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Time Out
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
The best bar in London in 2025, according to Time Out
London is brimming with brilliant bars, and here at Time Out we've been drinking in loads of them in order to find out which one is the very best. After many cocktails and much deliberation, the new number one in our ranking of the best bars in London is Equal Parts in Hackney, which opened in 2023. 'London has been overrun with 'listening bars' in the last couple of years, but few, if any, take such a fastidious approach to their drinks list as this Hackney Road specimen,' reads our glowing review. 'Partly inspired by Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, the decor in the corner bar is similarly atmospheric; all bare plaster walls, dark wood and mid-century furnishings.' At Equal Parts, the cocktail list is divided into two main sections, with short, strong drinks made with equal measures of each ingredient, and a 'signature list' featuring more unique recipes. The bar was opened by Michael Sager of Sager + Wilde fame, and we like it very, very much. Also making the grade in our brand new top 50 is the newly-opened Ellie's in Dalston, which this weekend was the site of Charli xcx's wedding afterparty (after she enjoyed a meal at Dalla, one of our top 50 London restaurants for 2025). Keith Floyd-core Covent Garden wine bar Le Beaujolais also made the cut, as did Peckham rooftop spots Frank's Cafe and Forza Wine. The best bars in London according to Time Out Here are our top 10 drinking spots in the capital right now. Equal Parts, Hackney Scarfes Bar, Holborn Jumbi, Peckham Satan's Whiskers, Bethnal Green Dram Bar, St Giles Ellie's, Dalston Forza Wine, Peckham Rasputin's, Hackney Sweeties, King's Cross Blondies, Clapton
Time Out
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Millie Short
Sometimes a menu item leaps up at you in the same way that a slobbering puppy might lick your mouth seconds after you've been introduced. At Tasca, that item is the jambon beurre gilda. The mere suggestion of the queen of pintxos in a daring tryst with the prince of sandwiches had me in raptures. Be still my beating epiglottis. Was the dish as good as it was in my head? Better. A silver toothpick of nubbly, caperberry-brined pickle nestling against a sharp guindilla pepper and a dollop of espelette butter wrapped in ham, it was melty and meaty, and tangy all at once. Like a vintage John Waters movie, it's a bit much, but that's the whole point. Who would be so bold as to conjure up this outrageous offering? That would be head chef Josh Dallaway, once of Sager + Wilde, working alongside former Bistro Freddie manager and sommelier, Sinead Murdoc. After munching their way around Portugal and Spain, the couple came back to east London with bellies full of tapas and heads full of ideas. In a year-long residency at Cav – a newly-opened wine bar in the railway arches of Paradise Row – Tasca hits all the 2025 buzz points; there's bold Basque cookery, an embarrassment of ferments, and a cocktail menu that features a couture martini fit for the racks at Dover Street Market (theirs comes with dill and anchovy oil). Like a vintage John Waters movie, it's a bit much, but that's the whole point Yet there's something about the playful Tasca that makes it more appealing than other Iberian small-plate pretenders. A slice of baguette slaked with intoxicating brown crab butter and topped with thick, beefy flaps of cecina cured with 10 kinds of peppercorn offers the perfect cream-to-crunch ratio. There's a scarlet prawn and pork cachorrinho, a febrile, salty take on the classic Porto 'hot dog' – that's essentially an elite toastie dribbling with nutty Ossau-Iraty cheese and served with a bottle of luminous hot sauce. There's a platter of girthy white asparagus too, smothered in a six year-old burnt almond miso that's funkier than a Larry Graham slap bass riff. And a moment please for the cleansing pleasure that is a mound of fresh goat's curd served with cucumber, drifting in a meditative pool of celeriac honey. To the end, Tasca is the best kind of bad influence. They could have played it safe by popping out a couple of pastel de nata, but instead, there is a literal pudding toastie; a hot bikini sandwich filled with tomme de chevre cheese and smoked maple ham. It is, basically, an American diner sweet/savoury breakfast in gloopy, handheld form. Our only wish now is for this residency to become permanent – a mere year of Tasca simply doesn't seem long enough.
