London’s Best New Bars and Pubs of 2026

Is it a wine bar or is it a restaurant? Is it a nightclub or is it a cocktail den? Where the distinction between genres of drinking spots felt clearer in years past, many of London’s best new venues are harder to categorise – and we’re here for it. There’s Bar Blondie in Queen’s Park, blending European small plates with a globe-spanning wine list; Marrion’s in Hackney, luring its cocktail drinkers into eventually ordering comforting juicy cheeseburgers and tuna melts; and a Dalston wine bar pairing dishes by resident chefs with offbeat drops. Even the more classic cocktail bars that opened this year are putting twists on tradition (read on to discover a Mayfair Martini bar offering Monster Munch as a garnish). Here are this year’s 14 best new restaurants, independently selected by Broadsheet’s editors, listed in the order in which they opened.

London isn’t short of bars specialising in specific cocktails – but as far as we know, it’s never had one dedicated to the Mint Julep. Cato is named after Cato Alexander, who was freed from slavery in the early 19th century, then opened Cato’s Tavern in New York City. Today, he’s known as a founding father of mixology, particularly when it comes to the Mint Julep, a blend of bourbon, muddled sugar, fresh mint and crushed ice. Here in this handsome New York tavern-inspired bar, herbs are plucked from planters to bring freshness to a menu that champions domestic produce. Beyond the list of signature Juleps, there’s a host of cocktails with twists like the house Martini, with gin infused with rock oyster shells, and an Old Fashioned featuring brown butter, chicken broth and chestnut.

You’ve got a decision to make when you arrive at Peckham Palais. Do you ascend the low-lit staircase for a cocktail at The Ballroom bar? Or is it straight downstairs to the club, a cavernous 500-capacity space with a world-class sound system? If you ask us, start with The Ballroom, a ’70s-style space, colour-drenched in red and punctuated by glossy tiles and intricate woodwork on the bar and DJ booth. It’s part of the reimagining of Peckham’s hulking neo-Renaissance building by the Night Group (Hackney’s Night Tales, NY’s Loft and Netil360), and it’s well worth a visit whether or not you’re dancing in the basement until 6am. Drinks punch above the weight of usual nightclub offerings, especially the vodka Martini, stirred through with hay-smoked olives, and a Sazerac with a banana-liquor twist.

Agave leads the way at this neon-soaked bar below El Pastor in Soho. Don’t expect any tired Mexican cliches here – instead, this is modern Mexico, thrumming with a soundtrack curated by guests that range from chefs to DJs and other cultural figures. The pillar of the bar is its seven Margaritas, seven agave-led cocktails and seven classic drinks (siete means seven) – the Broadsheet pick is the 777, inspired by the famous Margaritas served in the gardens of Mexico City institution San Angel Inn, which arrive ice-cold in a stainless-steel flask containing three pours. Crucially, it’s open till 1am every day, so the perfect spot to have in your arsenal for a midweek knees-up.

A teensy natural wine bar just off Streatham High Road is proving to have plenty of pull. The Rowdy Table – a pop-up concept gone permanent – is consistently crowded with south Londoners looking for good wines and good times, which come courtesy of co-founders Kevin Hale and Luke Cinque-White. Both are welcoming hosts who will happily walk visitors through the list of drops, which are sorted under categories like Bitches Diesel (sparkling) and Princess Petrol (rosé). All wines are from small, independent producers working sustainably, organically or biodynamically. It’s the type of fun, easygoing wine bar we all want in our neighbourhood.

It was a sad day for the people of London Fields when Papi closed in March. But their loss was Newington Green’s gain, when the duo behind every party-person’s favourite restaurant opened The Golden Tooth – a gastropub on the southern tip of Green Lanes that’s part laid-back pub lounge, part buzzy dining room. Imbued with the same lively energy that made Papi such a hit, the dining room is filled with vintage furniture and crowned with a shimmering disco ball. And the low-intervention wine list is 80 per cent British producers, with glasses starting at £7. In the dining room a chicken and red prawn stargazy pie – with the crustacean’s head poking out the top, as tradition dictates – is the star of the show.

With its animal print banquettes, dancing flecks of disco ball light, chrome floor lamps and rounded train window-style windows, Nancy’s feels like a ’70s maximalist fantasy. And at sunset, it’s bathed in golden light; the perfect vantage point to watch trains snaking in and out of London Bridge while sipping a cocktail. It’s the latest bar from a duo of Swift alumni – and it’s tailor-made for good times, with a 2am weekend license that’s rare for the area. Leave your drink to chance with the Negroni trolley, where guests roll a die to be served one of six Negroni styles, from a classic take (but with a spritz of leather perfume, a reference to the area’s leather-tanning history) to a chocolate version that’s served with an orange chocolate truffle from So Chocolicious in Borough Market, and another version with mezcal, gin and absinthe.

Bobbi’s opened last month in St Clement hotel, in tandem with Cafe Clement to little publicity – where co-founder Nick Jones wants to draw a diverse crowd to his glam hotel restaurant, he wants this bar to feel almost like a (very high-end) house party. It’s all lush textiles, sculptural seats and good times till late, buttressed by a “we’ll make what you like” approach to cocktails (proof leaving things to the experts yields results, which a Broadsheet editor discovered when they were made an excellent wet vodka Martini, a departure from their usual dirty and gin). In a bar scene of manufactured sex appeal and over-produced “good times” this is the real deal.

