LDNGuide

The Best Bars In Shoreditch

From underground speakeasies, to moody wine bars, to perfectly poured Guinness.
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photo credit: Caitlin Isola

There’s no lack of options in and around Shoreditch. Be it excellent restaurants or a tonne of drinking establishments—from the good, to the bad, to the tacky. Thankfully, we’re here to help you choose the right bar for the right occasion—especially if it doesn’t involve an adult ball pit. Whether you’re looking for a pub with good food, cocktails in a converted police station, or just want to clink wine with a colleague, you’ll find all the spots you need on this list.

Or if you’re after a drink elsewhere, check out our guide to The Best Cocktails Bars In London.


THE SPOTS

Wine Bar

Shoreditch

$$$$Perfect For:Drinks & A Light BiteDrinking Good WineDate Night
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You enter this industrial wine bar with changing chef residencies through unmarked creaking black garage doors, and once inside this space is always humming. Depending on who's in the kitchen, you can just as easily come to Oranj for a few pre-dinner glasses as you can for a whole sit-down affair. The space has the feel of a gallery opening, guest list-only, NTS-soundtracked supper club and, given its proximity to Brick Lane, still manages to feel quite secret.


When someone says part-wine bar, part-social enterprise, what we hear is “you can come here and drink something funky and feel like a good person at the same time”. That’s exactly the case with Sohaila, an intimate Shoreditch wine bar and Lebanese-inspired restaurant from Fat Macy’s—who train Londoners and help them to move from hostels into their own homes. They’ve got over 100 wines on offer with accessible price points and a casual downstairs bar for drinks. Plus, we hear that feeling charitable really helps with hangovers.


Discount Suit Company is another basement bar. The people behind it run The Umbrella Project nearby and The Sun Tavern, so you can be confident that they take their liquor very seriously without being bores about it. Come after the market traders at Petticoat Lane have gone home, and impress your date with your knowledge of hidden things when you take them down an unmarked flight of stairs below the old Discount Suit Company sign on the side of the building. Be warned it can get very busy, and it might be an idea to reserve a table.


photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

Shoreditch is a feral neighbourhood at the best of times, not least when the sun’s out and everyone’s clambering for any and all outside space. While we can’t promise the rooftop hotel bar at One Hundred Shoreditch won’t get chaotic, it’s a fun, sceney spot for spicy margaritas and taking photos of your white negroni with skyline views. Match your outfit to the pastel pink tiles, skip the forgettable small plates, and let sundowners slip into last orders. Know that the alfresco, heated terrace isn’t bookable and spaces are allocated on a first come, first serve basis. So clock off work early to secure your place.


Seed Library is one of those bars that makes you feel sexy. That’s just the power of burnt orange banquette seating and getting buzzed in the basement of a slick hotel in One Hundred Shoreditch. Outside of ‘60s dome lights and records lining the walls, the cocktails are packed full of top-shelf liquor. The menu reads like a collaboration between Kew Gardens and your inevitable hangover—we’re talking coriander seed gimlets, red dandelion negronis, and mulberry agave margaritas. It’s undeniably a classy spot, but be warned that the music reaches club decibels at the weekend. 


The Umbrella Workshop makes the kind of creative cocktails you’ll get attached to before they’re snatched away. A teeny tiny exposed brick bar off Shoreditch High Street, this place has a short weekly changing menu that acts as a moody, boozy testing ground for its sister venues, Discount Suit Company and The Sun Tavern. The good news is that whatever drink you’re mourning will be replaced by something just as jazzy and it’s definitely one to hit if spirit spoilers make you feel special. 


Passione Vino is a wine shop and bar on Leonard Street that feels like a private members’ club. From the outside it looks like it’s just a shop. But to those in the know, it’s not only one of the best wine shops in London, it’s also somewhere where you can push open a door hidden behind a mirrored wall, climb a rickety staircase, take a seat in the maximally decorated upstairs room, and drink some of the best Italian wines you’ll find anywhere outside of Italy.


A lot of Shoreditch bars go for some kind of theme, but Happiness Forgets is a place that just focuses on the fundamentals, and it works every time. The cocktails are always on point, your table service will be friendly, and the ambience is perfect for holing up with friends or a date for a few hours. It’s a gimmick-free spot that’s also popular, so you’ll want to book a table. If you do fancy trying your luck, we’d go earlier in the evening.


TT Liquor is one of the best speakeasy bars we know. This building was once one of Shoreditch’s police stations, but now you access the bar through one of east London’s best, and best-looking, booze shops. The cellar bar has been transformed from the old prison cells, and are now furnished with plush leather benches, making them perfect for largeish groups of up to around 10 people. The cocktails are as good as any you’ll find in London, there’s a great selection of wine, and regulars can even create their own liquor collection by taking a deposit box for bottles they’ve purchased upstairs.


The Well & Bucket is a neighbourhood fixture for good reason. The pub itself is absolutely gorgeous, with loads of pretty details and a garden at the back. Sliders and oysters are available if you’re feeling flush, and the crowd is always good for a party. When it gets late, the 5CC cocktail bar is downstairs if you’ve committed to coming home completely rat-arsed.


After you’ve had a couple of drinks at Well & Bucket upstairs, walk down into the basement for cocktails at 5CC. It’s a cosy vault bar with low ceilings and alcoves that are ideal for a second or third date, or a small group hang. That said, it’s popular so definitely book if you’re going there with a crew at the weekend. If you’re not immediately feeling anything from the drinks menu, the bartenders will come up with something for you if you let them know what kind of cocktail you’re after.


As far as big-ticket nights go, they don’t come much bigger than Nightjar. It’s a legendary underground ‘speakeasy’ that has an upmarket feel, incredible cocktails, and a swing band that gets the room moving after 9pm. In short, it’s the kind of experience that you imagined when you moved to London from your hometown. While an experience here can be a class act, be warned that you’ll pay for it—along with cover, service, and expensive drinks, the cost of a night here easily mounts up. Be sure to book well ahead.


Walk five minutes away from purgatory—or Old Street roundabout, as it’s more commonly known—and you’ll find this sceney cocktail bar. The front bar is walk-in only and has the look of an izakaya built from Apollo 11’s scrap parts, including a pretty nifty negroni tap and sound system. It’s perfect for spontaneous midweek things, especially if you like people-watching out the glassy windows. The back bar is a moodily lit date den with its own separate cocktail list and vaguely illicit, Blade Runner vibe. It’s a very easy place to hole up in until 1am.


This Old Street Irish bar sits beneath sister restaurant, Daffodil Mulligan, and it’s definitely the messy younger sibling with a twinkle in its eye. Perfect strangers spill their holiday plans with you at the bar—Cork, tomorrow morning, an early flight, it was a mistake—and pints are lined up with precision. If you’re here to eat, and we recommend you do, nab one of the snug wooden booths where you can eat a beef and bone marrow cheeseburger in relative peace. 


Quiet drinks aren’t particularly easy to come by in Shoreditch, but The Grocery’s wine bar couldn’t be more different. It’s a bright and friendly spot attached to an organic supermarket on Kingsland Road. The wines are good, natural, and the staff are always happy to suggest something you might never have tried before. Plus, you can drink anything from the wine section of the supermarket (with a small additional corkage). It’s a great spot for catching up with an old friend, or for a date with someone you’ve never met before, when you don’t want to have to jostle past a start-up crew to get another round.

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