The UK’s top 50 cocktail bars were announced this week and Satan’s Whiskers in Bethnal Green came out on top.
The list, compiled by Top 50 Cocktail Bars, was founded by William Reed, the same publishing company behind the World’s 50 Best, the National Restaurant Awards, and the Top 50 Gastropubs lists.
London performed well, with nearly half of the bars listed — 24 out of 50 — in the capital. The list confirms London’s place not only as the best city in the UK for a good cocktail, but as a globally leading cocktail bar destination.
Swift in Soho and the Connaught Bar have both previously ranked highly, but Swift dropped to number six in this year’s ranking, while the much-loved Connaught Bar slipped down to number 20.
The inventive Panda & Sons in Edinburgh was Scotland’s highest ranked bar (number two overall), while Cardiff’s Lab 22 was the only entry for Wales at 26.
Back in the capital, and the highest new entry went to the recently opened Dram on Denmark Street, while Equal Parts in Hackney — founded by the team from Sager + Wilde — won the award for “One to Watch".
Cocktail maestro Ryan Chetiyawardana’s brilliant Lyaness, ranked globally as the best bar in the Pinnacle guide, came in tenth, while the recently opened experimental speakeasy (accessed under a casino via a daily changing password) Archive & Myth placed 46th.
The full list can be found here
