London is the best cocktail city in the world right now. That is not a boast, it is roughly the consensus of every industry list for the past decade, and the city routinely places more bars in the global top fifty than anywhere else.
What that means in practice is that the standard at the top is extraordinary and the standard in the middle is very good. It also means a lot of places charge twenty pounds for something competent and unremarkable. This list is about the drink in the glass rather than the room around it. If the room is what you are after, our best bars guide is organised that way instead.
Live music bars in London covers Nightjar and Oriole on the music rather than the drinks, including Oriole’s full published cover charge table, which runs from £4 on a Tuesday to £18 for a Saturday late set.
Checked in September 2026, rechecked 28 September
Tayer + Elementary is still closed. Its own site still carries the notice that it is temporarily closed after a fire in the building, and it is now running pop-ups around the world while it is shut, with updates going out through Instagram rather than the website. Do not travel to Old Street for it.
The Connaught Bar is a six night bar. The hotel publishes Monday to Saturday, 4pm to 1am, and no Sunday service at all, which this page previously recorded as hours not published. Its no reservations policy is confirmed in the hotel’s own words.
The serious ones
Connaught Bar, Mayfair
Repeatedly ranked the best bar in the world and still the benchmark for a martini. The trolley comes to the table, you choose the gin and the bitters, and the drink is built in front of you. It is a performance, it is expensive, and it is genuinely worth doing once. Do not book: the hotel’s own page states a no reservation policy, which is the opposite of what almost every other guide tells you.
Connaught Bar
- Address
- The Connaught, Carlos Place, Mayfair, W1K 2AL
- Nearest
- Bond Street or Green Park
- Hours
- Monday to Saturday 4pm to 1am, and the hotel publishes no Sunday service, so it is a six night bar
- Booking
- No reservations taken
- Standing
- Repeatedly ranked the best bar in the world
How to get in
The bar operates a no reservation policy, so there is no table to secure and no list to be on. You arrive, you give your name, and you wait, which is a short wait before six and a long one after nine at the end of the week. The martini trolley comes to you and the drink is built at the table.
Tayēr + Elementary, Old Street
Two bars in one space and the most technically interesting drinking in the city. Elementary at the front is standing, quick, and turns out a complicated drink in ninety seconds. Tayēr at the back is seated, slower and more expensive, and is where the actual experimentation happens. Go to the back if the drinks are the evening. Check before you travel: their own site currently says the bar is temporarily closed after a fire in the building, with updates going out through their Instagram rather than the website.
Tayer + Elementary Temporarily closed
- Address
- 152 Old Street, EC1V 9BW
- Nearest
- Old Street
- Hours
- Temporarily closed at the time of writing
- Booking
- No bookings, walk in only
- Standing
- Two bars in one room, standing at the front and seated at the back
How to get in
Still closed: their own site says a fire in the building is the reason and points you to Instagram for updates and for the pop ups they are running around the world in the meantime. When it is open the policy is stated in three words, walk in only, and there are no bookings at all, which is worth knowing because several guides tell you to reserve a table that cannot be reserved.
Lyaness, South Bank
Ryan Chetiyawardana’s bar at Sea Containers, built around house-made ingredients you will not find anywhere else, with a menu that changes wholesale rather than by the drink. Divisive, ambitious, and never boring.
Lyaness
- Address
- Sea Containers London, 20 Upper Ground, SE1 9PD
- Nearest
- Southwark or Blackfriars
- Hours
- Monday to Thursday 5pm to midnight, Friday 4pm to 1am, Saturday 1pm to 1am, Sunday from 1pm
- Booking
- Bookings recommended, walk ins welcome subject to availability
- Standing
- In the Sea Containers hotel, facing the river
How to get in
Their own wording is that walk ins are always welcome, subject to availability, which on a weeknight means yes and on a Friday means no. The menu is rebuilt wholesale rather than drink by drink, so whatever you had last time will not be there.
Artesian, Marylebone
The bar at the Langham, four times ranked best in the world, and still doing elaborate serves in a room that looks like a Chinoiserie fever dream. More theatrical than Tayēr, less austere than the Connaught.
Artesian
- Address
- The Langham, 1C Portland Place, Marylebone, W1B 1JA
- Nearest
- Oxford Circus
- Hours
- Sunday to Wednesday 4pm to midnight, Thursday to Saturday 4pm to 1am
- Booking
- Reservations through SevenRooms. Over 18s only after 6pm, with under 18s admitted before that only as hotel guests or accompanied over 15s
- Standing
- Four times ranked the best bar in the world
How to get in
A hotel bar, which means the room is open to anyone and you do not need to be staying. It opens at four every day, and the hour between four and six is the only time you will see the room properly empty.
The neighbourhood ones, which are often better value
Satan’s Whiskers, Bethnal Green
A menu that changes every day, taxidermy on the walls, hip hop loud enough that conversation takes effort, and classics made about as well as anywhere in London for roughly half the Mayfair price. It takes reservations, but only by telephone, and it takes walk-ins too.
