From candle-lit scenes to underground speakeasies, these are the best bars in Soho
The nightlife hub of central London, Soho is chock-a-block with some of the best drink dens and cocktail bars in the city. Whether you’re looking for a slick spot for an expertly made drink, a romantic candlelit wine bar or an escapist hideout, we’ve rounded up the best bars in the Soho for your evening rendezvous.
Bar Lina
You wouldn’t know it from street level, but London-favourite Italian restaurant brand Lina Stores has opened its first bar, turning the former fresh pasta kitchen beneath its much-loved Soho delicatessen into a cosy subterranean joint. Swapping the signature minty interiors for something more grown up, sneak downstairs and it’s all moody deep reds, dark marble and candlelight – far more appropriate for a secret underground spot. The cocktail offerings are fabulous; a Syracuse martini with Sicilian tomato arrived completely clear, and tasted bafflingly like an actual fresh tomato, and there’s a dedicated Negroni list, too. To whet appetites before supper, a snack menu features the likes of crispy arancino, parmesan biscotti and truffle crostini. A great pre-dinner date night spot. Charley Ward
Address: Bar Lina, 18 Brewer St, London W1F 0SG
Website: barlina.co.uk
Bar Crispin
All-day eatery Crispin brought their Spitalfields vibe and knowledge of interesting, fresh and funky bottles to Kingly Street a few years ago as Bar Crispin. There’s a chunky silver-zinc bar, jewel-toned triangle mirrors and fun zig-zag designs, plus a chilled playlist from DJs Peaches, Eliza Rose and Flo Dill. Crispin’s head sommelier Stefano Cazzato (previously at Hakkasan) and in-house wine expert Alex Price (formerly of Annabel’s and Beaverbrook) have curated a list of 150 vintages. This is a place for natural wine, but they also make a mean Negroni and salty Vesper. Katharine Sohn
Address: Bar Crispin, 19 Kingly Street, Carnaby, London W1B 5PY
Website: barcrispin.com
The Vault
A clandestine, candle-lit scene beneath the streets of Soho – also known as Milroy’s, the oldest whisky bar in London, number 3 is also home to The Vault, a beloved underground Soho bar with a steep staircase and a neon-lit sign. There’s background jazz music but it’s unobtrusive and doesn’t drown out a lively hum of chatter or an easy banter between staff. You leave wanting to be friends with all of them; they’re kind, easygoing and on-the-ball. The concise menu offers nine cocktails, and the least pretentious wine list I’ve ever seen – just choose between ‘red’ or ‘white’. The Vault is a warm, welcoming space you’ll want to return to again and again. Anna Prendergast
Address: The Vault (via Milroy’s), 3 Greek St, Soho, London W1D 4NX
Website: thevaultsoho.co.uk
Wun’s Tea Room and Bar
From the team behind London Chinese restaurant favourite Bun House, Wun’s Tea Room and Bar is a late-night watering hole that pays homage to Sixties Hong Kong. The modest upstairs space serves Cantonese small plates and there’s always a crowd outside. But it’s the hidden speakeasy bar below with its velvet booths, bamboo stools topped with dark leather cushions and neon Chinese characters that draws in a cool crowd. Newspaper-style drink menus offer the classics as well as cocktails and beers with a flavour of the East – the fruit-forward sugar cane and winter melon with Kavalan Port Cask Taiwanese whisky was our favourite. Pencil in your choice of food on the paper checklist menu for plates of clay-pot rice, grilled skewers of chicken thigh and lamb belly and iberican char siu pork with a sweet honey and sugar coating. Sophie Knight
Address: Wun’s Tea Room and Bar, 23 Greek Street, London W1D 4DZ
Website: tearoom.bar
Soma
Indian-spiced Soma, from the team behind Kricket, next door, somehow manages to tap into both the area’s seedy past and its smart-as-a-button present. Kricket’s MO has always been taking British ingredients to cook creative Indian dishes, from its inception as a Brixton shipping container pop-up to its Soho bricks-and-mortar restaurant. Soma continues this theme. Drinks are Mumbai-meets-London: a Negroni is made with cardamom, a Margarita-esque drink uses Chaat Masala and kumquat. Bar snacks take a low-waste approach, using leftovers from the restaurant. Plus it’s open until 3am on weekends – making it a clever late-night hangout for anyone in Soho. Sarah James
Address: Soma, 14 Denman Street, London W1D 7HJ
Website: somasoho.com
The Blind Pig
Inspired by children’s stories, the drinks at this creative bar combine nostalgia with flamboyant fun. Behind a nondescript door above Jason Atherton’s Michelin-starred London restaurant Social Eating House, bartenders create cocktails that fizz and smoke in a low-lit room of reclaimed wooden furniture, antique mirrored ceilings and a copper-trimmed bar. Order Pooh’s Hunny Pot for a sentimental throwback with dark rum, mead, cider brandy, honey, orange blossom and honeycomb, or Harry Potter’s Best Bottled Butter Bitter for whisky, beer, thyme, butterscotch, citrus and bitters, and soak it all up with snacks from Atherton’s bar menu. Olivia Morelli
Address: The Blind Pig, 58 Poland Street, Soho, London, W1F 7NR
Website: socialeatinghouse.com
Swift
Organisation principles are at the core of Swift, the slick Soho cocktail joint that’s been a firm favourite since opening a few years ago. Show up at 6pm on a Wednesday and a gentleman at the door may politely tell you the bar is already full; glancing over his shoulder to see happy customers spread across the bar stools and high tops, plenty of space between them, you may be politely inclined to disagree. Swift fundamentally gets that anyone’s enjoyment of a bar goes far beyond a good cocktail (and they pour a very good cocktail). This means there is little standing room in the upstairs bar, which is open to walk-ins only, and absolutely none downstairs, which requires reservations. Eyeball the downstairs cocktail menu to realise that the thinner crowd benefits the bartender as much as the guests. Several pages long and divided into four categories – Delicate, Bright, Stiff and Rich (‘to help customers make the right choice,’ says enthusiastic barman Gianluca Pavanello) – it’s heavy on the multi-ingredient, nuanced concoctions that demand a lot of attention to pull off properly. Food is not Swift’s forte but it does offer a short small-bites menu that changes seasonally. This place knocks what a cocktail bar should be out of the park. And the bartenders clearly know and love their craft. Erin Florio
Address: Swift, 12 Old Compton Street, London W1D 4TQ
Website: barswift.com
Hovarda
Here’s a Soho bar that’s intent on reclaiming these souvenir spirits and putting them centre-stage, mixing retsina, raki and ouzo with a barrow-load of fresh ingredients. Downstairs is the main event – a restaurant with a big appetite for fresh seafood, along with classics such as slow-roasted lamb – but upstairs is this tucked-away bar, decorated with bubbling installations of Breaking Bad-style tubes and siphons and with more mirrors than a disco glitterball. Pernot fans are in for a treat: that herby anise taste rolls around the menu like Liquorice Allsorts. Raki, Turkey’s national drink, mixes well with fruit, but also with more savoury/sweet ingredients, hence the signature Hovarda cocktail which stirs up an almost-puddingy mix of yogurt, brown sugar, honey and cardamom. And compare and contrast the Turkish and Greek Martinis: the first with chilli-infused raki (the barman will ask how spicy you can go), lime juice and honey, the latter with mastiha, grapefruit and olive brine. For sheer escapism from the hustle of Shaftesbury Avenue, this is a great bar for a central rendezvous. Rick Jordan
Address: Hovarda, 36-40 Rupert Street, London W1D 6DR
Website: hovarda.london
