Best cocktail bar in London
A stone's throw from Buckingham Palace in the heart of London's elegant Mayfair district lies The Connaught Hotel. Five-star luxury in the heart of the British capital with one of the world's best bars on the ground floor. In fact, in both 2020 and 2021 it topped the list of the 50 best 'places to drink' in the world.
And if the classic bar experience is all about fine drinks and elegant hospitality, the Connaught Bar sets the standard. And it's set high!
The menu features some of the world's finest and noblest drinks. You can even order classic vintage cocktails mixed with the most expensive drops of the past. For example, an 1893 Sidecar Cocktail mixed with an 1893 Adet Brandy, 1980s Cointreau and fresh lemon juice. A bar order that will charge no less than 1400 pounds to your credit card.
Of course, it's also possible to quench your thirst at a more normal price - although prices are generally around 30 pounds for a cocktail.
State of the art: Dry Martini
Connaught Bar's top of the bill remains the classic Dry Martini. Even if the term classic is a bit of a misnomer. Because here it's mixed with homemade aromatic herbs and bitter flavors. And although the gin selection is extensive, it's probably worth trying The Connaught Bar Gin. A specialty gin blended by the bar's own head bartender. Or as they call it: Master Mixologist.
And while a Dry Martini may sound like a simple and straightforward choice, it's taken to a whole new level when the bartender rolls a special Dry Martini bar cart to the table, allowing guests to choose the flavors they want in their cocktail. It could be a little juice from the olive jar and topped with a single olive to create a Dirty Martini. Life is all about choices. Here too. And they are necessary before the bartender mixes the cocktail. This is done in a specially designed blender before it is artfully dispensed in a thin stream from a height of half a meter into the classic Martini glass.
The Connaught Hotel has a long history. The first guests checked into the hotel way back in 1815. Back then it had a slightly more royal name, the Prince of Saxe-Coburg Hotel. But the German-sounding name was not popular during World War I, and the hotel was renamed The Connaught Hotel - a very English tribute to Queen Victoria's seventh child: Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.