Connaught Bar

The current menu, Stream, holds the same ten drinks for its entire life and rewrites their recipes as the seasons move, so Stem currently arrives as cognac infused with argan oil, Michter's rye, Acqua Bianca, Persian cordial, new-make wine and coriander bitters (The World's 50 Best Bars 2025).

Why go

The bar opened inside The Connaught in 2008 and, in Josh Ong's words for the 2025 list, "changed the game for hotel bars almost overnight" (50 Best). Agostino Perrone has run the drinks since, now alongside Giorgio Bargiani, in a room by David Collins done in silver leaf, mirror and Cubist detail (Europe's 50 Best Bars 2026). The house method is stated plainly by that page: "distillates, infused spirits and carefully calibrated dilution to achieve balance." The signature serve is a Dry Martini built at your table, where the bartender stirs your spirit with a house blend of vermouths, then raises the mixing glass overhead and pours into a glass already painted with the bitters you chose (50 Best 2025; venue). They also distill their own gin in-house and now bottle it for sale (venue).

Order this / avoid

• Order: the bespoke Dry Martini off the trolley, and pick a bitters rather than waving it through. Carina Soto Velasquez, who co-founded Equal Parts, sends people for the plainest version: "The classic gin martini with a lemon twist is gorgeous" ref. Off the Stream list, Stem is the one 50 Best singles out.
• Avoid: arriving at peak without a fallback. The bar takes no reservations and Time Out calls it "the often full Connaught Bar," so if the room is gone, the Coburg Bar sits down the same corridor with atrium seating over Mount Street ref.

What locals & experts say

• Carina Soto Velasquez, co-founder of Equal Parts, in Time Out (June 2026): "The Connaught Bar makes an incredible classic martini. All the work they do around the martinis there is brilliant." She was one of seven bar-industry experts Time Out polled for London's best martini, and the Connaught came out on top. ref
• The dissent, from the same poll: Max Venning of Three Sheets picked the hotel's Coburg Bar over this one, ordering a dry vodka martini with a twist made with Belvedere, "really crisp, and nice and stirred down with good dilution." So the best martini in the building is an argument, and both sides of it are in the same hotel. ref
• CLASS, Hamish Smith, reporting from the ceremony (7 Dec 2021): the bar "was named the World's Best Bar for the second year running in The World's 50 Best Bars list," making its "twelfth appearance in the list, a joint record," then led by "Ago Perrone, Giorgio Bargiani and Maura Milia." The list is owned by William Reed and voted by an academy of 600 industry experts. ref
• The current standing: No. 6 in The World's 50 Best Bars 2025, with "16 appearances" on the list called "unparalleled," and No. 10 in Europe's 50 Best Bars 2026, which also named it The Best Bar in the UK 2026, sponsored by Monkey Shoulder. ref
• Local rec: Jeff has it down in one word, "Iconic." REAL.

Good to know

• Timing: Monday to Saturday, 4pm to 1am. Closed Sunday (venue).
• Booking: none taken. "The Connaught Bar operates a no reservation policy" (venue), so walk in and be ready to wait or move to the Coburg.
• Address: The Connaught, Carlos Place, Mayfair, London W1K 2AL. Worth stating because the map pin for this row was previously wrong by 13km; Carlos Place is off Mount Street, a few minutes from Bond Street station.
• Groups and kids: children are welcome accompanied by an adult, though there is no space for pushchairs. The Champagne Room can be taken privately for up to 20 (venue).
• Dietary: nothing published. No allergen, vegan or gluten-free statement appears on the bar's page, so ask at the table.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 5 for the Connaught Hotel at Carlos Place, inspected 4 February 2026.
• Price: no current cocktail price is published anywhere we could source, and the last public figure is a 2017 Time Out roundup, so treat the $$$$ tag as the only guide.

Craft signals (cocktails: the same ten drinks, re-solved each season)

The cadence here is deliberately the hardest kind. The Stream format keeps the same ten drinks and re-solves them seasonally, and the hotel states that new signatures are designed and added through the year to reflect renewing seasons and ingredients. Swapping a list is easier than rebuilding the same ten drinks against new produce, which is why this reads as seasonal rather than rotating and why it is not a criticism. The second signal is house production: seven house bitters as a finishing choice, cognac infused with argan oil, and a house-distilled Connaught gin now bottled in Mayfair.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: "Iconic" REAL.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

must-visit — The case is craft and record, not scarcity. Sixteen appearances on The World's 50 Best Bars list, No. 1 in the world in 2020 and 2021, No. 6 in 2025 and Best Bar in the UK 2026, under the same director of mixology throughout. The tableside martini is the rare piece of bar theater that is also a technique demonstration: your spirit, a house vermouth blend, one of the house bitters painted into the glass, and the pour thrown from a raised mixing glass. You cannot get that serve anywhere else, and the room it happens in was designed by David Collins, who died in 2013 and will not make another one. It costs what it costs and there is no booking, which is the price of admission rather than a reason to skip it.