Satan’s Whiskers
- Address
- 343 Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, E2 9RA
- Nearest
- Bethnal Green or Cambridge Heath
- Hours
- Sunday to Thursday from 5pm till late, a little later on Friday and Saturday
- Booking
- 020 7739 8362, by telephone only
- Standing
- The menu is rewritten every day
How to get in
Their own line is that reservations are recommended but not essential and that walk ins are accepted, which at this standard is rare. Tables are taken by telephone only: there is no online booking form, and the email address on the site is for everything except a table.
Three Sheets, Dalston and Soho
Small, white-walled, run by the Venning brothers, and concerned almost entirely with making a short list of drinks exceptionally well. No theatre, no gimmicks, just a very short menu executed properly. The original opened in east London in 2016 and made the World’s 50 Best list; there is now a second site on Manette Street in Soho, which is the easier one to reach.
Happiness Forgets, Hoxton
A low-ceilinged basement on Hoxton Square that has been doing unfussy, excellent drinks for years without making any fuss about it. High-end cocktails in a deliberately low-rent room. It holds about fifty people and is largely standing, so go early or go on a weeknight.
Happiness Forgets
- Address
- In the basement, 8-9 Hoxton Square, N1 6NU
- Nearest
- Old Street or Hoxton
- Hours
- From 5pm every day
- Booking
- Reservations through their website
- Standing
- A basement under Hoxton Square
How to get in
Open from five every day, which is the single most useful thing about it: the first two hours are the only ones where a room this small is comfortable. After eight you want a booking, and there is a reservation link on their site rather than a telephone number.
Little Mercies, Crouch End
Proof that you do not need to be in Zone 1. A neighbourhood bar doing genuinely inventive drinks at prices that would be a third higher in Soho.
The ones with a hook that actually works
Nightjar, Old Street
Down an unmarked staircase, live music seven nights a week, and a menu organised by historical era that runs to a small book. It was doing the speakeasy thing before everyone else and it is still the one that does it properly. Book.
Nightjar
- Address
- 129 City Road, EC1V 1JB
- Nearest
- Old Street
- Booking
- Walk ins taken, booking recommended. Groups up to 20 Sunday to Thursday, with a pre-order and a minimum spend
- Price
- A cover charge applies on live music nights and goes straight to the musicians
- Standing
- Live jazz, blues, swing and funk every night from 9pm
How to get in
They take walk ins and recommend booking ahead, particularly for the music, which is on every night. The cover charge is added to your bill and passed to the band, so it is not a door fee you can dodge by arriving late. Groups of up to 20 are Sunday to Thursday only, with a pre-order and a minimum spend.
Oriole, Covent Garden
Nightjar’s sister bar, from the same people as Swift. It spent years hidden in Smithfield Market before the redevelopment closed that site, and reopened in Covent Garden as a bar and restaurant. Menu arranged by continent, live music most nights, and a good deal easier to find than the original ever was.
Oriole
- Address
- 7-9 Slingsby Place, WC2E 9AB
- Nearest
- Covent Garden, a two minute walk by their own reckoning
- Hours
- Ground floor bar Tuesday and Wednesday 3pm to 11pm, Thursday to Saturday midday to midnight. Basement restaurant Tuesday 7pm to 11pm, Wednesday and Thursday 6pm to midnight, Friday and Saturday 6pm to 1am
- Booking
- Booking recommended, particularly for live music
- Price
- Live music cover charge of 4 pounds on Tuesday, 6 on Wednesday, 8 on Thursday and 12 on Friday and Saturday, with 6 more for the late set
- Standing
- Two rooms on different hours, a ground floor bar and a basement restaurant
How to get in
The cover charge is published plainly and almost never mentioned elsewhere: it is added to your bill and goes straight to the musicians. It climbs through the week, so the same evening costs eight pounds less on a Tuesday than on a Friday before you have ordered a drink. The sets are published too: eight o’clock and quarter past nine every night, with a late set at half ten on Friday and Saturday, which is the one carrying the extra six pounds. The two rooms keep different hours, the bar opens earlier than the restaurant, and their hours page is currently headed summer hours, so check it in winter.
Swift, Soho
Upstairs for a quick, excellent pre-dinner drink. Downstairs for a dark room and one of the better whisky lists in central London. Most people never get past the ground floor.
Swift Soho
- Nearest
- Tottenham Court Road or Leicester Square
- Booking
- Online. Enquiries by email to info@barswift.com, and they take no telephone calls about reservations at all. Walk in spots are kept at all three bars
- Standing
- A whisky list running past three hundred bottles downstairs, and now three bars: Soho, Shoreditch and Borough
How to get in
Two bars on two floors with two different policies, which is the whole trick of the place. Upstairs is mainly for walk ins and is built to be quick. Downstairs is reservations only, in two hour slots starting on the hour from 5pm, or from 3pm in November and December, and the largest party they will seat is six. Over 21s only, and they turn away replica football shirts and stag and hen parties.
