rotates, and prices sit around the high teens, which is London hotel bar for fair.
The awards
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The 22 Best Bars In London
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The 14 Best Hotel Bars In London, Ranked By Most Expensive Cocktail
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
- The Infatuation The 22 Best Bars In London
- The Infatuation The 14 Best Hotel Bars In London, Ranked By Most Expensive Cocktail
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide
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Rank 16. THE GUARDS BAR AND LOUNGE
Cocktail Bar
The awards
- The Pinnacle Guide The Pinnacle Guide: 1 Pin
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Rank 16. The Painter's Room
Cocktail Bar
The Painter's Room is a small cocktail bar tucked inside Claridge's, done up in the sort of pink shell and stained glass that makes your own flat feel like a storage unit. Expect champagne-forward drinks at Mayfair prices, around £22 for the priciest, ordered by people dressed for a premiere they may or may not be attending. It's the kind of room where a first date either gets engaged or gets the bill.
The awards
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The 22 Best Bars In London
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The 14 Best Hotel Bars In London, Ranked By Most Expensive Cocktail
- The Infatuation The 22 Best Bars In London
- The Infatuation The 14 Best Hotel Bars In London, Ranked By Most Expensive Cocktail
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Rank 16. The Royal Cocktail Exchange
Cocktail Bar
The awards
- The Pinnacle Guide The Pinnacle Guide: 1 Pin
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A Venetian chandelier drops glass tendrils over the white marble bar counter, setting the tone for this small, stately Art Deco cocktail bar tucked beneath the staircase of Claridge's. Red leather stools and banquettes keep things plush without feeling stuffy, and a connecting room with a fireplace leads to the Snuggery, an intimate nook for twenty. The crowd runs toward people who already know which table they prefer.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The 14 Best Hotel Bars In London, Ranked By Most Expensive Cocktail
- The 50 The 50: The 50 Discovery
- Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
- The Infatuation The 14 Best Hotel Bars In London, Ranked By Most Expensive Cocktail
- The 50 The 50 Discovery
-
The awards
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The 22 Best Bars In London
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Rank 27. Berners Tavern
Cocktail Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 27. Cork and Bottle
Wine Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 27. Duck and Rice
Chinese
Four copper tanks of unpasteurised Pilsner Urquell, shipped weekly from the Czech Republic, greet you at the door and tell you immediately what kind of bar this is. Alan Yau, the name behind Hakkasan and Yauatcha next door, pitched it as a Chinese gastropub, which sounds like a PR concept until you're actually there with a cold lager and a plate of salt and pepper squid on a Soho afternoon.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 27. FAM
Cocktail Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
-
Rank 27. London Cocktail Club Goodge Street
Cocktail Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 27. Soho Whisky Club
Beer Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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A carved wooden horse's head peers out from the dark panelled walls, which tells you roughly everything about the vibe here. The Running Horse is an old-school Mayfair pub with bare floorboards, a country-house feel, and a weekday crowd of local office workers piling in after hours. The food is better than it needs to be, but this place has no identity crisis: it knows it's a pub, and leans into that completely.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
-
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
-
A zinc-topped island bar anchors this wine bar on a quiet Marylebone lane, surrounded by old wine packing cases and champagne cellar racks softened by bare Edison bulbs. The list is long without being intimidating, and the staff are polished enough to guide you through it without making you feel like a student. The kind of place where a quick glass reliably becomes two.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 35. Bam Bou and The Red Bar
Japanese Cocktail Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
-
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
-
Rank 35. Boyd's Brasserie
Modern British
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
-
Rank 35. Bubbledogs
Cocktail Bar
Grower champagne and hot dogs, together at last. Bubbledogs is a small, lively bar on Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia where the pairing sounds like a dare but draws a queue outside most nights, since reservations are reserved for larger groups. Bare brick, high tables, and lab stools set the tone: this is not a place for ceremony. The menu is narrow by design, which is the whole joke, and somehow the joke holds up.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
