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 Whether you want a riotous night with the Royals, White Russians with the Wags, or a secret speakeasy experience, there's a perfect style bar somewhere in London. It's often a good idea to phone in advance and check on the door policy before you arrive, and even then be prepared to be disappointed - London's style bars thrive on turning away punters, making those inside feel even more fashionable and exclusive.
 Annex 3 6 Little Portland Street, W1W 7JE Finding a stylish cocktail bar that stands out in the West End is surprisingly hard given the reputation it enjoys for thumping nightlife. Leave it to the people behind Shoreditch success stories Loungelover and Les Trois Garcons to step up to the mark. Hassan Abdullah, Michel Lasserre and Stefan Karison bring their distinctive, dressy decor and chandeliers to this central restaurant and cocktail bar. The food is modern European with a Japanese twist but it's the perfectly mixed cocktails that really impress. Wasabi Kiss, which tastes better than it sounds, is an unusual mix of wasabi, basil, and fresh kiwi with vodka, coconut rum and Drambuie. The signature Loungelover comes in an elegant champagne flute and is based on a fig liqueur with vanilla and lemon and topped with Prosecco. Address: 6 Little Portland Street, W1W 7JE Phone: 020 7631 0700 Timing: Daily Midday - 11pm Pricing: Main courses £11.50 - £21 Nearest Station: Oxford Circus Tube Annex 3 - Information   ArtesianLangham Hotel, 1C Portland Place, W1B 1JA Enjoy dominoes and daiquris on Mondays from 5pm or sax on Saturday nights from 8pm at one of London's most glamourous hotel cocktail bars. When the landmark Langham celebrated its 140th anniversary in 2007 it was in the middle of a £50 million David Collins-design facelift. The Artesian kept its name but emerged more splendid and opulent than before. Where else would get such splendid idocies as "energised ice" that's "purer, colder and denser than regular ice" or water taken from a thousand metres below an extinct volcano in New Zealand? Address: Langham Hotel, 1C Portland Place, W1B 1JA Phone: 020 7636 1000 Timing: Mon to Sat 10.30am - 2am, Sun 10.30am - midnight (Children welcome until 6pm weekdays, 8pm on weekends) Pricing: Cocktails £11 - £14.50 Nearest Station: Oxford Circus Tube Artesian - Information  The Coburg BarConnaught Hotel, Carlos Place, W1K 2AL The Connaught Hotel's Coburg Bar has been superbly updated, the handiwork of Parisian-based designer, India Mahdavi. Wood -anelled interiors and antique pieces are counterbalanced by modern art works by Julian Opie, plush velvet and leather seats and geometric print carpet. Cocktails at £12 are expertly made - an apple Martini uses the hotel's home-marinated cinnamon, pear and apple liqueur. No wonder this bar was voted the 'Best Bar in London' by Time Out in 2008. Film stars Sharon Stone and Lauren Bacall are among the celebrities who have sampled the Connaught's delights and its traditional Mayfair grandeur continues to charm in a way that's absolutely up-to-date. Address: Connaught Hotel, Carlos Place, W1K 2AL Phone: 020 7499 7070 Timing: Daily midday - 1am Nearest Station: Bond Street Tube The Coburg Bar - Information  Floridita100 Wardour Street, W1F 0TN The potent Daiquiri cocktails are the essential menu item in this impossibly chic Cuban-themed bar and restaurant. This dark basement is London's greatest tribute to Havanan style and culture. The waitresses, all backless dresses and big hair, set the tone from the start. Live music is played with Cuban bands taking centre stage and ensuring the dance floor fills up faster and more energetically than in most London style bars. With branches in Madrid, Moscow, Havana and London, Floridita is a thoroughly international enterprise, and it shows in faultless food, decor and drinks. Address: 100 Wardour Street, W1F 0TN Phone: 020 7314 4000 Timing: Mon to Wed till 2am, Thu to Sat till 3pm Nearest Station: Tottenham Court Road Tube Floridita - Information  Funky Buddha15 Berkeley Street, W1J 8DY Between the Victorian elegance of Berkeley Square and the imperial magnificence of Piccadilly, you might be surprised to find a club that oozes with Eastern decadence, but find it you will in the form of Funky Buddha. While be-suited fat men wobble their way towards Annabel's, the sexy socialites slink past the doormen of FB and make their way downstairs to the main dancefloor and bar area. This is the place to go if you want to watch Premiership footballers, Big Brother 'stars', Russian playboys and Page Three models