Bar Termini, Soho
Thirty seats, an Italian counter, and a negroni that arrives pre-batched and perfectly chilled in under a minute. A bar for one exceptional drink on the way somewhere, not for settling in.
Bar Termini
- Address
- 7 Old Compton Street, Soho, W1D 5JE
- Nearest
- Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Road
- Booking
- One hour slots, maximum five people. A late table is held for ten minutes, and booking two tables to get a group of more than six in is explicitly not allowed
- Standing
- Thirty seats and a counter
How to get in
Tables are booked in one hour slots for a maximum of five people, from 4pm Monday to Thursday and from 3pm at weekends. That is the design rather than a restriction: the negroni is batched and chilled in advance, arrives in under a minute, and an hour is all this room is for.
The Little Violet Door
- Address
- London W1B 5PH
- Nearest
- Oxford Circus or Piccadilly Circus
- Hours
- Monday to Wednesday 4pm to 1am. Thursday to Saturday 12pm to 1am. Sunday 12pm to 11pm
- Booking
- Their bookings team works 12pm to 5pm Monday to Friday only
How to get in
A house party with a cocktail list, and one of five colour coded Little Door bars in London. Know which one you are booking, because they do not keep the same hours.
There are five of them and people book the wrong one constantly. The Little Blue Door, the Little Yellow Door, the Little Orange Door, the Little Scarlet Door and this one. Same idea, same house party framing, different addresses and different closing times.
The difference that matters is the hour. The Violet Door shuts at 1am on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Little Scarlet Door on Greek Street runs to 3am on a Friday and Saturday. If the plan is a late one, that is two hours of difference between two bars with almost the same name.
The booking rule is shared across the group and it is a genuine trap: their bookings team works 12pm to 5pm, Monday to Friday. The nights you most want to book are precisely when nobody is there to answer. Sort it midweek, in the afternoon.
How to order well
Ask the bartender. At every bar on this list, saying what spirits you like and what mood you are in will get you a better drink than reading the menu. This is the single biggest difference between people who enjoy these bars and people who find them overpriced.
Order the house drink first. If a bar has a signature, have it. It is on the menu because it is what they do best, and it tells you what the kitchen, so to speak, is about.
Do not order a Guinness at the Connaught. Not a rule so much as a waste. Match the drink to the room.
Practical notes
Book the small ones. Nightjar and Oriole both want it, particularly Thursday to Saturday, and Swift takes bookings for the downstairs room only. Tayēr takes no bookings at all, and neither does the Connaught. Happiness Forgets is standing and fills early. Three Sheets and Satan’s Whiskers are easier on a weeknight, and Satan’s Whiskers will take a table over the phone.
Prices. Budget the low to mid twenties in Mayfair and St James’s, and somewhere in the teens in Soho, Shoreditch and further out. Prices move, so treat that as a band rather than a quote.
Time it. Central London bars are at their worst between six and eight when the after-work crowd arrives. Before six or after ten is a different room entirely.
For the rooms rather than the drinks, see the best bars in London. For a view with it, London’s rooftop bars. If wine is more your evening than spirits, wine tasting in London covers everything from a £15 flight to a WSET qualification. And our main London guide covers the rest of the evening.
Several of the best rooms here are behind an unmarked door. London’s speakeasies and hidden bars sorts the serious ones from the theatre, and covers the cover charges and time limits that catch people out.
The best bars in Soho covers the half square mile where most of these sit within a few minutes of each other.
Questions we get asked
Do you need to book London's best cocktail bars?
It depends entirely on the bar, and several guides get this wrong. The Connaught Bar operates a no reservation policy stated on the hotel’s own page, so there is no table to secure and no list to join. Artesian at The Langham takes reservations through the hotel system. Lyaness recommends booking but welcomes walk ins subject to availability, and Satan’s Whiskers takes bookings by telephone only.
What time do the best cocktail bars in London open?
Most at four or five in the afternoon. Artesian opens at four every day, and the hour between four and six is the only time you will see that room properly empty. Lyaness runs 5pm to midnight Monday to Thursday, 4pm to 1am on Friday, and from 1pm on Saturday and Sunday. The Connaught Bar is 4pm to 1am Monday to Saturday, with Sunday hours not published.
Which London bar has been named the best in the world?
Two of them, on this list alone. The Connaught Bar in Mayfair has been repeatedly ranked the best bar in the world, and Artesian at The Langham has taken the title four times. Both are hotel bars, which means the room is open to anyone and you do not need to be staying to drink there.
Can you walk into a top London cocktail bar?
At some, it is the only option. The Connaught takes no reservations at all, so arriving early is the entire strategy. Lyaness states that walk ins are always welcome subject to availability, which on a weeknight means yes and on a Friday means no. Satan’s Whiskers accepts walk ins as well as telephone bookings, which is unusual at that standard.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 04 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