-
Rank 35. Burger and Lobster Soho
Seafood
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
-
Rank 35. Chotto Matte
Japanese Peruvian
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
-
Rank 35. Coal Vaults
Cocktail Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
-
Rank 35. Covent Garden Cocktail Club
Cocktail Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
-
Five salvaged Royal Automobile Club fireplaces line the wall behind the bar, now stocked with premium spirits instead of logs. This basement cocktail bar in Fitzrovia earns its descent: leather floors, ostrich-skin chairs, art deco lamps, and padded booth tunnels that feel like a Bond villain's living room. The sunken bar puts bartenders at eye level, which is either democratic or theatrical, probably both.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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Twenty-five seats and no reservations, which means the beer is doing all the heavy lifting on busy nights. This cozy craft beer bar on Goodge Street mixes old-pub bones with pops of color from newer furniture. The tap list leans international and pleasantly obscure, served in vessels so elaborate that one requires a credit card deposit, presumably because someone, somewhere, walked off with it.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 35. ECC Chinatown
Cocktail Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 35. Ember Yard
Mediterranean
The bronzed jamón-shaped tap behind the downstairs bar, complete with hoof, tells you everything about the room's sense of humor. Ember Yard is a Soho bar with an Italian and Spanish lean, warm wood tables, brown leather benches, and a Mediterranean feel that stops well short of kitsch. It sits across two floors on Berwick Street, and the crowd tends to arrive hungry as well as thirsty.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 35. Gillray's
Steakhouse
The bar sits inside County Hall, the grand old Southbank municipal pile that now shares its corridors with a Marriott and, somewhere below, a slightly forlorn amusement arcade. Up the stairs, that awkward context falls away into an almost circular room that's eclectic and colourful, with Big Ben framed across the Thames. It's a cocktail bar with a steakhouse alongside, which means the crowd skews tourist but the view does the heavy lifting for everyone.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 35. Kettner's
Champagne Wine Bar
Fizz arrives first at Kettner's, a champagne bar in Soho that has been around forever and wears it well. The grade II-listed room has the kind of gilded, slightly threadbare grandeur that makes a glass of bubbles feel like a moral necessity. Pre-theatre drinkers pack in early, but the atmosphere stays looser than you'd expect. Oscar Wilde reportedly used the upstairs rooms for purposes the programme notes left out.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 35. Le Cellar at Galvin
Speakeasy
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
-
Rank 35. Light Bar
Cocktail Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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A long white island bar runs down the centre of the room like a runway, which is fitting, because the Sanderson's cocktail bar is very much a place to be looked at while pretending you're doing the looking. Philippe Starck's fingerprints are all over it, including the chairs, which have literal eyes. The room is spare, pale, and almost aggressively unfussy, with candles and flowers doing the heavy lifting on warmth.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 35. Meat Liquor
Cocktail Bar
Graffiti covers every surface of this basement bar, which used to be a swanky Italian restaurant and now looks like someone handed the decorating contract to a very motivated teenager. The punk-meets-dive-bar vibe is deliberate, the cocktails are less of a joke than the décor implies, and the no-reservations policy means the queue outside is part of the experience whether you planned for it or not. Get there early.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 35. Purl
Cocktail Bar
Dry ice curling off a coupe is a reasonable way to announce a cocktail bar, and Purl commits to the bit with smoke guns, blow torches, and foams deployed without apology. The basement setting, all candlelit arches and tucked-away corners off Blandford Street, does the rest, giving the whole thing a genuinely speakeasy feeling rather than just the aesthetic. Busy most nights, which tells you the theatrics haven't worn thin.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 35. Reason and Mankind
Cocktail Bar
The cocktail bar inside what was once a notorious underground nightclub, Reason and Mankind pairs disco lights and dubstep with a serious drinks menu from the team behind Purl and Worship Street Whistling Shop. The room reads more bottle service than stirred and strained, but the cocktails lean inventive and molecular. A good place to feel slightly overdressed for the right reasons.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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A long zinc-topped bar anchors this cocktail bar just off the lobby of a posh, design-led Marylebone hotel, with its own street entrance on Mandeville Place for anyone who'd rather skip the front desk entirely. The back bar is carefully stocked without being showy, and the contemporary lounge furniture gives it a polished feel that will probably soften once the regulars stop treating the cushions quite so gently.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 35. Reverend JW Simpson
