Eating out in London can feel weighted with expectations – and that’s if you can score a table (10pm on a Monday night, in three weeks’ time? No thanks). One way around that is to eat at restaurants’ bars instead, where spots are saved for walk-ins and prices tend to be lower. With zero pressure to eat a proper meal, you can pick and choose from the bar menu, whether that means playful small plates, scaled-down signature dishes or just an impromptu dessert. Here are five of the best London restaurants to dine at the bar.
St John Smithfield, Clerkenwell
The bar at the original St John is something of an institution, with its bare walls, scuffed bistro tables and zinc bar, where you’ll often find co-founders Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver eating a quiet lunch. Updated twice daily, its chalkboard menu features many of the signatures served in the dining room (which, unlike the bar, typically requires a booking): think bone marrow salad, smoked cod’s roe on toast, or Henderson’s Welsh rarebit, with its “very long splash” of Worcestershire sauce. The latter is a must, Gulliver explains to Broadsheet, “Simply because it is a good thing made with experience and good ingredients”.
Sabor, Soho
It’s easy to miss the bar at Sabor, chef Nieves Barragán’s Michelin-starred Spanish restaurant. It’s a nook below the spiral staircase, with four seats and no reservations: if every stool’s taken, you’ll find four more along the back wall. Its standalone tapas list includes tiny, deep-fried crystal prawns, topped with a molten-yolked fried egg, and an unctuous tortilla – a calling card for Barragán since her days at Barrafina. “The idea came from the pintxos bars in the north of Spain,” she says. “I love the casualness of it: people standing around, grabbing a snack, wiping their hands, little napkins everywhere. It’s unpretentious and full of life.”
Core by Clare Smyth, Notting Hill
While tables – released every three months – are booked up almost instantly at three-starred Core, seats in its cocktail bar, Whiskey & Seaweed, can often be reserved on the day. The “snacks” here are signature dishes from chef Clare Smyth, scaled down in price (and sometimes size) but otherwise unchanged. “They’re essentially the same as what we serve in the dining room,” Smyth says. “Nothing’s diluted or dialled down.” Exquisite single bites include the jellied eel, with its atomiser-puff of vinegar, and the tiny, buttery lobster roll, in a dome of applewood smoke. From the small plates, the umami-bomb Potato and Roe is an essential, while the malt-and-chocolate Core-teser makes for a memorable finale.
Moro, Exmouth Market
The long zinc bar at Sam and Sam Clark’s Moorish-leaning Exmouth Market restaurant has been part of the set-up since it opened in 1997. Still, it often flies under the radar. “We don’t promote the bar per se,” says co-owner Sam Clarke. “But if you know, you know.” Every dish on its one-page list of tapas and mezze has earned its spot, from the crispy chickpeas with falafel spice to the slabs of sweet onion tortilla, while seasonal small plates might include pan-fried porcini mushrooms on toast. Perching on a stool, says Clarke, you’re at the heart of the action. “It’s spontaneous and convivial, with a front-row view of the open kitchen and charcoal grill.”
The Clove Club, Shoreditch
What kind of snacks does a two-starred kitchen turn out? Find out at The Clove Club, whose bar menu – a fixture in the early days – has made a recent comeback. The pared-back bar takes reservations but also welcomes walk-ins, with a menu that runs from pork-jowl “Scottish tacos” to truffled parmesan fries (actually a stack of indecently rich piped beignets). A trio of tiny crab dumplings are moonlighting from the tasting menu, as is the Amalfi lemonade dessert, laced with Kampot pepper ice-cream. “Everyone’s a bit squeezed right now,” chef Isaac McHale tells Broadsheet. “This is a chance to come in and experience what we do, but on a smaller scale.”
