Best Bars with Food: Where the Kitchen Matches the Bar
JH
James Harlow
5 min read
The best bars with food are a specific category, and they are rarer than they should be. Most bars that offer food treat the kitchen as a revenue stream, not a mission. The result is microwaved wings and chips that exist solely to keep you drinking. The ten bars below operate differently — their kitchens are as considered as their cocktail lists, and the food is worth ordering even if you weren't planning on staying for a second round.
New York: Bars with Food That Earn Both Stars
New York has more bar kitchens than any city in the world and more bad ones to match. These three are the ones our editors order from deliberately, not just to line their stomachs.
01
The Spotted Pig
West Village$$$Gastropub / Late Night
April Bloomfield's West Village institution still produces one of the best burgers in the city — chargrilled, topped with Roquefort, served with shoestring fries that disappear faster than they should. The bar is properly British in its cramped convivial energy, and the beer list has always been well-chosen. Go late; the kitchen runs until 2am on weekends, which is its best quality.
Order: Chargrilled burger with Roquefort and shoestring fries. A pint of whatever's on cask.
02
Employees Only
West Village$$$Cocktail Bar / Supper
One of the original cocktail bars to take food seriously. The kitchen runs late — well past midnight — and produces a short, rotating menu built around whatever is in season. The bone marrow is a permanent fixture for good reason. The cocktails are classics executed with precision. The psychic who sits near the entrance has been there since the beginning and is worth the conversation.
Order: Bone marrow with parsley salad and a Provençal — gin, lemon, cucumber, elderflower.
03
Amor y Amargo
East Village$$Bitters Bar / Snacks
The bitters bar concept sounds like a concept. In practice, Amor y Amargo is one of the most focused drinking experiences in the city. The food is deliberately minimal — charcuterie, cheese, tinned things — because the drinks are the point. But what they serve pairs with extraordinary intention. The bartenders know the menu and will steer you correctly every time.
Order: Ask for a bitter-forward cocktail pairing with the charcuterie selection.
Planning a date night in New York?
Our date night guide covers the best bars for an evening out — with or without a reservation. All neighbourhoods, all price points.
London and Chicago: Bar Kitchens That Don't Disappoint
London's gastropub tradition means the bar-food relationship has deeper roots than almost anywhere. Chicago has a different tradition — diner-influenced bar food with serious craft beer — and the best rooms in both cities carry genuine conviction about what they serve.
04
Hawksmoor Seven Dials
Covent Garden, London$$$$Steakhouse Bar / Serious
Hawksmoor's bar programme is as good as the restaurant — possibly better, because you can order the same steaks without a reservation and eat them at the bar. The cocktail list has been the benchmark for London bartending for years. Order the Shaky Pete's Ginger Brew if you've never had it. Then order the bone-in rib-eye. In that order.
Order: Shaky Pete's Ginger Brew, then a bone-in ribeye, medium rare.
05
The Wigmore at The Langham
Marylebone, London$$$Grand Bar / Afternoon
Ryan Chetiyawardana's bar inside The Langham serves food that matches the grandeur of the space without the stiffness you'd expect from a hotel bar. The bar snacks are exceptional — particularly the Welsh rabbit and the scotch egg, which is the best version of that dish currently available in London. The cocktail programme rotates seasonally and rewards repeat visits.
Order: The Wigmore Welsh rabbit with a Beefeater martini, up and dirty.
06
The Publican
River North, Chicago$$$Gastropub / Oysters
Paul Kahan's beer-and-oysters hall is the bar that proved Chicago could do food at the same level as its restaurants. The oyster selection changes daily, the pork rinds are the best in the city, and the beer list is organised with a rigour that makes most bottle shops look careless. It's a loud, communal room — sit at the bar and let the bartenders guide you.
Order: Half a dozen oysters, a bowl of pork rinds, and ask for the day's beer recommendation.
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The Rest of the List: Bar Food That Travels
The final four span San Francisco, New Orleans, Barcelona, and Tokyo. What they share is a kitchen that operates with the same seriousness as the bar — not as an afterthought, but as a parallel programme worth building a night around.
07
Zuni Café
Hayes Valley, San Francisco$$$Bar / Californian
San Francisco's most enduring bar-restaurant occupies a wedge-shaped building on Market Street and has been operating with the same conviction since 1979. Eating at the bar — particularly the long copper bar overlooking the street — is the correct way to experience it. The roast chicken for two is one of the essential dishes of American cooking. Order it and plan to stay.
Order: The roast chicken for two with bread salad. A Campari spritz while you wait.
08
Peche Seafood Grill Bar
Warehouse District, New Orleans$$$Seafood Bar / Southern
Donald Link's wood-fired seafood restaurant has a bar that operates as a destination in its own right. The smoked meat charcuterie and the whole roasted fish from the hearth arrive at the bar with the same care as the dining room. New Orleans cocktail culture at this level means the drinks are genuinely good — not just functional. The Pimm's Cup here is the best in the city.
Order: The smoked meat board, whole roasted fish, and a Pimm's Cup.
09
Bar Calders
El Born, Barcelona$$Natural Wine / Pintxos
A narrow natural wine bar in El Born that takes its food as seriously as any restaurant in the neighbourhood. The daily selection of pintxos changes with the market and whatever the kitchen feels like that morning. Standing at the zinc bar with a glass of something funky from the Canary Islands and a plate of cured things is one of the better ways to spend an afternoon in this city.
Order: Ask for the day's natural wine recommendation and whatever the kitchen is running on pintxos.
10
Fuglen Tokyo
Tomigaya, Tokyo$$Coffee / Cocktails / Small Plates
The Oslo original transplanted to a quiet corner of Tomigaya — a neighbourhood that rewards those who find it. Fuglen serves coffee until late afternoon, then transitions into cocktails and small Scandinavian-influenced plates. The food is minimal by design but precise: open-faced sandwiches, pickled things, smoked fish. The cocktails reference classic Nordic flavour profiles and are worth trying even if you don't know what that means.
Order: A Fuglen Old Fashioned and an open-faced smoked salmon sandwich.
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The bars on this list treat food as something that amplifies the drinking experience rather than just providing a reason to linger. That philosophy — that the kitchen and the bar are in service of the same night — is what separates the places worth seeking out from the ones that just have a menu on the back of the drinks list.
If we had to pick one: Hawksmoor Seven Dials for London, Employees Only for New York. Both rooms understand that the best bar food is food you'd eat at a restaurant, served with drinks you'd drive across town to have.
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Our editors' picks for the first-date bars that handle the nerves so you don't have to — food, drinks, and atmosphere combined.