Cocktail Bar
The pink bedroom wallpaper still shows the ghost of a cross where it hung above the headboard, the paint faded around the outline of furniture long gone. That level of commitment to a bit tells you a lot about this underground lounge bar on Goodge Street, which runs with the premise that you're drinking in a cleared-out vicar's flat. The team behind Bourne & Hollingsworth built the whole thing, and the chipped, faded aesthetic holds throughout.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 35. Roux at the Pembury
Cocktail Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
-
Rank 35. Shochu Lounge
Japanese
A wall of antique Japanese brewing vessels sets the mood before you've ordered anything. This subterranean cocktail bar sits beneath Roka on Charlotte Street, and shochu is the point, whether you want it straight, infused with cherry blossom or green tea, or folded into something the bartender's thought harder about than you have. The crowd skews fashionable, which makes sense given the Zuma connection upstairs.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
-
Rank 35. The Crown and Sceptre
Beer Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 4 stars · Difford's Guide
-
Rank 61. Albannach and Doon
Scottish British
Antlers and tartan meet a corporate-hotel aesthetic upstairs, but the real draw at this Scottish-themed bar is the basement. Renamed Doon, as in doon the stairs, the lower level is moody and low-ceilinged, with five booths tunnelled into the back wall that seat around six and feel genuinely tucked away. The contrast between the polished double-height main room and the catacomb below is about as Scottish as the concept gets.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 61. All Star Lanes Stratford City
Cocktail Bar
Cocktails served from a raised bar platform overlooking the bowling lanes, with the restaurant on one side and a fluorescent-lit diner area on the other. All Star Lanes is a bowling-alley bar chain that usually picks more characterful spots, so the Westfield Stratford address is a slight detour from the brand's natural habitat. Come for a drink, bowl a few frames, and don't overthink the decor.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 61. Apres
Cocktail Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
-
Rank 61. Bodega Negra
Mexican
Luchador posters and Mayan-drilled polystyrene ceiling tiles set the tone at this Mexican bar and taqueria tucked off Soho's Old Compton Street. The taqueria side enters from Moor Street and buzzes around an island bar, while the restaurant entrance is a block away. Eight tequila brands, no mixtos, across 22 pours, with Tapatio in the speed rail and a top-shelf option that'll run you past twenty-five quid.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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A metal fire-escape staircase is your only clue that a bar exists below Rathbone Place at all. Once you're down, the basement reveals itself as a cocktail bar styled like a parlour your grandmother would have thrown a very good party in: floral wallpaper, parquet floors, white-clothed tables. The whole thing sits ten tables deep, which keeps it intimate enough that nobody is performing for strangers.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 61. Drakes Tabanco
Sherry Spanish
Ibérico hams hang from the ceiling at the back, but this is a sherry bar first, a snack stop second. The front room is all wrought-iron lamps, thin wooden benches, and sherry butts doing double duty as furniture, which gives it the feel of a Jerez side-street dive, almost certainly because the budget demanded nothing grander. Standing is the default, which suits the pours. It's in Fitzrovia, though nothing about it remembers that.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 61. Equus
Cocktail Bar
The name is Latin for horse, and the gentleman's club aesthetic takes that theme and runs with it. This cocktail bar sits deep inside the Royal Horseguards Hotel, past the lounge and the grand piano, which is already doing some filtering work before you even arrive. The room skews older and male, and it makes no apologies for either. Finding it at all counts as a minor achievement.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 61. Floridita London - CLOSED
Cuban Cocktail Bar
A 13-metre bar painted in shades of red, black, and white occupies the basement where Mezzo once ruled Wardour Street, modelled on Havana's famous original. This Cuban cocktail bar has a stage for live Latin American music and enough square footage to feel like you've descended into somewhere slightly louder and more rum-soaked than you planned. The Rolling Stones played upstairs in 1964, which the bar had nothing to do with but everyone mentions anyway.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 61. Gordon’s Wine Bar
Wine Bar
