I spend enough evenings in London to have become rather fussy about where I drink.
Give me a beautifully made cocktail in the right surroundings, and I’m a very happy girl. Give me an overpriced vodka concoction in a pretty glass that tastes like fruit squash, however, and I will very much judge your choice of venue… even if I’m polite enough not to tell you. Luckily, London has some genuinely excellent bars. As a high class ebony escort in London, I’ve been fortunate enough to visit everything from tiny underground cocktail bars in Soho to hotel lounges fifty floors above the city, and I’ve certainly developed my favourites along the way.
So, gentlemen, consider this your cheat sheet. If you’re arranging drinks with me before dinner, looking for somewhere to begin a romantic evening, or simply want to know which London bars I personally find worth visiting, these are the places I would happily return to.
Contents:
- GŎNG at Shangri-La The Shard
- The Connaught Bar, Mayfair
- Lyaness, South Bank
- SOMA, Soho
- Viajante87, Notting Hill
- The May Fair Bar
- Where My Favourite London Bars Are
- Which Will You Choose?
GŎNG at Shangri-La The Shard
- Address: Level 52, The Shard, 31 St Thomas Street, London SE1 9QU
- Google rating: 4.1★
I couldn’t really write a list of impressive London bars without starting somewhere 52 floors above the ground, could I?
GŎNG sits inside Shangri-La The Shard and is officially the highest hotel bar in Western Europe. Unlike plenty of so-called rooftop bars where the view is basically the top of an office block, here you genuinely do get London laid out beneath you. The bar has views towards the west, north and east, so on a clear evening you can pick out enormous sections of the city while sitting comfortably inside.
There are actually three distinct areas rather than one large room: the main Cocktail Bar, a Champagne Bar and the Sky Pool area. The latter is normally reserved for hotel guests during the day, although GŎNG opens the Sky Pool for evening drinking from Wednesday to Saturday. The drinks follow a similarly Asian-leaning direction, alongside bar food such as sushi, maki, Wagyu gyoza and other small plates. GŎNG changes its signature cocktail menu seasonally, and previous menus have used ingredients including Japanese whisky, shochu, chrysanthemum, matcha, makrut lime, galangal and sugar cane! As a confessed cocktail lover, this place is just perfect.
One practical bit of advice from me: come here for the view as well as the drinks. If we’re arriving while there’s still some daylight left, we get London in daylight, sunset and darkness without changing seats. And should you happen to book a room downstairs at Shangri-La afterwards, I certainly won’t complain. It already features in my guide to my favourite luxury hotels in London, largely thanks to those ridiculous floor-to-ceiling views.
View GŎNG at Shangri-La The Shard
The Connaught Bar, Mayfair
- Address: The Connaught, Carlos Place, Mayfair, London W1K 2AL
- Google rating: 4.6★
The Connaught Bar is probably the closest thing on this list to genuine London cocktail royalty. It opened in 2008 and has since become one of the most famous hotel bars in the world. The obvious order (for me, at least) is the Connaught Martini. Rather than disappearing behind the bar to make it, the team wheels a black-lacquer Martini Trolley directly to your table. You choose your spirit and one of the bar’s handmade aromatic bitters, and the martini is then stirred, poured from height into an etched crystal glass and finished with Amalfi lemon. Now that is the kind of drink service I enjoy.
Oh, and just as impressive as the drinks are the surroundings. After some research, I learned that David Collins Studio designed the room around English and Irish Cubist art from the 1920s, which explains the platinum silver-leaf textured walls, dark green seating, marble-topped tables and a mirrored bar rather than the usual dark wood and leather you see in many Mayfair hotels. There’s also a hidden Champagne Room within The Connaught that can be hired privately for up to 20 guests. And if we’re hungry, the normal bar serves evening canapés and lighter dishes.