at play - and prices are as steep as you'd expect. If you're lucky, you might have booked a table in the VIP sections where you can sit and be served by waitresses and watch the beautiful people do their thing. If not, you'll be on the dancefloor strutting your funky stuff beneath Buddha's impassive gaze. But let's face it, if you're in Funky Buddha you're there to dance, drink and flirt and you'll find plenty of opportunity to do all three. It's theoretically a members' bar, but if you look the part, you'll have no trouble getting in. Address: 15 Berkley Street, W1J 8DY Phone: 020 7495 2596 Timing: 10pm-3.30am Nearest Station: Green Park Tube Funky Buddha - Information  The Long BarSanderson, 50 Berners Street, W1T3NG For a little refinement and an expensive tipple, the Sanderson hotel's Long Bar and Courtyard Garden is a very exclusive sanctuary. The courtyard is something of an urban oasis; modelled on a Japanese garden, it is crammed with colourful mosaics, Oriental flowers and streaming fountains. In the evenings the tiny little night-lights shine out from beneath the undergrowth. The Long Bar is hugely chic but is still one of the more accessible of London's many flashy bars. Inside, it's sleek, modern, starkly white, and - as you'd expect from the name - possesses one of London's longest bars, some 80-feet in length. Posh punters perch on eye-stencilled bar stools to see and be seen. Providing you're dressed to kill, you'll find the staff and clientele a little less aloof than in London's other high-brow establishments. The bar serves all manner of Martinis and champagne cocktails, including some outstanding house specials. Address: Sanderson, 50 Berners Street, W1T3NG Phone: 020 7300 5587 Timing: Mon 11am-1am, Tue & Wed 11pm-1.30am, Thu to Sat 11am-3pm, Sun 12noon-10.30pm Nearest Station: Goodge Street Tube The Long Bar - Information  Lonsdale48 Lonsdale Road, W11 2DE Final proof that London's nightlife was no longer led from the centre of town comes from the location of this extraordinary concept bar just off the Portobello Road. The design, from architects Fusion, is strictly sci-fi, but no movie ever looked as good as this, with great curves of silver sculpture and aged bronze bubbles studding the walls. On other floors, bright furs and rich carpets add to the impression that you've strayed into a set from Flash Gordon. The cocktails are magnificent and the food is also fantastic (though it comes in minute quantities). Service is impressively efficient - in spite of a loony layout that sees every item of food carried perilously across the dancefloor. The Lonsdale is also surprisingly laid-back for such a showy venue. There are plenty of beautiful people, there to see and be seen, but the fashions on display are cheerfully eccentric, and the busy seating layout is well designed to push people together and create an air of easy conviviality. Address: 48 Lonsdale Road, W11 2DE Phone: 020 7727 4080 Timing: Daily 12:00 - 00:30 Nearest Station: Westbourne Park Tube Lonsdale - Information  Loungelover1 Whitby Street, E2 7DP Due mainly to its unassuming location, this decadent, eccentrically styled bar has kept a reasonably low profile over the years. Functioning at one time as a meat-packing factory the building now functions purely as a late night fun factory for Brick Lane's party-loving fashion set. Opulence is the buzzword here - blood red drapes reflected in gilt mirrors and flaming torches surround antique Swedish and French furniture overhung with sparkling chandeliers. It's split up into different sections, each with its own unique style, and there's fun to be had moving from one to the other as the mood takes you: rustic, Baroque or day-glo, the choice is yours. Guests are expected to glam up to match the surroundings. Needless to say, the cocktails here are excellent, if pricey. The surreal artwork on display - including an eccentric collection of dolls' house memorabilia - takes on an even more disturbing aspect after a couple of vodka Martinis. If you're lucky enough to make it into the exclusive gated Private Room a camp collection of clutch purses and handbags awaits you. This is heaven for the glam at heart. Address: 1 Whitby Street, E2 7DP Phone: 020 7012 1234 Timing: Tue to Thu 6pm - Midnight, Fri 6pm - 1am, Sat 7pm-1am, Sun 6pm-10.30pm Nearest Station: Shoreditch Tube Loungelover - Information  Mahiki1 Dover Street, W1S 4LD A favourite with young royals - Princes Harry and William, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie have been spotted here... all at the same time. And where the royals