The candlelit basement has been pouring wine since the Victorian era, and the atmosphere has barely moved since, which is either the charm or the problem depending on your relationship with cobwebs. Gordon's is an old-school wine bar tucked under Villiers Street, all low ceilings, wobbly wooden tables, and bottles lining walls that once housed Samuel Pepys. It draws tourists and City regulars alike, and the outdoor terrace fills fast in summer.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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The Georgian townhouse at the top of Greek Street has been a lot of things over the centuries, and its current life as a private members' bar might be its most unexpected. The interior has been polished back to its original grandeur, all ornate plasterwork and period detail, while the staff include people learning a trade through the club's social mission. Drinking here comes with a cause attached, which is either reassuring or a lot to hold with a cocktail.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 61. Mezcaleria at Wahaca
Mexican
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 61. Mint Leaf Restaurant and Bar
Modern Indian
A long bar stretches the full length of a candlelit underground room near Trafalgar Square, separated from the restaurant behind it by dark slatted wooden screens. The cocktail bar leans hard into modern Indian flavors, which means the drinks are a genuine departure from the lager-and-vindaloo script. It pulls a dressed-up crowd who've figured out that nobody needs to see natural light to have a good evening.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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A bar that leans hard into the industrial-chic aesthetic, with a long white-tiled counter fronted by distressed leather stools and a top made from salvaged planks. Old theatre seats pull up to a scaffold-framed bench table, and wood-panelled nooks offer something softer. The whole thing reads as very New York, which in Fitzrovia lands somewhere between a compliment and a lifestyle statement. Book ahead if you want a proper table for food.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 61. Salvadore and Amanda
Spanish
Spanish movie posters and dark wood booths line this subterranean tapas bar and late-night spot a stumble from Leicester Square tube. The steep descent into a dimly lit, Gothic-ish basement sets the tone before you've ordered anything, and a 3am licence keeps the night going long after the tourists have called it. There's a cover charge some nights, which is the clearest possible sign of what the room becomes after midnight.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3 stars · Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 61. The Hippodrome
Cocktail Bar
Dealers in sharp uniforms working the blackjack tables are visible from the bar, which sets the tone for an evening here. The Hippodrome is a casino complex near Leicester Square with a handful of bars scattered across its floors, two of which serve proper cocktails. No membership required, just the doormen's approval, which keeps things feeling a little cinematic. The gaming floor isn't the point if cards bore you, but it does make for a good backdrop.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 61. The Lucky Pig
Cocktail Bar
A top-hatted doorman on Clipstone Street marks the stairs down to this Fitzrovia basement bar, where the name blends Lucky Luciano with Prohibition-era "blind pig" speakeasies. The distressed interior mixes shabby chic with Chinoiserie, curtained banquettes tucked into a mini-cellar below. Menus arrive dressed as a 1957 jazz magazine, which sets a mood the drinks list is better at sustaining than the inside pages are.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 61. The Star at Night
Cocktail Bar
Old enamel advertising signs cover the walls, and the whole room reads like a neighborhood pub that's been in the same family forever. It isn't one, though: The Star at Night is a cocktail bar, now gin-focused, with its own gin club for the committed. Tucked into the backstreets of Soho, it has the ease of a well-worn local and the drinks list of somewhere that takes the glass in your hand seriously.
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 61. Zenna Bar
Indian
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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Rank 82. Apartment 58
Cocktail Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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Rank 82. Carom
Indian
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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Rank 82. Gaucho, Charlotte Street
Argentine Steakhouse
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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Rank 82. Laki Kane Cocktail Bar and Restaurant
Pan-Asian Cocktail Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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Rank 82. The Marylebone
Cocktail Bar
The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide
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The awards
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide: Difford's Guide