The 17 Best Cocktail Bars in London (2026)

The grand hotel bars. These are the rooms people fly in for: white-jacketed staff, martini trolleys and £25 drinks. You pay for the room as much as the glass, and several won't take a booking. Artesian at The Langham is the one I'd book first. It's named after the 360-foot artesian well under the hotel, and the bar calls itself a four-time World's Best Bar winner. The current menu, Ultimo, builds each of its 16 cocktails around one overlooked ingredient: the Cep is a Negroni twist with cep mushrooms and Stilton, the Kale a savoury Martini.

Drink: Cep £20, Kale £23; most cocktails £20 to £24, plus 12.5% service. Book: yes, on SevenRooms; tables are 90 minutes. Dress: no published code. Age: over-18s after 6pm. Hours: from 4pm daily, to midnight Sunday to Wednesday and 1am Thursday to Saturday. Tube: Oxford Circus, 5 minutes. The catch: the 90-minute slot is firm, and a late cancellation costs £25 a head.

Claridge's Bar is the Mayfair hotel's cocktail and Champagne bar, and its martini is the reason to come. It's served straight from a freezer at minus 19°C with a spray of Noilly Prat, 125ml, and the price depends on the gin or vodka: £25 for No3 gin, £30 for Claridge's own gin. The cocktail book is solid rather than daring, from the Claridge's Garibaldi (Campari, orange, passionfruit) to The Mayfair with Rémy Martin XO.

Drink: Claridge's Martini £25 to £30; cocktails £25 to £27, plus 15% service. Book: tables online; the terrace is walk-in. Dress: no published code. Age: children only if staying at the hotel, and only until 6pm. Hours: from noon daily, to 1am Monday to Saturday and midnight on Sunday. Tube: Bond Street, 6 minutes. The catch: with service, a single martini comes to over £28.

The Donovan Bar at Brown's Hotel is named after the fashion photographer Terence Donovan, whose work the bar celebrates. The menu is by Salvatore Calabrese, one of the great names of London hotel bartending, and Federico Pavan, and it reworks the classics: the Bellini Colada, the Eau de Martinez. It's walk-in only, and one recent Google reviewer summed it up as 'elegant but not pretentious'.

Drink: Bellini Colada £26, Eau de Martinez £27; cocktails £25 to £27, non-alcoholic £16. Book: no, walk-ins only. Dress: no formal code, but no sportswear or shorts. Age: no published rule. Hours: from 4pm daily, to midnight Monday to Wednesday, 1am Thursday to Saturday, 11pm on Sunday. Tube: Green Park, 4 minutes. The catch: with no bookings, a Friday night table isn't guaranteed.

Dukes Bar is the martini bar. It has been in a quiet corner of St James's since 1908, and the martinis are mixed at your table, in frozen glasses with even colder spirits and no ice, and poured to the brim. The hotel itself is closed for refurbishment, but the bar stays open from 3pm.

Drink: a martini, gin or vodka, made at your table; the bar doesn't list prices online. Book: no, walk-ins only, and there can be a wait at busy times. Dress: smart casual, no sportswear, shorts or T-shirts (polo shirts are fine). Age: over-18s only. Hours: Monday to Saturday, 3pm to 10.30pm, last orders 10pm; closed Sunday. Tube: Green Park, 5 minutes. The catch: it closes early, and its Google rating is 4.1 from 257 reviews, including a recent complaint about service. Come for one martini, not a night. The entrance isn't wheelchair accessible during the works.

Punch Room is the bar inside The London EDITION hotel, just off Oxford Street, and it serves what the name promises: punch, by the glass. The Milk Punch is arrack, rum and whole milk spiced with cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg; the Bella Vista Punch is Grey Goose, Veuve Clicquot and a rosé reduction. The current Echoes menu works on call and response: a classic, then a modern answer to it.

Drink: Milk Punch £21, Bella Vista Punch £22; everything £21 to £25, non-alcoholic £15, plus 13.5% service. Book: yes, on OpenTable. Dress: no published code. Age: no published rule. Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 5pm to 12.30am; closed Sunday and Monday. Tube: Tottenham Court Road, 6 minutes. The catch: it's shut two nights a week, and at £21 to £25 plus service it's priced like the hotel it's in.

Lyaness is Mr Lyan's bar (Ryan Chetiyawardana) in the Sea Containers hotel on the South Bank, the river-level sibling of the 12th Knot rooftop upstairs. The menu starts from ingredients the team makes in-house rather than from classic recipes, and the bar says it was The Pinnacle Guide's first-ever three-pin bar. Most of the menu comes in a boozeless version at £11, which is rare at this level.

