The first thing about Akbar that hits you is the smell, and we mean that in the nicest possible way. There are the Mughal Court spices from the Red Fort restaurant, the potent herbs used in the cocktails, scented oils and lotus flowers that float in bowls leading downstairs. The real feature, though, has to be the two nookie tunnels lined with banquette seating that prove popular with couples and gaggles of beautiful types alike. Of the cocktails, some of the more exotic are Shahad - a martini with honey liqueur, lemon, date-macerated Havana rum with lime and lemongrass cordial - and Great Mughat. You've got to love a drink described as 'devastating', and with raisin-infused Woodford Reserve, passion fruit, caster sugar, and lemongrass cordial with a hint of rosewater, we're sure it is.

Getting buzzed in through the large black door of Apartment 195 is rather alluring, like being allowed entry to a secret spanking club, although it's just to protect the Sloaney clientele from any undesirables. The stairs open out onto a dark wood-panelled lobby with a maitre de's desk, and two boudoir-like bars to choose from, both strewn with flowers, colourful paintings and patrolled by sparkling bar girls in sequinned tops. The cocktails here have won prizes, and looking at the quintessentially English Hendricks Tea Time Martini with strawberries, apricot and mint, and the Gin Garden with cucumber muddled with Tanqueray gin and shaken with elderflower and apple, we can see why. It doesn't get much more refreshing than a Pinky Perky after a hard day's shopping, we can tell you.

Bünker

41 Earlham Street, WC2 9LD

Tel: 020 7240 0606
www.bunkerbar.com

Beneath the butterbean croquettes and tofu shakes of Neal's Yard, the vast Bünker bierhall is whooping it up, buzzing as always with office workers making a healthy din over a Beastie Boys soundtrack. It's a sociable sort of a joint alright, with large tables that can comfortably sit eight and coat hooks on every pillar. The long, backlit bar is fully stocked with glowing bottles of continental beers, and imposing copper vats squat in one corner, providing Bünker with its very own specialty brews that slip down well with the hearty fish and chips and burger fare. While the cocktail list is modest, the largely female bar staff will endeavor to provide you with whatever your imagination can rustle up.

The Club Bar and Dining

21-22 Warwick Street, W1B 5NE

Tel: 020 7734 1002
www.theclubbaranddining.co.uk

Located at what used to be the Sugar Club in the easy to navigate part of Soho, The Club Bar and Dining has an informal bar and dining room on the ground floor, and a cool downstairs cocktail lounge. The food is all day brasserie style dining with lots of options and a great, unusually well priced wine list. Downstairs the chic cocktail bar is perfect for Gintimers as it’s all a bit purple and flowery with lots of nooks and crannies, bar snack table service and a very friendly vibe. It’s also got a cocktail list to rival the best in London with Gintime gins such as Beefeater, Hendrick’s and Plymouth Sloe. The Bramble, that gorgeous combination of gin, lemon and blackberry liqueur, is the drink du jour here. Get there early for an after work drink as the place soon fills up with young Soho trendsters.

• Mon: 11 am to 11 pm
• Tues to Fri: 11 am to 1 am
• Sat: 2 pm to 1 am

In the heart of theatreland and mere footsteps from Seven Dials, lies the grand dame of hotel bars. Sweeping into Brasserie Max is like stepping into a period drama - the prim, straight-backed chairs are neatly set around little tables, and the highly polished bar looks like it should be lined by flappers instead of businessmen and pre-theatre revelers. During busy times, drinkers are confined to the bar stools as the cluttered room fills up with diners eager to sample the Modern British cuisine. It smells divine, but personally we're more interested in the faultlessly posh wines, champagnes and cocktails served by attentive bar staff keen to hear your approval. It's probably not the done thing to suck the coconut ice cream off your cinnamon stick, but sometimes you have to go with these urges.

In the frightfully regal area behind Green Park, the Savoy Group has established its "modern country house in Mayfair". While it's fair to say the faultlessly courteous staff would frown upon any swinging from the chandeliers, everything else will be met by a gracious nod and an automatic topping up of your complimentary miniature gherkins. On our visit, a medley of Andrew Lloyd Webber's greatest hits is being tinkled out of a grand piano in the corner of the compact, wood-panelled lounge, no doubt to appeal to the hotel guests enjoying pre-theatre refreshment of the finest ingredients. Being a good old-fashioned establishment, the gin selection is more generous than most, and it's the perfect place to enjoy a classic martini. The Connaught Bar, don't you know, uses Tanqueray gin, Noilly prat, and "a VERY large olive".

