The Best Bars in Soho, London

The best bars in Soho London are genuinely some of the finest in the country — and the neighbourhood has been earning that reputation for the better part of a century. Soho has always attracted the kind of people who know how to drink well, and the bars that have survived the recent years of rising rents and tourism saturation have done so by being exceptionally good at what they do. These are our picks: honest, specific, and based on actual visits. Soho connects naturally to the bars of Covent Garden to the east and Mayfair to the west — both worth including on a longer evening.

The Soho Bars That Define the Neighbourhood

Soho runs from Oxford Street south to Leicester Square and from Charing Cross Road west to Regent Street. It sounds small on a map and is enormous in practice — there are more bars per square kilometre here than anywhere else in London. Most of them are mediocre. These are the ones that aren't.

Milk and Honey

Poland Street $$$ Members / Cocktail

Milk and Honey is the bar that taught Soho how to make a proper cocktail, and it remains among the best in the city. Members-only on weekends (guests welcome on weekdays), which keeps the quality consistent and the crowd self-selecting. The bartenders work without a printed menu, building drinks from a conversation. The room is dark, the service is warm, and the drinks are as good as anywhere in London.

Order: Tell the bartender your mood — they'll build something you'll remember

Swift

Old Compton Street $$$ Two Floors / Whisky

Swift operates as two different bars on two different floors: an upstairs bar that's bright and social, suited to aperitivo hour, and a basement room that's darker, quieter, and built around one of the best whisky collections in Soho. Go upstairs for a pre-dinner drink, downstairs when you're settled in for the evening. The food is better than bar food needs to be. One of our most-visited addresses in W1.

Order: A Japanese whisky highball upstairs; a Peated Scotch neat downstairs

Bar Termini

Old Compton Street $$ Italian / Negroni

Bar Termini is the size of a train compartment and serves the best Negroni in Soho. The menu is deliberately short — a handful of aperitivi, some amari, coffee — which means everything on it is chosen with intention. The atmosphere is that specific Italian bar energy: nobody stays too long, nobody lingers uncomfortably, and the drinks arrive quickly and correctly. A pre-dinner essential in this part of London.

Order: The Negroni — aged in their barrel and poured over a single large cube

The Best Cocktail Bars in Soho for a Date Night

Soho is one of the best date-night neighbourhoods in London — dense enough to walk between options, good enough that the quality is rarely disappointing. These bars have the right combination of atmosphere, drink quality, and noise level for an evening that requires actual conversation.

Experimental Cocktail Club

Gerrard Street $$$ Speakeasy / Intimate

ECC London is hidden behind an unmarked door on the edge of Chinatown, which sets the tone precisely. Inside: low ceilings, exposed brick, candlelit tables, and a cocktail menu that runs on seasonal produce and French provenance. The room is small enough that it always feels full without ever feeling crowded. Reservations are essential on weekends and advisable most other times.

Order: The current seasonal signature — it changes quarterly

Quo Vadis Members' Bar

Dean Street $$$$ Members / Classic

The Quo Vadis members' bar is worth finding a way into: a first-floor room above one of Soho's oldest restaurants, it has the kind of unhurried quality that comes from not needing to fill a room with walk-ins. The cocktail list is classically oriented and well-executed, the bar snacks from the kitchen downstairs are excellent, and the atmosphere on a Thursday evening is the closest Soho gets to its mythologised 1960s self.

Order: Martini — they serve it at the exact right temperature

The Blind Pig

Upper James Street $$$ Hidden / Cocktail

The Blind Pig sits above Social Eating House and is accessible via what appears to be a refrigerator door. The theatrics are earned by what follows: a compact, atmospheric bar with a seriously considered cocktail programme and table service that doesn't make you feel rushed. The menu changes seasonally and rewards repeat visits. Go on a weeknight if you want to actually sit and explore the list properly.

Order: The bartender's recommendation from the current menu

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The Pubs and Wine Bars Worth Knowing

Not everything worth drinking in Soho is a cocktail bar. The neighbourhood has some of the best-preserved old pubs in central London, and a handful of wine bars that have been quietly excellent for years. These four are our picks.

The French House

Dean Street $$ Historic Pub

The French House has been the most Soho pub in Soho since the 1940s, and nothing has changed. They still pour beer by the half only, still have no music, still have no fruit machines, and still attract the kind of writers, artists, and editors who find that reassuring. The wine list is short and French. The atmosphere is the main draw: loud, argumentative, and completely unrepeatable anywhere else in the city.

Order: A glass of whatever Burgundy they have open

Terroirs

William IV Street $$$ Natural Wine / Food

Technically in Charing Cross but close enough to count, Terroirs was one of the first natural wine bars in London to do it properly and remains one of the best. The wine list is extensive, thoughtfully annotated, and changes constantly. The food — charcuterie, cheese, small dishes from the kitchen — is exactly what natural wine needs alongside it. Go for lunch on a weekday when the room is quiet enough to actually read the list.

Order: Ask the staff to recommend a Jura white — they always have something interesting

Heaven at Cafe Monico

Shaftesbury Avenue $$ All-Day / Aperitivo

The bar at Cafe Monico is one of central London's better-value pre-theatre and aperitivo options: a high-ceilinged dining room with a proper cocktail bar attached, prices that are honest for the location, and a spritz list that correctly covers all the major Italian aperitivi. Crowded from 5pm onwards but rarely uncomfortably so. The best option in Soho for a drink that isn't trying to be anything more than a well-made drink.

Order: Aperol Spritz or a Campari soda — the classics are right here

Ronnie Scott's Bar

Frith Street $$$ Jazz / Late Night

The bar at Ronnie Scott's is accessible without a gig ticket and is worth visiting on its own terms: a jazz club atmosphere in one of the most acoustically considered rooms in Soho, with a cocktail list that's better than venue bars usually bother to be. The crowd is mixed — jazz fans, after-work groups, visiting musicians — and the atmosphere after midnight, when the main room is in full swing next door, is singular. Nowhere else sounds like this in London.

Order: Whisky sour — they make it correctly with egg white

Our Verdict

Soho remains one of the best drinking neighbourhoods in Europe — high density, high quality, and genuinely varied across price points and styles. The cocktail bars in the W1 postcode are particularly strong right now, with a generation of bartenders who trained at the best places in the city now running their own rooms. The old pubs remain irreplaceable for a different reason: they still feel like Soho.

Our advice: start at Bar Termini for a Negroni, walk to Swift for a whisky, finish the evening at Milk and Honey if you can get a booking. That's a Soho night done properly.