Where To Eat at The Bar in London

When the trio of miniature pickled onions in your Szechuan Gibson proves insufficient to sustain you – you are not an It girl in a slip dress, after all – it’s time to reach for the bar menu at Common Decency, the seductive subterranean bar at NoMad London. Chef Ashley Abodeely matches the opulence of the space with a menu of caviar-topped potato rösti, raw oysters glistening with frozen Champagne and black pepper, and excellent chips seasoned with lemon and rosemary. The name, by the way, is a nod to Oscar Wilde, who was tried here for indecency, back when it was Bow Street Magistrates’ Court, not yet the definition of contemporary luxury hospitality.

This strikingly aesthetic pub on the All Saints Road in Notting Hill just seems to get it right. At The Pelican, the bar menu’s a beaut, like they’ve taken a focus group of drinkers, two pints into a night out, and asked them what they want to eat. Pork scratchings! Sausage rolls! Welsh rarebit! Mince on toast! Chips! A dozen Lindisfarne oysters! Well, this is West London after all. Specials are scrawled on the mirror menu, including some splurgy wines such as Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru by the glass.

If, as can happen, you find yourself at wine bar The Drop at Coal Drops Yard, mulling a second bottle, it’s probably worth having a little something to line the stomach first. Truffle crisps would do nicely, as would Scotch quails’ eggs dipped in spicy ketchup, some slices of Italian cured beef, or maybe a Coombeshead Farm pork pie since it’s so rare to find them outside of Devon. There’s no end of lovely wines to try by the glass, from Kentish fizz to a fashionably ‘glou glou’ Saumur-Champigny. Another class act from the Harts Group (Quo Vadis, Barrafina and co).

Kirk Haworth’s plant-based concept Plates is now in residence at Untitled in Dalston. There he serves a full five-courser on the mezzanine, and a bar menu at the concrete communal table for those who just want a few snacks with their Heather Negroni or Milk Punch. Haworth makes every plate look so perfect, and taste so good. Try curried cauliflower fritters with pickled cucumber and lime, or potato croquettes with jalapeño mayo and salt and vinegar wakame.

Half Cut Market is the ultimate ‘slashie’; a bottleshop/convenience store/wine bar/fun hang, sitting usefully between Camden and Caledonian Road. In the first half of the week, there’s a short menu of stylish snacks to go with the low intervention wines and craft beers – the white beans with lemon are not to be missed. In the second half of the week, they have guest stars on the pans. Just lately, it’s been Hot4U slinging fried oyster po’boys, brown crab pizza fritta, and cheeseburger tartare and fries. Their next artist in residence will be announced imminently.

Crouch Enders have it good. Their friendly neighbourhood cocktail bar is a bar of real clout, a member of the influential Three Sheets, Top Cuvée family. Cocktails pendulate between clever and classic. Snacks are playful. Mushroom croquettes with maple sriracha, Korean corn dog with katsu sauce, or goats’ curd dumplings spiked with crispy chilli. Add a Cherry Americano or a Snickers Old-Fashioned and all is right in the world.

For a quick bite after work or some pre-theatre snacking, Sophie’s in Soho has you covered. There’s good eating to be had in the bar, from snacky to substantial. A hot fried chicken burger or steak sandwich with watercress and salsa verde are a meal in themselves; while padron peppers with smoked cod’s roe and or chilli-fried chicken wings dunked in blue cheese are superb sharing material. The Art Deco room (previously a theatre, no less) adds to a sense of occasion to the proceedings, even if you’re just knocking back a couple of cocktails before a show.

Venture downstairs at Top Cuvée’s Bethnal Green outpost, past the bottles and the sexy merch, to Cave Cuvée, the subterranean cave à vin. Find drinking food in its purest form – anchovies, gildas, crisps – and some heftier eats such as mushrooms on toast, fried potatoes with aioli, and the cult fried oyster buns. Lambrusco tastings, oyster nights, and vermuteria takeovers are big events here.

No ordinary snacks for the second-best bar in the world (only Connaught Bar came above it in the World’s 50 Best Bars). While the drinks at Tayer + Elementary are John Pawson levels of minimalist, the small plates are effulgent. Order tuna patacones, crisp little discs of fried plantain topped with raw tuna, inspired takoyaki-style prawn croquettes and piña colada cheesecake. Drinks-wise, fans will be happy to learn the Damask rose Negroni is back.

Take a tenner to Hacha in Brixton and you can try one of their famous Mirror Margaritas. Take two tenners and you can have tacos too. Hacha has rationalised its menu at its Brixton and Dalston sites and now does a streamlined menu of fun Mexican flavours. Essential orders include bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers with tomatillo salsa, charred baby corn with chipotle sauce, black olive and halloumi, and the slow-cooked beef and crispy cheese taco with beef consommé for dipping and dunking.