London's best bars for non-alcoholic cocktails

Whether you’ve decided to stay off the sauce for Lent, are shunning booze as part of a de-tox, or just prefer to go out on the town without getting plastered, there's no need to take the fun out of your bar ordering. Check out Square Meal’s pick of the best juices, teas and mocktails (non-alcoholic cocktails) on offer at London’s bars.

1. Capability Syon Park
The 'Brownies' ice cream sundae bar at this luxury hotel across the river from Kew (courtesy of Waldorf Astoria) serves top-notch smoothies and milkshakes, for the sweet-toothed and young at heart.

2. The Connaught Bar at The Connaught
This super-glam bar serves superbly balanced virgin cocktails. Try the 'tea rinfresco' (meaning ‘I refresh you’), a blend of ginger syrup, lime juice, lychee purée, mandarin juice, Earl Grey tea, and soda water.

3. Dishoom (pictured, right)
Beer with curry is not the Indian way: the done thing is to accompany your spicy food with a fruit juice, lassi or punch. There are plenty to choose from at Dishoom, from the rose-and-cardamom lassi to the house punch (a mixture of exotic fruit juices, coconut and Darjeeling tea) and 'Thums Up' (sic), a sweeter version of Coke from India.

4. Hawksmoor Seven Dials (pictured, below)
Hawksmoor’s cocktail list is a mouthwatering potted history in mixology. At the end is a selection of fun non-alcoholic drinks, from fruit juices to ‘cornflake milkshake’ and apple mojito. Try one…if your resolve doesn’t falter before you reach them.

5. Kenza
This sultry, luxuriously decorated bar has a good selection of Middle Eastern-style cocktails on its list, including mazouza, a blend of peach and lychee, and adara, a virgin bloody Mary made with harissa.

6. Mark’s Bar at Hix (pictured, top left)
Although the cocktails at this cool underground hangout are hard to resist, there’s an admirable range of high-quality fruit juices on offer for the non-drinker. The Sunday Times' restaurant critic (and noted tee-totaller) AA Gill also rated the mocktail he was served here as ‘the best non-alcoholic cocktail I’ve ever had, based on green tea and lime.’ And if it’s good enough for him…

7. The Red Bar
Bam-Bou’s bar serves an interesting variety of non-alcoholic drinks, including fruit mocktails. Try a sweet cherry cake (cherry syrup, cream, mango juice, sugar and lemon) or a zingy green martini (lemongrass, ginger, apple juice and kaffir lime). Alternatively, sip on pai mu silver needle tea (a rare white tea), rose of the Orient (green tea flavoured with rose buds), organic pai nettle and mistletoe, or tea made with camomile flowers.

8. Saf
Vegan raw food trailblazer Saf serves non-alcoholic botanical cocktails such as thyme time (thyme leaves with lime juice, vegan Worcestershire sauce, celery bitters and orange zest) and lavender mule (ginger, lavender, lemon and sparkling water). Its wide selection of juice blends and signature teas will also make you forget the trials of Lent.

9. Wahaca Cocktail and Mezcal Bar
This offshoot of Thomasina Miers’ chain of Mexican canteens serves the refreshing soft drinks found in the restaurants, such as hibiscus water (cranberry-flavoured Mexican flower juice), horchata (almond and rice milk with cinnamon) and virgin mojitos, as well as hard liquor alternatives.

10. Watatsumi
The natty little bar at this sushi newcomer just off Trafalgar Square serves super-tasty mocktails. Try the mint blossom (passion fruit, mint leaves, apple juice and elderflower cordial and ginger-lemon syrup) or the citrus bracer (orange and apple juice with cinnamon syrup).