Longitude 0°8’ at Le Méridien Piccadilly Hotel

If IKEA designed hotel lounges, they would probably look a bit like Le Méridien’s artily Scandinavian Longitude 0°8’: ‘allow yourself to be amazed’ urges the blurb, & you may well be flabbergasted by this basement’s nerve-jangling interiors. Fortunately, the polished drinks list stacks up well against the unashamedly decadent backdrop – even if a perfectly fine, bone-dry Tanqueray No. 10 martini is priced at the higher end of the hotel spectrum. We haven’t tried them, but the bar is also big on coffee & ‘choc-tails’. Willy Wonka might be blown away by a flight of three ‘tasting size’ (small) hits, matched to a trio of chocolate pralines (£20). The bar’s odd name refers to its exact geographic co-ordinates, should your stylish pals have failed to cotton on to its whereabouts.