Bar Lina Soho

Hidden Gem: Soho's Best Cocktail Experience

Waltzing into Bar Lina is akin to slipping through a portal into the suave embrace of Italy—without all that fuss at passport control. Hidden beneath a venerable delicatessen, this speakeasy-styled sanctuary employs misdirection like a conspiratorial wink; the very entrance is next to the cheese section, and I half expected to be greeted by a jamboree of charcuterie. Once down the stairs, you're cocooned in moody elegance: gleaming wood crafted to obscure the begun notion of time, while intrepid mixologists unleash creativity upon fortunate glasses. The cocktails unearth heavenly notes from liquor, citrus, and herbs with the precision of an Italian opera's fermata. Yes, there are bite-sized culinary masterpieces alongside your Negroni that make dismissing dinner forgivable.

Despite the charms of bespoke drinks and noshes persuasive enough to convert the most devout abstinent, Bar Lina is not without its Achilles' heel of constraints. A two-hour seating cap kisses you gently out before you realise amour with your Vesper Martini—or worse, wrestle for more time like a toddler forbed-breaking negotiations. Yet, trilling gastronomes still habitually decry this as merely a fleeting inconvenient truth amidst splendid service where every server—most notably a chap named Paulo—comes armed with expertise and humor that could charm basilica bells. Ultimately, Bar Lina isn't simply a bar. It’s a labyrinth of rediscovery that beckons even the most jaded cocktailian to gin up and venture forth beneath Soho’s midst in search of liquid wonder. — Penelope Savory