The Best Bars in Mayfair

The Connaught Bar has been named the world's best bar more than once, and the experience justifies that assessment. The Connaught Martini — made tableside on a trolley — is the centrepiece, but the wider cocktail programme is equally serious. The room is a David Collins design: pale wood, mirrored panels, exceptional acoustics. This is where serious drinkers bring people they want to impress, and it works every time.

Order: The Connaught Martini, made tableside

Claridge's Bar is one of the most beautiful rooms in London to drink in. The Art Deco interior — designed by Thierry Despont — is all polished surfaces, geometric patterns and low amber light. The champagne list runs to several hundred bins and the cocktail menu changes quarterly to reflect the season. Book a table for the full experience; bar seating is available walk-in but the room fills quickly after 7pm.

Order: Champagne or the house Negroni variation — both earn the prices

The Dorchester Bar carries one of the most comprehensive whisky selections of any hotel bar in London — over five hundred expressions, with particular depth in aged Scotch single malts and Japanese whisky. The room is quieter than the Connaught or Claridge's, which makes it better for conversation. The bar team knows their inventory thoroughly and the atmosphere is exactly what you want from a Mayfair hotel bar on a Tuesday evening.

Order: Ask for the whisky flight — three expressions chosen by the bar team

Hide Below is the basement bar beneath Ollie Dabbous's restaurant, and it shares the same commitment to seasonal, botanical thinking. The cocktail list changes throughout the year and draws on the same suppliers as the kitchen — foraged ingredients, house ferments, precise technique. The space is deliberately cave-like: low ceilings, warm stone, amber light. Perfect for two people who want to drink something they have not tasted before.

Order: Current seasonal cocktail — the menu changes with each season

Sexy Fish is more restaurant than bar, but the bar itself — running the full length of the ground floor — is one of the most dramatic rooms to drink in anywhere in Mayfair. Frank Gehry fish sculptures overhead, Damien Hirst mermaids on the walls, and a cocktail programme that matches the ambition of the room. The Spicy Margarita has become a Mayfair institution. Come for the drinks, stay to look at the architecture.

Order: Spicy Margarita — the one they are known for

Mahiki occupies a particular space in Mayfair's drinking geography — it is genuinely fun in a postcode that can take itself too seriously. The Polynesian tiki bar concept is executed without irony: elaborate cocktail vessels, crushed ice, rum in more forms than you expect. The Treasury cocktail in its iconic gold chest is the defining Mahiki experience. Loud, crowded on weekends, and entirely worth it.

Order: The Treasury — rum, cognac, peach schnapps, fresh lime

Jamavar's bar on Mount Street applies Indian flavour profiles to classic cocktail architecture with more success than any other bar in London doing similar work. Cardamom Old Fashioneds, mango and chilli daiquiris, a Masala Chai Martini that converts sceptics immediately. The room is intimate and the service is attentive in a way that does not feel intrusive. This is one of Mayfair's most interesting bars for anyone who has already done the hotel circuit.

Order: Masala Chai Martini

Kitty Fisher's is a small restaurant in Shepherd Market with one of the best bar programmes in that part of Mayfair. The cocktail list is short and changes regularly, but always includes at least one genuinely excellent seasonal drink. The room is candlelit and intimate — the kind of bar where you instinctively lower your voice. A rare find in Mayfair: expensive but not showy.

Order: House seasonal cocktail — short list means every drink is well-considered

The Punch Room is dedicated entirely to the ancient art of punch — a concept that sounds limiting until you experience the depth and variety the bar team has found in the format. The room itself is extraordinary: all dark wood, fireplace, and the feeling of a private club that has been operating for centuries. Punches are served by the glass or the bowl for groups. Reserve a table unless you are happy at the bar and happy to be flexible.

Order: Seasonal punch bowl for two — the bar's centrepiece experience

Dukes Bar claims the original Martini trolley and the reputation to match. James Bond creator Ian Fleming drank here, which is either the best or most predictable fact about a Mayfair bar. What matters is that the Martinis are made with the kind of cold precision that makes the temperature of the glass before pouring feel important. Arrive before 8pm to get a table; the bar is tiny and very much in demand.

Order: Dry Martini, made at your table from the trolley