Down a quiet street in Fitzrovia Crazy Bear is a new venue on a mission to challenge our preconceptions of oriental restaurants. A stylish ground floor dining room with a gorgeous cocktail bar on the basement level, the Crazy Bear menu is big on Thai food.. And as you would expect from a Gintime recommended bar, there's plenty of choice for gin lovers who might appreciate the opportunity to combine gin drinks with spicy food instead of wine. The cocktail list is all you would expect from a top class venue with surprising taste combos drawing on the kitchen's oriental ingredients. You can enjoy your drinks in one of the most chic bars in the capital complete with fabulous décor and super attentive table service.

Doon

66 Trafalgar Square
London, WC2N 5DS

Tel: 020 73899808
www.doonstairs.co.uk

A hidden gem in the heart of Central London, this sexy, underground late night venue is just 'doon the stairs' from Albannach, the unique Scottish themed restaurant and bar in Trafalgar Square. Doon is just the kind of bar we like with lots of Gintime Brands behind the bar and Whitley Neill the house gin. Great gin cocktails include signature creations such as a smooth 'Pink and Silky' made with Whitley Neill Gin, fresh pink grapefruit juice and flipped with sugar and lemon, the 'Cuki Cutie', Hendrick's Gin smashed with mint and kiwi and served with Fevertree tonic, and the 'Downing Street', a seductively sweet variation on the Gin Martini stirred with Maraschino.

Doon is a great little cocktail bar, with a cosy look and feel. Lots of red, subtle lighting and comfortable seating add up to an intimate, relaxed, glamorous without being poncey kind of a place with excellent service and knowledgeable bartenders. There's also a cool menu of bar food and snacks that include bowls of Scottish favourites like haddock and potato croquettes, juicy venison sausages in honey and chilli and black pudding in tempura and fresh martini olives stuffed with goat's cheese - each available at £5 a bowl. Great whisky list too. Midweek there's a stylish after work crowd and a polite buzz whilst at the weekends it's jammed with trendsters dancing to a DJ playing house funk fusion. Grab yourself one of the newly refurbished side rooms and settle down for a cool cocktail and a fun night.

Opening Hours:
Mon- Thursday 17.00 pm – 1.00 am
Fri, Sat 17.00 pm to 3.00 am

While it may sound like a highly polished, cerebral kind of a haunt, Freud is in fact a bare-bones drinking den in a Covent Garden basement that's small on creature comforts but big on spirit. When the modest seating runs out, the clientele simply perch on the slate steps by the old piano and get on with the serious business of drinking. While Freud features regular exhibitions of art (seemingly hosting the 'what the heck is THAT?' movement on our visit), the attention of the groups of Italian and American twenty-somethings around us is firmly fixed on the blackboard above the bar, on which 35 cocktails are scratched; all generous with their measures. The stereo piled high with CDs seems to play staff favourites, so it's worth tipping well if you object to spirited Latin music or Italian hip-hop. Alternatively, there's live jazz on Sundays.

This aptly named den is tucked away in a cobbled labyrinth of alleys behind the Mayfair boutiques. Formerly a celebrity haunt, the bar is now a hush-hush favourite with a late 20s/early 30s crowd, and when things get going it's as effervescent as its damson gin fizz. In fact, this bar and restaurant has ten different gins to throw into the mix. Cocktails include a classic Bramble using Dick Bradsell's own recipe (does Dick syndicate out his name, we wonder?); a Watermelon Rickey; Mother's Ruin with blueberries, laponia liquors, cranberry and guava; and a devastating Gin Palace in a fée absinth misted glass. Add to that a selection of pisco and cachaca, and separate cigar menu, and you've got a bar that's a cut above the rest.

Late ligging: 12.30 Mon-Sat

It's a visual experience visiting this funky hotel - even the front desk looks like a work of art. The bar itself is all cool, sleek lines, given a kitsch twist by framed photos of pooches on the walls, and media types on a flying visit tend to line either side of the long metal galley in which the bar staff are kept busy shaking and stirring. Ladies taking a leisurely lunch or post-shop flop relax on white-cushioned garden furniture in an outdoor courtyard that's crammed with flowering foliage around a water feature, but oddly penned in by the ugly exterior of the hotel. Exotic fruit dominates the cocktail list; we enjoyed The Bomb - an explosion of Bombay Sapphire gin, Cointreau and lime, shaken with passion fruit and pineapple juice, topped with ginger beer.

