1. Sabor, Piccadilly
For an genuine style of Spain
For a welcome crack from its much more haughty neighbours on Heddon Street slip into Sabor, the place a feast for the senses awaits with diners mingling, seafood scorching and wine eyeglasses clinking. Awarded a Michelin star in 2018, the cafe founded by Nieves Barragán-Mohacho and José Etura has swiftly grow to be just one of London’s prime-rated Spanish eateries. Inside of, a big open kitchen area is embellished with blue-and-white Moorish tiles, with the fishmonger’s option of the working day exhibited on ice. Right opposite is the bar, a hive of chattering soon after-perform drinkers and diners eagerly anticipating those gold-dust tables about eyeglasses of fizz. Observe as frenetic cooks chop and flip meals when bartenders schmooze the patrons – it’s just as if you’ve walked into a tapas cafe on the Andalucian coastline.
And what do I get?

From La Rioja to Cadiz, the bottles at the bar hail from Spain’s very best-recognised wine areas. Choose from an intensive wine record and take the time to question the bartenders about their favorite vermouths, gins, sherries and txakolis (a common sparkling dry white wine from the Basque location) — they’ll be far more than delighted to share their knowledge. On the cocktail menu are new spins on old favourites — choose the sangria or negroni, equally laced with Fino sherry. There’s authentic mixologist mastery below, too. Buy the aromatic, gin-based Agua de Valencia: a heady, botanical mix of orange blossom, blood orange and cava. Or the fruity, gin-dependent Mango Rebujito with Fino sherry, mint and Spanish mango. Meanwhile, on the tapas menu, buy a plateful of jamón ibérico from Dehesa de los Monteros served with toasts and garlicky salsa. Get a plateful of payoyo croquetas too — every a heavenly mouthful of melted goat’s cheese and fluffy potato.
2. The Winemakers Club, Farringdon
For a minor je ne sais quoi
You’d be forgiven for imagining you’d stepped into a 19th-century French wine cellar, but this is in truth the underbelly of the Holborn Viaduct — a ‘for-all those-in-the-know’ type of spot tucked beneath bare-brick Victorian arches. The musty scent of old rainwater will creep up your nostrils as you walk by the cavernous entrance. Inside of, scattered around the place are time-worn picket tables and chairs, oak barrels topped with candle-stuffed wine bottles, seemingly real antique plaques on the walls (the web site has served as a wine cellar for additional than 150 yrs, so they really perfectly could be) and even a massive stained glass window looming above it all. Make no slip-up, while, this is a wine bar showcasing the most effective of modern day viticulture. It is a shop by day, a wine bar and charcuterie by night time, has an online wine-providing organization, additionally a sister home south of the river in Deptford.
And what do I order?

The team proudly proclaim that the wine list is ever-changing. Functioning with a assortment of small producers internationally, the checklist champions bottles that defy contemporary manufacturing conventions and use indigenous components — count on nearly solely biodynamic and natural wines. Correct now, oenophiles are loving the club’s Tom Shobbrook biodynamic Australian wines manufactured with minimal intervention in the Barossa Valley, and its new collection of Jousset organic wines developed in France’s Loire Valley. The bar snacks are nicely truly worth a try, way too — choose from oily, lemon-drenched boquerones (marinated anchovy fillets) served with sourdough toast, duck rillettes or a decadent raclette toastie.