It’s official: 4 London bars are in the 50 best in the world right now

If you’re after a tip-top tipple, London boasts more than enough excellent bars to have you covered. This city has the mixological majesty of any refined drinker’s wildest dreams; in Time Out’s list of London’s greatest bars you’ll find everything from plush, cosy hideaways and immaculately curated listening bars to high-tech experimental drinkeries.

And we aren’t the only ones who think highly of London’s bar scene. Today (October 8) World’s 50 Best Bars has crowned the planet’s top places to drink, and several of the capital’s institutions made the cut.

World’s 50 Best is an annual list that celebrates Earth’s greatest bars, and it gets its ranking via votes from a group of industry experts that includes bartenders, consultants, drinks writers and cocktail specialists. In September the ranking published the 51-100 longlist for 2025, which featured three London bars – A Bar with Shapes For a Name (at 73), Kwãnt Mayfair (79) and Three Sheets Soho (80)

In 2025’s top 50, four London bars made the cut, exactly the same number as in 2024. In fact, not only is it the same London bars in the top 50, but the drinkeries placed in the same order (albeit in different spots in the overall ranking). Here’s which ones featured:

Tayēr + Elementary

The highest-ranked London spot was Tayēr + Elementary. T+E placed fifth in the 2025 list, which is down one spot from last year but very impressive nonetheless. The two-part bar comprises Elementary, a front bar with an industrial, minimalist aesthetic, and Tayēr, a chef’s table-type cocktail experience with new ingredients daily. 

World’s 50 Best says that T+E ‘feels as fresh as the day it opened while also becoming the blueprint for progressive cocktail bars’, while picking out the One Sip Martini with a blue cheese olive as a standout drink.

The Old Street spot has a history of doing well in World’s 50 Best’s lists, placing second in both 2021 and 2022. It also placed in the top 10 in last year’s ranking of Britain’s top cocktail bars.

Connaught Bar

Next-highest was Connaught Bar, which placed just behind Tayēr + Elementary in sixth overall. The Mayfair spot climbed several places from its 2024 ranking (when it came 13th) and it’s another long-regarded favourite of World’s 50 Best. The Connaught took top spot in the list in 2020 and 2021, and reportedly makes the best martinis in London.

The Connaught Bar opened in 2008 and is known for its cubist décor. 50 Best describes the place as ‘the quintessential hotel bar’ that ‘changed the game for hotel bars almost overnight’. From the latest menu, the ranking picks the Stem as worthy of note – featuring cognac infused with argan oil, Michter’s rye whiskey, Acqua Bianca, Persian cordial, new-make wine and coriander bitters.

RECOMMENDED: 5 world famous bars that are coming to London for London Cocktail Week 2025.

Satan’s Whiskers

Next up was Satan’s Whiskers in Bethnal Green, which came in at 21st (up from 29th last year). The east London bar is now an established favourite in the capital’s cocktail scene, and 50 Best says Satan’s Whiskers has become ‘a beacon of how bars could – and to some, should – be run’ with ‘some of the best drinks-making in the industry’

At Time Out we wholeheartedly agree. Satan’s Whiskers received a full five-star review from us earlier this year, with critic Lisa Wright shouting-out favourite cocktails Satan’s Garibaldi (campari, orange, lime, passionfruit and orange soda) and Satan’s Manhattan (Knob Creek whiskey, vermouth and bitters). 

Scarfes Bar

The final London bar to make the top 50 was Scarfes Bar at 31 (climbing from 37 in 2024). The Holborn bar, which pays homage to classic gentleman’s clubs, is in Rosewood hotel and features caricatures by the legendary Gerald Scarfe. 

World’s 50 Best is particularly impressed by Scarfes’ setting, saying that ‘antique revolving doors transport you from High Holborn into a swish, leader-bound lounge of bookcases, fireplaces and spherical chandeliers’. Scarfes also received a five-star review from Time Out earlier in 2025.

Top spot overall this year was awarded to Bar Leone in Hong Kong, which took the crown for the first time. Leone was only opened by Italian bartender Lorenzo Antinori in 2023, and came second in the list in 2024. It’s also the first Asian bar to bag top spot.

World’s 50 Best described how low-intervention style Bar Leone has made its mark with a ‘world-class cocktail programme and a refreshing sense of humour’, saying that it ‘pays tribute to Italy’s “cocktail popolari” and classic bartending, while nodding to the casual, community-focused spirit of Trastevere’s traditional neighbourhood bars’. You can find out more about Bar Leone with Time Out Hong Kong here.

London bars in the 2025 World’s 50 Best Bars list

Here are all four of the bars from London that made the ranking this year, including their placement in the overall list

1. Tayēr + Elementary (5)
2. Connaught Bar (6)
3. Satan’s Whiskers (21)
4. Scarfes Bar (31)

You can find the full World’s 50 Best Bars list on Time Out here and read about the only non-London UK bar to make the cut here.

The best bars in London, according to Time Out.