Late ligging: until 1am Mon-Sat; 10.30pm Sun

The Lonsdale

48 Lonsdale Road, Notting Hill,
London, W11 2DE

Tel: 020 7727 4080
www.thelonsdale.co.uk

The Lonsdale, in uber trendy Notting Hill, is firmly established as one of London's top cocktail destinations. Not surprising as the boxes virtually tick themselves: check adventurous décor, an accessible location, great food and drinks to die for. Maestro Dick Bradsell designed the original cocktail list and the new Lonsdale menu showcases all that is best about the London cocktail scene. So there's a fantastic range of contemporary classics such as the ever popular Bramble. Head barkeep Charles Vexenat has also gone to endless trouble to source recipes for traditional London drinks such as the sours, bucks, flips and sangarees popular in Victorian times and his Summer Gin Punch is a must. There are lots of Gintime gins behind the bar and a rare opportunity to explore the delights of Beefeater Crown Jewel.

More of a pleasure pitstop than a cocktail bar, Momo is perfect for combining the twin pleasures of shopping and drinking. Deep in the heart of Selfridges (second floor, actually!), it's a sudden square of Moorish decadence, designed by the Sketch team. Lamps bathe drinkers in a spicy glow, while the Moroccan music provides a further protective layer from the manic consumerism mere feet away. There's something very satisfying about sipping on a tart Apple Collins, while mulling over a prospective purchase. Oh, and to point out the bleedin' obvious, don't forget the bar shuts when the shop does.

Oxo Tower Bar

8th Floor, Oxo Tower Wharf
Barge House Street,
London SE1 9PH

Tel: 020 7803 3888
www.oxotower.co.uk

Perched on top of this famous South Bank landmark with its distinctive Oxo branding, the Oxo Tower Bar is one of London’s most glamorous settings and the perfect spot to enjoy the long evenings as the clocks go back. After all, what could be nicer than sipping delicious cocktails as you gaze out over the London skyline, being entertained by live jazz? The Oxo Tower Bar has a great choice of classic and contemporary drinks with lots of Gintime brands like Beefeater, Gordon’s, Hendrick’s and Plymouth. Word has it that martinis are a bit of a speciality too.

Open Mon and Tues 11 am – 11 pm, Wed to Sat 11 am to midnight, Sun 12 noon to 10.30 pm

The Player

8 Broadwick Street,
Soho, London, W1F 8HN

Tel. 020 7292 9945
www.thplyr.com

One of Soho's best kept secrets The Player is part of the Match Bar Group and one of a chain of private members clubs including the famed Milk and Honey just round the corner. But the good news is that until 11 pm every night The Player is open to all. Not a lot of people know that. Which only adds to The Player's reputation for cool.

It takes a bit of finding but once you're in, it's lounge lizard heaven. Music is funky jazzy lounge style with top guest DJs. The bar has low ceilings, dim lighting and chic retro styling. There are lots of hidden little nooks and comfy leather armchairs in which you can curl up and enjoy spectacularly good Asian influenced bar food and fabulous cocktails. And the cocktails really are out of this world, not surprising really since this bar was originally established by the legendary Dick Bradsell and the current cocktail list has been designed by cocktail god Dale deGroff. It's big on gin with all the major brands gleaming out from the bar back and Plymouth Gin a real star of the show. Try the London Buck Highball, a delicious long mix of gin, lemon juice and ginger ale. The Clover Club, a classic cocktail made with grenadine syrup, egg white and lemon juice is a specialty here whilst the Raspberry Collins is just the way it should be.

The Player is the last word in chic and attracts a pretty cool crowd of trends-setters and media types. In fact it's on the list of the top 100 best things about London and is often used for bartender competitions and stylish launches. It's quite small however so if you're going to make a night of it, best to ring ahead and book a table.

Open evenings 5 pm to 1 am.
Saturday from 7pm to 1 am.
Members only after 11 pm

Ronnie's Bar

Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club
47 Frith Street, Soho,
London, W1D 4HT

www.ronniescotts.co.uk

Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club is a Soho institution and the newly revamped members only Ronnie's Bar upstairs takes its inspiration from the Jacques Garcia designed Black Bar at the Hôtel Costes in Paris. Think leopard skin, full on 1930s glamour and lots of jazz influences. Under the leadership of maestro Gregor de Gruyther, the cocktail menu is also a reflection of the glory days of the Jazz Age with fantastic classics such as the Martinez (the prototype of the Martini) the Negroni, the Vesper and the London Collins. Comfortable booth seating, great table service and super friendly staff make this one of London's most sophisticated drinking venues. For details of membership to Ronnie's Bar go to www.ronniescotts.co.uk

Open Mon - Sat 6pm - 3am (Closed Sundays)