Drink
This proper Irish pub is in the heart of Shoreditch, underneath Richard Corrigan’s Daffodil Mulligan restaurant and claims to pour the best Guinness in London. The Gibney family is nearing a century in the pub business in Ireland and opened their London location in 2020. You can also find Gibney’s Stout, Irish whiskies, Irish liqueurs and cocktails on offer at the bar plus snacks like spiced lentil scotch eggs, black pudding croquettes and dressed oysters. Whether you pop in for the drinks, to dance to live music or catch the big game, you can be sure of receiving the very best in Irish hospitality.
At the end of Mare Street in Hackney, The Crown Pub is a traditional boozer with a well-stocked bar and a cosy pub garden. Attached to it is a guesthouse with seven rooms, so you can even bed down for the night. Whether you’re coming for a quick drink or sleeping over, The Crown hosts lots of events including sport on the TV, trivia every Thursday and live music on Fridays.
COACH & HORSES
This welcoming pub may be one of the smaller ones in Covent Garden but the atmosphere is always top notch, and it provides a safe haven amidst the sea of tourists. The Irish influence is strong here, so you can be sure of a cracking pint of Guinness, along with other beers and whiskey.
Farm Shop is an excellent new food shop and butcher in Mayfair run by Artfarm, the hospitality arm of Hauser & Wirth. They also have The Fife Arms in Scotland, Mount St and The Audley just up the road, and their original farm shop down in Somerset, which is attached to their gallery and Durslade Farm. The shop upstairs is stocked full of their own produce and man there is some good stuff in there, from rhubarb curd and chutneys to chocolates, cheese, and fresh veg. All of which would be enough to recommend stopping by there, but we haven’t even mentioned best part yet – the cute wine bar downstairs, which is open from 12pm to 10pm every day apart from Sunday. It’s a nice casual space (especially for Mayfair) with terracotta tile floors, wooden bistro chairs, marble tables, and shelves lined with gleaming bottles. The wine list offers a solid line up of champagnes, old world classic wines, and even a few natural wines from around the world, and there’s a very respectable amount available by glass or carafe. There’s also a good selection of UK wines, including three wines from Artfarm’s own Bacchus winery in Somerset, and a superb pinot noir from Danbury Ridge in Essex. To eat, there’s classic wine bar snacking, including charcuterie, cheese boards, steak tartare, and pickles.
Finley’s, founded by Sia Smith, is standing out from the crowd thanks to its focus on products from women-made businesses. All about celebrating the diversity of the local community, the Hoxton bar stocks an ever-changing range of wines from female winemakers, like Little Frances and Vins Et Volailles, as well as beers from Queer Brewing. Sommelier Eleonora Kausinyte (of Maison François and Brat) is in charge of the list so you’re in good hands when it comes to the vino.
FREDDLES
What do you get when you combine a half-French, half Vietnamese, graphic designer/computer science engineer/bartender with one of the most irreverent kitchens in London and a healthy amount of pink paint? The answer is Freddles. The intimate cocktail bar sits underneath Papi in London Fields with Thomas Auger in charge. Operating as a distinct venue (and not just an extension of the restaurant) Freddles is very much Thomas’s playground. There’s a red glittery floor and a hot pink bar. The lighting is as low as the pop bangers are loud. The menu is his imagination distilled into twelve drinks, like the Iron Bruda (made with peated scotch, Japanese plum, Irn-Bru and citrus), the Purple Heat (made with spicy winter veg, tequila, port and mezcal), and the Rhubarbie Doll (made with lacto-fermented rhubarb, vodka, vanilla, citrus and rose). And you can pair your bevs with bar snacks like curry corndogs and duck currywurst courtesy of the Papi kitchen.
Sager + Wilde founder Michael Sager is following up his Hackney cocktail bar Equal Parts with a new wine bar and bottle shop in Victoria Park Village. Bar Bruno, named for his father, has taken over the converted stable space held by the Place Next Door, and it’s an intimate little spot with candles on the go and bottles of wine lining the walls. The natural wines come from producers that Sager has a direct relationship with, so you can be sure you’re only getting the good stuff, and you can pair your drinks with charcuterie boards and filled soft pretzels.
YUKI BAR
Named after owner Yukiyasu Kaneko, who has years of experience as a sommelier and has worked at NOMA and P.Franco, this wine bar tucked into the railway arches in London Fields is his debut solo project. It’s an intimate spot serving up an interesting bottle selection featuring some of the best natural wines out there (including some rare ones) and a snack menu that has both Japanese and European influences.
The Devonshire was opened by publican Oisín Rogers, the recognisable face and name behind Mayfair’s Guinea Grill until his departure in 2022, and Flat Iron founder Charlie Carroll at the end of 2023 and became an instant hit. It’s based out of a historic inn on Denman Street that dates back to 1793, with a top-quality pub downstairs and a restaurant upstairs (headed up by Ashley Palmer-Watts of The Fat Duck and Dinner by Heston). The food’s all about the restaurant’s wood-ember grill – the menu includes beef chops and ribeyes, Iberico pork ribs, lamb hotpot, creel-caught langoustines, hand-dived scallops and prime day boat fish on offer – but there’s also a selection of bar food, like scotch eggs, bacon sarnies, sausage rolls and cheese & ham hock toasties. It’s also arguably got the best pints of Guinness in town, so it’s worth fighting for that spot at the bar.
