The Connaught Bar

There is a reason The Connaught Bar held the top spot at World's 50 Best Bars two years running. Inside The Connaught hotel in Mayfair, this is the kind of bar that makes you feel like every other bar you have ever been to was merely practice for this one.

The room itself is a masterpiece of restraint. Silvano Giraldin-era touches sit alongside Ago Perrone's modern vision: mirrored panels, silver leaf accents, and leather banquettes that feel like they were designed specifically for long conversations. The light is exactly right. The sound level is exactly right. The whole thing is calibrated to within an inch of perfection.

Perrone and his team have become the standard against which all other hotel bars measure themselves. The martini trolley service, where a barman wheels a bespoke cart to your table and mixes your drink in front of you, is one of the finest bar experiences in London. Cocktails here are not just good drinks. They are considered arguments for what the form can achieve.

If you are planning a special evening in London, The Connaught Bar belongs at the center of it. It is expensive. It is worth every pound. Our editors return here every time they are in Mayfair, and every time they leave thinking they should come back sooner.