go the celebs follow and you're likely to see a few of them here too. Scarlett Johansson and Paris Hilton are among the A-listers who've dropped by when in town. Despite its popularity and ensuing publicity the door policy is really relaxed, there are no guest lists and the Polynesian vibe is chilled-out with Tahiti-inspired tropical cocktails. The Pina Coladas come served in frozen pineapples and the Coconut Bomb in a real coconut. If you're feeling like a party try the infamous treasure chest (a heady mix underscored by a litre of vodka and costing £100 a pop). It's a steep £800 for a table but you're better off just turning up - get there early and you don't need to book. Piers Adam and Nick House certainly know how to run nightclubs. Recommended. Address: 1 Dover Street, W1S 4LD Phone: 020 7493 9529 Timing: Mon to Fri 5.30pm-3.30am, Sat 7.30pm-3.30am Nearest Station: Green Park Tube Mahiki - Information  Milk & Honey61 Poland Street, W1F 7NU With no number on its door, no name emblazoned outside, a ring-before-you-arrive guest policy, an underground location and some rather interesting house rules, this bar oozes mystery. Designed in the manner of a prohibition-era speakeasy, the land of milk and honey is, more accurately, overflowing with gin swizzles and champagne cocktails. The rules - no name dropping, no shouting, gentlemen will not introduce themselves to ladies - are only sporadically enforced, but they add to the general sense of sophistication. Clearly the less than inspired food menu is not putting off the rail thin ladies who typify the female Milk & Honey regulars - after all, a liquid supper suits them just fine. Access to non-members is by reservation only until 11pm. For members and their guests the bar is open until 3am six nights a week. Address: 61 Poland Street, W1F 7NU Phone: 020 7292 9949 Timing: Members until 3am | Access to non-members is by reservation only until 11pm Nearest Station: Oxford Circus Tube Milk & Honey - Information  Shochu Lounge37 Charlotte Street, W1T 1RR Roka's dimly lit, stylish basement bar is more seductive than the glass and metal restaurant upstairs and serves the same world class Japanese menu. Dark woods, giant barrels, candles and pottery create a chic modern take on rustic Japanese simplicity, with low couches for diners and plenty of pillows to prop yourself up on if you eat too much. What's more, the Shochu Lounge offers a selection of Eastern and Western liquors that are combined in an impressively unusual cocktail menu. The house speciality Martinis are a good way to kick things off - or perhaps a shot of 'Hard Wood' Shochu tonic, laced with the natural aphrodisiac Bois Bande. Address: 37 Charlotte Street, W1T 1RR Phone: 020 7580 6464 Timing: Mon 5pm - midnight, Tue to Fri midday - midnight, Sat 5pm - midnight, Sun 6pm - midnight Nearest Station: Goodge Street Tube Shochu Lounge - Information  Sketch9 Conduit Street, W1S 2XG Laid out over two floors, on the former site of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Sketch complex comprises two critically acclaimed restaurants, an art gallery, a salon de thé and two spectacular bars. It also features London's most talked-about toilets, a collection of bright white, egg-shaped, space-age pods. Don’t be fooled by the decidedly ordinary-looking, pale 18th-century townhouse building that meets you on approach, inside this is a pure sci-fi, space age fantasia. The Parlour, a restaurant and bar reserved for Sketch members, club nights and private events at night, is decked out in pinks, oranges and dogtooth prints and 60 different fabrics and crushed velvet. Sofas are a mix of Victorian, Louis XV and French day beds. Meanwhile, the East Bar, with its white leather walls is the ideal spot from which to sip a superbly dry (if extortionately priced) Martini chosen from a drinks menu designed in the style of a tabloid newspaper. From the drinks menus to the handwritten napkins the devil is very much in the detail here at Sketch. The lighting is similarly spectacular – in the bathrooms, front and backlit crystals and glass shapes produce a stunning shimmer, while gentle washes of colour bathe the cylindrical pods and sweeping staircases dotted elsewhere. Prices are sky high but you’ll spend so much time gaping open-mouthed at the décor that your sipping speed will slow down considerably. Address: 9 Conduit Street, W1S 2XG Phone: 0870 777 4488 Timing: Parlour Mon to Fri 8pm-2am, Sat 10pm-2am Nearest Station: Oxford Circus Tube Sketch - The Parlour and Bar - Information |
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