Kettners Champagne Bar

Launched in 1867 by Napoleon III’s chef Auguste Kettner, Kettners brings Parisian elan to Soho. A pizza served on white linen in its rococo dining room is a must-try, but it also offers various bar areas much more salubrious than the usual Soho tat. Sip vodkatinis (£9.25) to the sound of a pianist in the Music Room, linger over a single malt (a 10-year-old Talisker, perhaps) in the clubby oak room where Bing Crosby once serenaded fans on the pavements below, or bag a Cosmopolitan in the second-floor cocktail bar. Sink-in leather sofas populate the airy ground-floor Champagne Bar where the very best of Reims & Epernay starts at £8.25 per flute. Our pick of a menu that fizzes with brilliance includes Ruinart Blanc de Blancs (£65), Gosset Grand Rosé (£69) & Louis Roederer 1999 (£92). And for show-offs there’s the Nebuchadnezzar (20 bottles worth) of Pol Roger at £1,400.