Drink: Pink Belly Gimlet £17, Cherry Cannon Punch £19; Special Editions £24 to £31, plus 13.5% service. Book: recommended, on SevenRooms; walk-ins when there's room. Dress: no published code. Age: over-18s from 5pm. Hours: 5pm to midnight Monday to Thursday, 4pm to 1am Friday, 1pm to 1am Saturday, 1pm to midnight Sunday. Tube: Blackfriars (south entrance on Bankside), about 4 minutes. The catch: the ingredient-led names don't tell you much, so ask the staff to steer you.

Soho, the West End and Notting Hill. Cheaper than the hotels, mostly underground, and busier. Three Sheets Soho is the Soho sibling of the Dalston original, and it's No. 80 on the 2025 World's 50 Best Bars extended list. The style is pared back: a short list of precise, seasonal cocktails, with British oysters and Champagne on the side. The Dirty Martini is made with Belvedere, olive oil and sea salt.

Drink: Dirty Martini £17.50, French 75 Rosé £17; cocktails £15.50 to £17.50, plus 12.5% service. Book: yes, on OpenTable. Dress: no published code. Age: no published rule. Hours: from 4pm daily (3pm on Saturday), to 11.30pm Monday to Thursday, midnight Friday and Saturday, 10.30pm on Sunday. Tube: Tottenham Court Road, 4 minutes. The catch: one recent Google reviewer was told mid-drink that their table had 20 minutes left, so ask about time limits when you book.

SOMA Soho is an underground bar a minute from Piccadilly Circus, with cocktails built on Indian ingredients: the Chaat is a Margarita with chaat masala and gooseberry, the Leaf a Gimlet with curry leaf and makrut lime. The music runs from jazz early on to Golden Age hip-hop later, and it stays open until 3am at weekends. At £13 to £16, it's one of the cheapest serious cocktail bars in the West End.

Drink: Chaat £15, Melon (a Martini twist) £16; cocktails £13 to £16, 0% cocktails £11. Book: a limited number of tables; later on it's a first-come queue. Dress: no published code. Age: no published rule. Hours: from 6pm (5pm Sunday), to 1am Monday and Tuesday, 2am Wednesday and Thursday, 3am Friday and Saturday, 10.30pm Sunday. Tube: Piccadilly Circus, 2 minutes. The catch: later in the evening it's a first-come queue, and one recent Google reviewer waited more than 30 minutes, so arrive early.

Bar Américain is the Art Deco bar below Brasserie Zédel, under Piccadilly, with Paul Colin's 1927 Josephine Baker lithographs on the walls. The menu is a history lesson in classics, each dated by the year it was invented: the 1901 Bronx, the 1915 Pisco Sour, the 1930 Corpse Reviver No. 1 from Harry Craddock's Savoy recipe book. For a proper cocktail in a room this handsome, the prices are fair.

Drink: Bronx £14.75, Pisco Sour £15.50; cocktails £14.75 to £16, with Grand Classics at £28 to £36. Book: a few tables; the bar always keeps room for walk-ins. Dress: no published code. Age: no published rule. Hours: from 5pm Monday to Thursday, 4pm Friday and Sunday, 3pm Saturday; to midnight (12.30am Saturday, 11pm Sunday). Tube: Piccadilly Circus, 2 minutes. The catch: only a few tables can be booked, so on a weekend you may wait for a walk-in seat.

Oriole, in St Martin's Courtyard near Covent Garden, is Nightjar's sister bar. It now has two spaces: the Bamboo Bar on the ground floor for walk-in drinks, and a basement with live jazz, blues and world music Tuesday to Saturday. The downstairs cocktail list is an 'album' of drinks from around the world; the Syracuse mixes gin, rum, prickly pear, pennyroyal tea and Moët.

Drink: Syracuse £16, Route Napoleon £14; downstairs £14 to £20, Bamboo Bar £13 to £14, plus 13.5% service and a music cover of £4 on Tuesday up to £12 on Friday and Saturday. Book: recommended for the music downstairs; the Bamboo Bar is walk-in. Dress: no published code. Age: no published rule. Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, from 3pm upstairs (noon Thursday to Saturday) and 6pm or 7pm downstairs; closed Sunday and Monday. Tube: Covent Garden, 2 minutes. The catch: the basement is now billed as a restaurant, and the music cover plus service add up.

Viajante87 is a basement under Notting Hill Gate, and the only bar here west of Mayfair. Its name means 'traveller', and the menu follows the team's trips from Mexico to Argentina: a Mole Negroni, an avocado and green Chartreuse Aguacatal, a Cherry Paloma. DJs play Friday and Saturday from 10pm, and it's open until 2.30am.

Drink: Cherry Paloma £17, Mole Negroni £20; cocktails £16 to £25, alcohol-free £11 to £13, plus 13.5% service. Book: recommended, on OpenTable; tables are 2 hours, and walk-ins are fitted in where possible. Dress: smart casual, no flip-flops. Age: no published rule. Hours: Wednesday and Thursday 6pm to midnight, Friday and Saturday 6pm to 2.30am; closed Sunday to Tuesday. Tube: Notting Hill Gate, 1 minute. The catch: it's card only, a no-show costs £25 a head, and the stairs make it unsuitable for wheelchair users.