FORZA WINE AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE
Forza Wine has branched out from SE15 to SE1, taking up a spot on the northwest terrace (including al fresco space) at the National Theatre as part of its shake up of its food and drink programme. Like the Peckham original, this Forza Wine’s menu changes often and is also centred around ‘sort of Italian’ snacks, with dishes like cauliflower fritti & aioli, sprouting broccoli with brown shrimp butter, burrata with beetroot & hazelnut pangrattato; and of course, the two signatures, soft serve and custardos. Forza Wine is a perfect pre-theatre option – the drinks list is interesting (lots of natural wines and cocktails like cherry negronis and frozen picantes) the food is easy and comforting, and you can eat well in a rush if you’ve got seats to take – but it’s very much worth being the sole focus of your evening. If you’re in a four there’s an option on the menu to have the lot and we think that’s a fine way to spend a night on the Southbank.
James Dye, the co-owner of Frank’s Café in Peckham and The Camberwell Arms, has opened new music-led wine bar and restaurant Bambi on the former site of Bright. Named after his great grandma and not the Disney deer, Bambi features a high-spec vintage sound system, a DJ booth and a custom-built wall of records, with both the collection and programme (DJs will spin until 1am on the weekends) curated by DJ, musician, poet and Run Dem Crew founder Charlie Dark MBE. Henry Freestone, who won a Bib Gourmand at Peckham Cellars, is heading up the kitchen at Bambi, serving coffee and deli-style sarnies like chicken caesar focaccia and corned beef with mustard & pickles during the day, and an evening menu featuring dishes like cauliflower cheese arancini; braised butter beans with kale & goat’s curd; and chicken parm ciabatta with vodka marinara, pickles & aioli. As for wine, the list centres around natural and low-intervention wines from around the world, with a strong by-the-glass selection and bottles available to buy to take home.
Peckham’s become a bit of a rooftop terrace hub lately, but anyone after some al fresco dinner and drinks might be hard-pressed to find it at the usual suspects, which are typically rammed. So, if you don’t mind being closer to the ground, the terrace at Peckham Arches has you covered – literally. The canopied space is heated, so you can enjoy fresh tank beer from Bird House Brewery and tacos from Angele whatever the weather.
Dalston has got Dan’s, Clerkenwell has got Ken’s. The latter, opened by the team behind the former, is a bigger neighbourhood wine bar with a regularly rotating list that has a focus on crisp and tasty wines from both classic and natural producers, and a strong by the glass selection. Fergus Shields (ex-Sessions Arts Club, Noble Rot and Quo Vadis) is in charge of the Basque-influenced food menu, which features dishes like boquerones & pan con tomate; beef tartare with bottarga & capers; Iberico pork with celeriac & sage; and chocolate mousse with rosemary, creme fraiche & fig.
Once upon a time, there was a notorious Soho speakeasy known as the New Evaristo Club. It’s not gone anywhere (though there have been a few attempts to shut it down), it’s just more commonly known as Trisha’s now – named after the bar’s long-term matriarch, Trisha Bergonzi. Some say Trisha’s is one of the last bastions of the ‘old Soho’, others say it’s the area’s ‘best-kept secret’ (we’re not so sure about that). If there’s one thing we do know, it’s that this is one of London’s few late-night spots, making it the place to be if you don’t feel like being swept out by 11pm.
LO-FI COFFEE
Lo-fi Coffee is an independent coffee shop based out of the Crouch End outpost of record shop Flashback – hence the name. They’re all about great coffee and being good to the planet at Lo-fi, and if you head over from 8.30am on weekdays or 9.30am on weekends, you can grab some bagels courtesy of The Bagel Guys.
STACKS
Stacks in a secret wine bar hidden inside coffee shop Lo-Fi. In other words, Lo-Fi transforms into Stacks when the clock strikes 6pm. And it’s got everything you could ask for in a wine bar: low-intervention wines and an excellent menu of bar snacks. Expect cult fave bottles, housemade focaccia and charcuterie.
LITTLE MERCIES
Little Mercies is an award-winning cocktail bar in Crouch End from the same duo behind Three Sheets in Dalston (brothers Max and Noel Venning). It’s an excellent neighbourhood spot, but could very easily draw in crowds from further afield – the cocktails are just that good. There’s also a great selection of bar snacks and you can buy their cocktails in takeaway bottles if you want some Little Mercies at home.
LULU'S
Lulu’s has taken over the small end corner building attached to Llewelyn’s, so close it could almost be an extension. Although it shares a team and location, Lulu’s is a more casual affair than its older sibling – a deli and shop by day serving some epic-looking sandwiches and salads, and a wine bar/restaurant by night. The walls are lined high with some great deli produce, like tinned fish and pickles, many of which are made by the Lulu’s team, so you’ll definitely want to pick up a few goodies to take home when you visit. If you’re stopping by though, kick off with a glass of pet nat and some gildas for that Herne Hill holiday vibe and then order up goodies like tomato and seaweed focaccia, marinated sardines with piquillo peppers and creme fraiche; roasted scallops with gooseberry & vermouth sauce, courgette flowers stuffed with oxtail and puttanesca, and the fig leaf panna cotta for dessert. Every plate a well balanced, well executed, and unfussy creation that perfectly suits the casual vibe of the place. There’s also some brilliant wines on offer – the superb Cap de Nit Vermeil light red and the Parajes del Valle orange, both from Spain. All the wines are available from the shop to take home too.
