The Best Bars in London Right Now

London is renowned for its deep history of communal drinking. Some pubs in the city date back centuries, and while a solid pint is an inextricable part of British drinking culture, London is now home to one of the most vibrant, innovative cocktail scenes on the planet.

Whereas some cities’ best cocktails are found inside unmarked bars (easy to miss if it weren’t for the long lines outside), a lot of London’s most exciting cocktails are made in hotel bars—longstanding institutions. The Connaught Bar, The American Bar at The Savoy, and The NoMad’s Side Hustle have well-earned reputations for impressively mixed drinks in luxe environs.

Independent bars, which are sprinkled across London, are building cocktail programs around house-made distillates, tonics, and mercurial, often-changing menus. You won’t find flashy cocktails lit on fire here. Instead, cocktails in London’s best bars are restrained, precise, and undoubtedly delicious. Here are seven spots in London to find an incredible cocktail (or three).

Photo by Roman Shields Shabodalov

Lyaness

Ryan Chetiyawardana, a certified cocktail genius and a fixture in the London cocktail scene, has created what is very possibly the perfect hotel bar. On the ground floor of the South Bank’s Sea Containers, overlooking the Thames sits Lyaness. Its glossy, baby blue walls, blue velvet couches, anchored by an uplit, golden bar almost look like a sun rising into a clear blue sky. The bar serves unconventional cocktails each with their own extensive backstory. If you’re curious (I’m looking at you, fellow cocktail geeks), your bartender will happily explain your cocktails origin story—fermentation, distillates, house-made liqueurs and all. But if all you’re looking for is a well-mixed drink, order away—it’s hard to go wrong here.

You should try: The Unfiltered Martini. The idea here is to think about the microbiomes in our bodies, and how they influence the flavors and foods we crave. To that end potatoes are steamed, and quickly fermented with a “full spectrum microbiome” which mirrors that of our guts. It gets blended, strained, and combined with Boatyard vodka for a martini that’s silky, floral, and slightly lactic.