Read “Martini bar in Mayfair” and no doubt certain assumptions come to mind about the type of establishment to expect. What you’re probably not thinking of is Monster Munch as a garnish. Brutes manages to swerve convention while still delivering some of the neighbourhood’s best Martinis. Its choose-your-own-adventure approach means that there are more than 1500 possible combinations to work your way through; guests are greeted with a Martini menu allowing them to tick off their preferences (will it be dry with a lemon twist and blue cheese olives? Dirty with a caviar bump?). And if you’re not a fan of Martinis? Don’t count yourself out. The bar offers an always-evolving selection of cocktails created with seasonal produce that are there one day, and gone the next.

The Mary Wollstonecraft was bound to be special: it’s by Nick Bailey, who founded The Robin in Crouch Hill in 2023, which quickly set an example for how a neighbourhood boozer can embed in a neighbourhood without the backing of a behemoth group. Like The Robin, The Mary Wollstonecraft oozes charm and care: a lush garden planted by its green-fingered owner, a roster of independent – mainly British – beer, wine and a line-up of DJs. Throw in an all-is-welcome approach and you have a pub that’s built for locals but will undoubtedly draw those from other postcodes.

Under railway arch in Hackney’s Bohemia Place, you'll find London's first community-owned queer pub and performance space. The Joiners Heart is a new LGBTQ+ venue that channels the spirit of an old one: The Joiners Arms, a raucous Shoreditch nightspot forced to shut in 2015 after being snapped up by property developers. Before it closed, everyone from Ian McKellen to Alexander McQueen would prop up the bar at this rough-and-ready pub/club, which was once branded “Britain’s trendiest gay dive”. Its new iteration has been designed with full wheelchair accessibility in mind, and plans to host everything from queer craft fairs and karaoke parties to DJ nights.

Queen’s Park is rapidly becoming one of the buzziest neighbourhoods in west London – and Bar Blondie is undoubtedly one of its most powerful crowd magnets. The 45-cover wine bar and restaurant is the new venture from Elliot Milne (Milk Beach, Saltwater) and award-winning sommelier Alexandra Price (Bar Crispin, Plates, Beaverbrook). And while the mid-century modern-style space is filled with nods to country-western films, its menu takes its cues from southern European wine-bar culture, with a street-facing terrace designed for afternoon drinks that spill into evening meals. The lengthy wine list spans the globe, pairing classic estates with emerging independent producers. And pasta is handmade and includes pasta al pistou and slow-cooked lamb Genovese with provolone.

Few things have gripped the London food scene in the last decade quite like the arrival and overnight success of Norman’s, the nostalgia-laced new-school caff that opened in Archway in 2020 and closed last year. But after five years of aesthetically pleasing fry-ups and many high-profile collaborations, co-founder Elliott Kaye fancied a change of pace. Enter: Marrion’s, a casual neighbourhood bar on Hackney’s Morning Lane inspired by timeless, old-school institutions. Unapologetically designed for good times, drinks are fuss-free (low-intervention wines on tap start at just £5 a glass) and the food is perfect for when you’re a few drinks in and crave comforting fare: think a tuna melt, juicy cheeseburger and an oozing devilled crab rarebit. A Copenhagen-made sound system adds extra energy to the room, which currently has a 1am license – though Kaye is hoping to eventually extend it further.

After years of sourcing organic wines for some of London’s best restaurants (including Brat, Morchella and Noble Rot), the husband-and-wife duo behind Basket Press Wines have opened their own wine bar and shop, where they’ll be running chef residencies, with dishes paired with offbeat wines. Six Seconds is a cosy 25-cover space, with shelves of wine bottles to one side and a handful of street-side tables out front. Aiming to make wine more approachable, founders Jiri Majerik and Zainab Majerikova have built a wine list around sections such as Mineral, Complex and Vibrant, rather than grapes or regions – and welcome the chance to make recommendations.

East London’s latest late-night venue is far more ambitious than your average club or bar. Not only will Altar’s industrial-feel 100-capacity basement venue (with a 3am license on weekends) host DJ sets; there’ll also be film screenings, live music and even in-conversation evenings with the likes of Louis Theroux. While music is at Altar’s epicentre, the wood-panelled ground-floor cocktail bar will be the draw for many. Seven draft taps feature four Leyon- and Walthamstow-based breweries, and eight signature cocktails are wittily grouped as either “A-sides” (crowd-pleasing) or “B-sides” (adventurous). Hungry? Order a creative twist on a classic hotdog, like the banh mi version with umami-packed pate, kachumber, soy chilli pickled carrot and crispy onions.

Additional reporting Che-Marie Trigg, Ben Olsen, Serafina Kenny, Jo Taylor, Hilary Armstrong, Richard MacKichan, Tomé Morrissy-Swan, Nick Levine, Saffron Swire, Stephen Emms and Bethany Lane.