best wine bar soho london

This Greek Street wine and cocktail bar is a three-way project between experienced bar professionals, two from the cocktail side of things and one from the wine side. The ground floor is a wine bar, with a globetrotting list available by the glass, carafe or bottle. Unusual cocktails happen on the first floor, in a lovely warren of darkly lit rooms offering an assortment of seating options. It’s quality cocktails in a lacklustre sky-high setting at Aqua Spirit. But it's a rooftop bar in Soho, so it's worth knowing about. The roof terraces are set awkwardly at the opposite end of the room to the lift entrance and can only be accessed by sashaying through the slick Japanese restaurant. It’s a shame the terrace doesn’t have the same chic international style as the dark, sexy interior bar, circular in shape and ideal for perching and people watching. Bar Américain at Brasserie Zédel This wonderful bar occupies the hallowed ground that began life as Dick’s Bar, when Brasserie Zédel was the Atlantic Bar & Grill and the late, great Dick Bradsell was the man behind the bar.

Zédel has installed a great crew, both behind the bar and front of house, though. And they’ve kept the beautiful art deco decor and the widely spaced tables, which are a major factor in keeping noise levels down even when the place is full. We love the brevity and simplicity of the cocktail list: just 18 drinks and most of them tried and tested classics. When someone calls two people a ‘dream team’, the hype-detector lights up. But with Bar Termini, the DT moniker seems fitting. Bar Termini does two things: coffee and cocktails. Coffee is overseen by Marco Arrigo, head of quality for Illy, who has probably trained more baristas – and trained them rigorously – than anyone else in the UK. Cocktails are supervised by Tony Conigliaro, the alco-alchemist behind 69 Colebrooke Row and Zetter Town House, among others. Italian aperitivos and nightcaps are done very well indeed. This Soho nightspot offers a compact list of cocktails, the promise of desserts, and a rota of DJs throughout the week.

look under the vintage ‘Optician’ sign for the blindfolded hog doorknocker and boom, you’re in.
best red wine for pizzaThe decor is authentically retro but never schmaltzy and puns are employed with abandon on the cocktail menu: Slap ’n’ Pickle, Kindergarten Cup or Robin Hood, Quince of Thieves, anyone? There are no great surprises in the styling of this latest Brewdog, it has the same prison-yard chainlink-and-concrete thing as the other bars. No surprises in the craft beer selection, either – it’s typically great. There’s something for the hesitant lager fan as well as the dedicated explorer of craft beer’s outer reaches. What is surprising at Brewdog Soho, however, was the food. It cements this bar’s position as more than just another post-work beerathon. A quirky tube-themed cocktail bar that’s hot with tourists. It’s a little confused about what era it’s portraying but you’re not really looking for historical accuracy – Cahoots sure isn’t taking itself seriously.

You’re allotted two hours of drinking time so book in advance. Our advice: ask for a seat in the carriage, the best spot in house, and save a trip for when friends visit from out of town. A basement bar dispensing drinks to a tiny crowd: Company Below offers room for just 25 covers in all, in a miniscule space of which nearly half is occupied by the bar. It’s so small it feels more like someone’s home bar than a professional one. But you won’t often find drinks at home like those on offer here. Original creations include the refreshing Gin Dilla: gin, dill, lemon, elderflower liqueur and cucumber. El Camion is Mexican-themed but, unlike the kitsch Baja Californian restaurant above, it’s more a discerning basement drinking den where Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) iconography sits above a series of snugs. It's a temple to tequila and rum, there’s swift and smiling table service, and it’s open late - what's not to like?Best wine bars in London Whether you want rustic bistros or the best in upscale drinking, David Ellis has found the capital's top spots for a glass of the good stuff

Tuesday 22 September 2015 08:40 BST London's best wine bars There's an old joke that justifies the love of wine: nobody ever came up with a brilliant idea after their second bottle of water. And wine drinking, like any upstanding pastime, requires a little practice. Fortunately, London is pleasingly rammed with decent bars all honouring the grape's greatest achievement (a moth turning into a butterfly has nothing on this humble fruit transforming into a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape.) The city is even producing its own stuff, as Gavin Monery from London Cru explains in the video below. The idea of a wine bar has a little stigma attached, but fortunately, old-fashioned sommeliers with intimidating moustaches and dismissive glances have long been banished from the best of London's wine hotspots. The idea of small, snobby rooms can be thrown out like the sediment in an old bottle – wine drinking in London is meant to be fun, not an extended lecture. Whether a quiet night savouring a modest fifteen glasses of white with a friend is on the cards or a celebratory evening of champagne is required, London caters for all.