The one thing worth knowing beforehand is that The Connaught Bar does not take normal reservations. It’s walk-in only, and because of its reputation, there can be a queue at popular times. In other words, gentlemen, don’t promise me a Connaught Martini at 9pm on a Friday and assume we’ll stroll straight inside. Mayfair gives us plenty of alternatives nearby if necessary, of course. You could even turn drinks into dinner by choosing somewhere from my guide to my favourite luxury restaurants in London.
Lyaness, South Bank
- Address: Sea Containers London, 20 Upper Ground, London SE1 9PD
- Google rating: 4.6★
If you’re somebody who genuinely enjoys discovering interesting cocktails, Lyaness deserves your attention. It’s inside Sea Containers London on the South Bank, in the old Dandelyan space, with large windows facing the Thames and St Paul’s across the river. Designer Jacu Strauss kept the original green marble bar but surrounded it with electric blue interiors, so you would struggle to mistake this for another beige luxury-hotel lounge.
I need to talk to you about the menu there, though… it is simply divine! Lyaness is run by the team associated with Ryan Chetiyawardana, better known as Mr Lyan, and rather than organising the drinks around familiar categories, the bar tends to build cocktails around ingredients and ideas. Its current Collaboration 2.0 menu is a good example. The Pink Belly Gimlet, for instance, combines Hendrick’s gin with carrot salami, aquavit honey and lemon. Yes, carrot salami. Somehow that sentence makes the drink sound far stranger than it actually tastes.
Then there’s the Cherry Cannon Punch, made with Hibiki Harmony whisky, straw-currant, pine, sakura tea and bubbles, while the Lobster Frappé uses Courvoisier VSOP cognac, Ceylon Arrack, coconut, cucumber and absinthe. If you’re bored of choosing between yet another Espresso Martini and Pornstar Martini, this is where things become much more interesting.
There’s also a Lyaness Happy Hour earlier in the evening, Sunday Lyan sessions with guest bartenders, one-off menus and DJs, and the rest of Sea Containers gives us plenty of options if we decide to stay in the building. The hotel has its own restaurant downstairs and rooftop bar 12th Knot above, so it’s quite easy to turn one drink into an entire evening without going very far.
SOMA, Soho
- Address: 14 Denman Street, Soho, London W1D 7HJ
- Google rating: 4.7★
SOMA is probably the least obvious “VIP bar” on this list from the outside… mainly because there isn’t much of an outside to look at. You enter through an unmarked door on Denman Street and head downstairs into an underground bar built around a long stainless-steel counter. There are curtained walls, a snug at one end and a lounge at the other, but the main seats I’d choose are at the counter, where you can watch the bartenders actually make the drinks.
SOMA comes from the team behind Kricket, so the cocktail menu takes a lot of inspiration from the Indian subcontinent. Even familiar classics are rebuilt with ingredients you wouldn’t normally find in them. The Leaf, their take on a Gimlet, uses Opihr gin, makrut lime leaf, curry leaf and pink peppercorn. The Chaat reworks a Margarita using tequila, mezcal, chaat masala, gooseberry and kumquat. If you prefer an Espresso Martini, their Chicory version combines cognac, banana, palm jaggery, almond and chicory foam.
See what I mean? These are actual reasons to visit a proper high-class cocktail bar rather than ordering the same drink you could have in any London hotel. SOMA is also useful if we’ve been out in Soho because it stays open properly late: until 3 am on Fridays and Saturdays. Only a limited number of tables are reservable, and the venue switches to a queue system as the evening fills, so this is another place where I would plan ahead rather than turning up late at 11.30 pm.
Viajante87, Notting Hill
- Address: Basement, 87 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3JZ
- Google rating: 4.7★
Viajante87 gives me something completely different from the other high-end hotel bars on this list. It’s an intimate basement bar beneath Notting Hill Gate with a strong Latin-American identity. Its team uses travel as the starting point for the drinks, so the menu explores ingredients, spirits and drinking traditions from different parts of Latin America. The current menu includes a Paloma Cafe made with Patrón Silver tequila, lime, bitter grapefruit cordial, cold brew and grapefruit soda. That combination sounds odd on paper, but coffee and agave work surprisingly well together when the sweetness is kept under control.