The East End neighbourhood bars. Shoreditch, Hoxton and Hackney are where London's bartenders open their own places. Cocktails cost £13 to £18, the dress code is whatever you're wearing, and most bars keep space for walk-ins. A Bar with Shapes for a Name on Kingsland Road is No. 73 on the 2025 World's 50 Best Bars extended list. It's inspired by the Bauhaus art school, and the menu treats flavour as a design problem: the core mixes pisco, ruby cacao and Kalamata olive.

Drink: core £14.50, bogler (bourbon, shiso, sesame) £14.50; cocktails £13.50 to £15, low and no-alcohol £7 to £8, plus 12.5% service. Book: online, in 90-minute slots. Dress: no published code. Age: no published rule. Hours: opens at 5pm daily. Station: Haggerston (Overground), about 5 minutes. The catch: the menu online is a sample, so what's on the night may differ.

Seed Library is Mr Lyan's other London bar, at the One Hundred Shoreditch hotel, and its door, beside the hotel entrance, is easy to miss. It's more stripped back than Lyaness: a handful of house drinks, a Lyan classics list, and DJs playing vinyl on Friday and Saturday. The Plum Wood Martini is the drink to start with.

Drink: Plum Wood Martini £17, KJ Daisy £15; cocktails £15 to £18, boozeless £8 to £9, plus 13.5% service. Book: online for up to 15; walk-ins when there's room. Dress: no published code. Age: over-18s only. Hours: from 6pm Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday (to 1am), 5pm Friday and Saturday (to 2am); closed Monday and Tuesday. Station: Shoreditch High Street (Overground), 2 minutes. The catch: the menu is inventive, and one recent Google reviewer found the drinks better on paper than in the glass, so ask the bartenders to steer you.

Happiness Forgets is a basement on Hoxton Square that opened in 2011 and bills itself as the original East London neighbourhood cocktail bar. Its motto is 'Great Cocktails, No Wallies'. The list is small and changes a little each month, with a deep library of past drinks and classics the bartenders will make on request. For a date, this is the East End bar I'd pick.

Drink: the monthly list; prices aren't listed online. Book: online through Dish Cult, or phone if slots show as full. Dress: casual. Age: no published rule. Hours: 5pm to 11pm daily. Tube: Old Street, about 7 minutes. The catch: the room is small, so it fills up early on Fridays and Saturdays.

Callooh Callay on Rivington Street says it has appeared in the World's 50 Best Bars, and it's one of the most playful bars in Shoreditch. The current menu is 'Calloohpoly', a Monopoly board of drinks named after local streets, and there's a second, hidden room, the JubJub bar. It stays open until 3am Thursday to Sunday.

Drink: Rivington Street £14; cocktails £14 to £15. Book: online from the bar's site. Dress: no published code. Age: no published rule. Hours: from 6pm daily, to 1am Monday to Wednesday and 3am Thursday to Sunday. Station: Shoreditch High Street (Overground), about 6 minutes, or Old Street (Northern line), about 8. The catch: one recent Google reviewer found the concept more fun than the drinks.

The Cocktail Trading Co. on Bethnal Green Road is where I'd go for a relaxed evening that won't cost much: every cocktail is £14, whether it's on the menu, a classic or a double from the back bar. The menu picks a daft theme each time (the 2026 one is a year of silly holidays), but the drinks are serious. It was founded by three bartenders and is run as a cooperative.

Drink: every cocktail £14, from the Blue Monday (tequila, mango tepache, Champagne) to the Carbonite Martini. Book: online or by email; groups of 6 or more leave card details. Dress: no published code. Age: no published rule. Hours: from 5pm on weekdays and 2pm at weekends. Station: Shoreditch High Street (Overground), 3 minutes. The catch: the menu is silly by design, so if you want a quiet, serious bar, go to Happiness Forgets instead.

Equal Parts on Hackney Road is the easy-going one: a neighbourhood bar with a soft spot for agave, a monthly agave list and slushies on the menu. The 'Equal Parts' section is cocktails made in equal measures, and the Pink Pine Negroni (gin, pine, Campari, akvavit, vermouth) is the one I'd order first. Groups of 6 or more sit downstairs.

Drink: Pink Pine Negroni £14, Q-B Spritz £13; cocktails £13 to £14, zero proof £10 to £11. Book: online for up to 12; the bar keeps space for walk-ins. Dress: no published code. Age: no under-18s on weekdays, and only before 4pm at weekends. Hours: from 4pm on weekdays and noon at weekends, to midnight (1am Friday and Saturday). Station: Hoxton (Overground), about 10 minutes. The catch: it's a walk from the station, so pair it with dinner nearby rather than making a special trip.