Our favourite bars in London for a dry martini
There's an art to the dry martini – we have ours with gin, not vodka; with an olive, or an orange twist if we're feeling suave; and if you so much as look at it while holding a shaker, we'll poke you in the eye (sorry, Mr Bond). Here are our favourites in the capital…
To the untrained palate, the martini may be just a cocktail; but to those in the know, it's a whole lot more. Javier de las Muelas knows this, which is why Dirty Martini in Barcelona – an ever-present in the World’s 50 Best Bars list – received worldwide acclaim. The arrival of a London outpost, at the Meliá White House Hotel in Fitzrovia, piqued our interest and tastebuds – its menu is based around the drink, and the bar team get inventive with the ‘Excentric’ menu, which features The Carnivore, built around pisco, with Szechuan pepper and passionfruit, served on a frozen flower with dry ice. Don’t try this at home, kids.
There’s something about the simplicity, elegance and history of the martini that suits the Savoy, in particular the American Bar, down to the ground. It's a favourite serve of bartender Erik Lorincz, whose own take on the drink features Cocchi dry vermouth and his own specially created bitters.
We aren't the first to tout the virtues of the notorious Dukes Bar dry martini – it's been praised and enjoyed by everyone from The New York Times to Ian Fleming. Put simply, slipping inside the hotel's inimitable bar and sipping a contender for the world's best martini is an experience many try to emulate, but no one can quite match.
We couldn't talk martinis without mentioning trolleys, and OXO Tower's recently renovated restaurant (try saying that three times fast) brought back the classic martini trolley last year, as well as a menu dedicated to variants of the classic cocktail from different eras.
Old-school it may be, but this decadent destination serves up an absolutely cracking martini. Its founder, Salvatore 'the Maestro' Calabrese, even made the oldest ever last year, featuring gins from the early 1900s.
