The best affordable date night bars in London

Going Out | Pubs, Bars and Nightlife

The best affordable date night bars in London

There’s a difference between a cheap date and being a cheap date, says Josh Barrie

Date night so often presents the difficult question of where to go and it is made considerably more taxing when budgets are limited. Then there are daters who, even if comfortable financially, probably need to take heed of menu prices because they’re still searching for that special someone and they’ve got one date following another. Whatever the situation, London can be preventative. The list below may assuage that. 

From Italian spots in Bethnal Green to drinking dens in Soho, these cocktail bars that lend themselves to frugality — sure, you can visit and spend big, but you might also remain calm, have two or three good drinks, and not break the bank.

Bar Lina

Press handout

Below the original Lina Stores on Brewer Street is a new cocktail bar that harks back to 1960s Italy. It is chic, seductive and striking in tones of red, dim-lit and overseen by a band of in-the-know bartenders. Cocktails start at £10; there’s a highly accomplished Negroni for £12. Snacks, meanwhile, start at £3 a bite, and include anchovies on focaccia and a tremendous ossobuco arancino. 

18 Brewer Street, W1F 0SG, barlina.co.uk

Campania & Jones

Garden 1, Campania

This southern Italian joint in east London hasn’t really been written about enough. It is a sparkling place — lots of wood, exposed brick and low-hanging bulbs — with plates of cured meats, cheeses, and pastas. As for the drinks list, a comforting, simple line-up of Italian wines: prosecco and lambrusco from £7 a glass; primitivo for £6.50, amarone for just £11. 

23 Ezra Street, E2 7RH, campaniaandjones.com

Oriole 

Press handout

Oriole came and went. Having launched in Smithfield in 2015, it was forced to close in 2023 due to redevelopment plans. But it’s back, now in Covent Garden, bringing serious, complex cocktails from £14, alongside a playful food menu. So, no, not a £5-a-glass sort of place, but worth it. Try the Mizuwari, which blends Highland Park 12 with chocolate miso, asparagus eau de vie, sherry, sake and cold brew coffee. 

23 Slingsby Place, WC2E 9AB, oriolebar.com

Forza Wine 

Perched on a Peckham rooftop is Forza Wine, an energetic wine bar with views across South London and up to the Thames. There are snacks like cauliflower fritti and mussels with wild garlic, and then beers from a fiver, house wines from £6, and cocktails between £9 and £11. A further recommendation? A 500ml carafe of the Tutti Giorni, a not very funky orange wine, with a plate of cod cheeks with tomatoes and saffron and a side of purple sprouting. Would be about £25 per head.

133 Rye Lane, SE15 4BQ, forzawine.com

Colony Room Club 

Melisa Coppola

From 1948, in a green room up a flight of stairs on Dean Street, names such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, EM Forster, Kate Moss, Christine Keeler, and Tracey Emin would drink, chatter, and be greeted with, “Hello, c**ty!” The Colony Room Club closed in 2008 but has been reborn below Ziggy Green in Mayfair, complete with the piano, artwork, photos and cuttings on the walls. Prices, too, are the same as the last round in 2008. Bohemia, then: doubles from £6.

4 Heddon Street, W1B 4BS, daisygreenfood.com

Ninetyeight Bar 

Ninetyeight Bar
Ninetyeight Bar

Ninetyeight Bar describes itself as a “hidden gem in the heart of Shoreditch”. It is a quirky space — the interiors are fairly bonkers, not dissimilar to somewhere you might find in Athens or in a medium-sized town in Tuscany. It is a pantomime of a bar, with kitsch drinks. One comes smoking out of a suitcase and another is set on fire. Whatever you order, it will cost about £10, taste quite nice, and you can drink it while sitting on a rocking horse.

98 Curtain Road, EC2A 3AF, ninetyeight-bar-lounge.co.uk

Call Me Mr Lucky 

Apparently, this is Tom Daley’s favourite dive bar. Or so goes the joke purveyed by Call Me Mr Lucky, one of two cocktail joints run by the Breakfast Club. Do not expect the most sophisticated cocktails (they are often heavy on the fruit). Then again, drinks cost around a tenner, might feature plenty of mezcal, and there’s a daily two-for-one happy hour to boot.

11 Southwark Street, SE1 1RQ, thebreakfastclubcafes.com

Three Sheets 

An Old Fashioned at Three Sheets London
Three Sheets

Three Sheets is the work of expert bartenders Max and Noel Venning, comes in at number seven on the UK’s Top 50 Cocktail Bars, and yet prices rarely venture beyond £14. At the second iteration in Soho, every drink is top tier, constructed masterfully, and the place is a buzzing, sleek space to be enjoyed in true Soho style. That is to say, well. Try everything. It is a glorious bar.

14-15 Manette Street, W1D 4AP, threesheets-bar.com

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