Following on from our last feature on Top 5 (or 7) cocktail bars in London, we feature our Top 5 London hotel bars, as told to us by Henry Herbert friends, customers and cocktail connoisseurs.
Hotel bars, love them or hate them have certainly made an effort to up their game. With a great amount of thought, and no doubt, expense put into interior design, and innovative concoctions to intrigue the taste buds, today’s top London hotel bars marry the best of modernity and luxury, with tasteful garnishing on top (with no cocktail parasols in sight).
Purveyors of one of the finest Old Fashioned cocktails in London, the Connaught is a favourite of Henry Herbert friends and customers. Discreet and luxurious, the Connaught bar also boasts some of the most delectable olives and “small food” accompaniments to your cocktails that we have ever come across.
Situated in the heart of London, with Hyde Park on one side and Harrods/Harvey Nichols on the other, this is an excellent place to rest weary feet and arms aching from carrying shopping bags. Try to nab a table with the large comfortable leather armchairs, and you’ll never want to get up.
3. The Luggage Room – London Mariott Hotel Grosvenor Square
Could very well have made this list simply for their revival of the Prohibition-era gentlemen’s cocktail, the Pendennis Club. All hail cocktails from the roaring 1920s and 30s.
Refurbished along with the rest of The Savoy hotel in 2010, this bar is a classic and its name of course invokes the romance of transatlantic travel, and a sense of “home away from home” for visitors from across the pond.
5. Dukes Hotel
Tucked behind the hustle and bustle of St James, this discreet venue is the place for the quintessential James Bond martini, shaken, not stirred (and many associated Bond Girl-named variations), look no further. Good evening, Mr. Bond.
We’ve limited ourselves to 5 hotel bars, but we could go on and on. Which are your favourite cocktail bars in London? Got a recommendation – drop us a line cc@henryherbert.com or Tweet us @HenryHerbert