If you like something with a kick, the Aji Mama mixes Código Rosa tequila with lime, aji amarillo and peach, while the Blood Moon brings together tequila, Aperol, pomegranate, lemon and Oaxacan pasilla chilli. There are lighter options, too. The Guava Fresca combines Tio Pepe sherry, guava cordial, gin and amburana seed, while Pura Pache mixes vodka, kiwi, jalapeño and sparkling tepache. Even the non-alcoholic menu has been given some thought, including the spicy Coco Limon with coconut, lime and ginger.
Music is a fairly important part of Viajante87 as well. Friday and Saturday resident DJs play Latin-influenced music, disco, house and funk until around 2 am, while Thursday Vinyls by V87 evenings use actual vinyl and move through Latin, Afro-international, jazz, funk and soul. There’s even a special agave-led menu where you can build your own Margarita from different tequilas and mezcal. Oh yes… as a thrill seeker, you can see why this place excites me.
The May Fair Bar
- Address: The May Fair Hotel, Stratton Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8LT
- Google rating: 4.4★
The May Fair Bar is one I find particularly useful because of where it is. You’re on Stratton Street, a minute or two from Green Park and very close to Berkeley Square, Bond Street and some of Mayfair’s best restaurants. If we’ve planned an evening around this part of London, stopping here for drinks doesn’t involve disappearing twenty minutes across town and ruining the flow of the night.
The bar itself has recently had a redesign and now bases its drinks around something called The Travel Edition. Instead of creating one permanent menu, each collection explores different countries, ingredients and traditions. The current summer menu, which I checked out not too long ago, moves between places including Iceland, the Dominican Republic and the English countryside. The ingredients and house-made components are chosen to represent each destination rather than simply giving an ordinary cocktail an exotic name.
There’s also one drink worth mentioning that has become something of a house signature: the Olive Martini. If, like me, you appreciate a good martini, it’s the obvious classic to compare with all the more experimental Travel Edition cocktails. Another nice touch is the tableside Champagne trolley. A Champagne of the week is brought around the room, and the mixologist can also make a surprise Champagne spritz directly from the trolley. Yes, yes… I’m sure you’ve noticed just how much of a sucker I am for a tableside trolley!
Feeling peckish? The night menu includes proper bar dishes and small plates, while the neighbouring May Fair Kitchen serves Japanese and Italian food if drinks turn into dinner. The hotel even has a separate Velvet Room with its own marble bar and dedicated entrance, available for private events of up to 60 people. Oh, and DJs take over later in the week, so I would personally choose Thursday, Friday or Saturday if we wanted a livelier Mayfair evening rather than simply an early cocktail.
Where My Favourite London Bars Are
These bars are spread across several parts of London, so location is definitely worth considering when you’re planning our evening. The Connaught Bar and The May Fair Bar are ideal if you wish to spend the evening with me as a Mayfair escort, SOMA works perfectly for Soho and the West End, Viajante87 takes us further west into Notting Hill, while Lyaness and GŎNG give us two very different options around the South Bank and London Bridge.
Which Will You Choose?
London is full of places charging luxury prices. The bars I remember are the ones that give me something worth remembering for them… whether that’s a martini being mixed beside my table, an Indian-inspired cocktail I’ve never tasted before, a ridiculous view from the 52nd floor, or a menu clever enough to make me order something I normally wouldn’t.
And if you’ve made it this far because you’re planning an escort date with me, well… you’ve certainly removed one excuse for choosing somewhere boring.
Pick your favourite, reserve a table where possible and let me know what you’ve arranged. You can book an appointment with me here and tell me exactly what you have in mind.
Zara x