The Connaught Martini arrives on a black lacquer trolley at the Connaught Bar in Mayfair, London, where a bartender in a double-breasted suit sets out Tanqueray No. Ten, a blend of dry vermouths and five small bottles of house bitters, has you smell the bitters, and pours the drink from a height into a chilled, hand-etched glass. The cocktail bar inside The Connaught hotel was No. 1 on The World's 50 Best Bars list in 2020 and 2021 and is No. 8 on the 2026 list, and the martini is £30 ($40).
The hotel opened in 1815 as the Prince of Saxe-Coburg Hotel, was rebuilt and reopened in 1897 as The Coburg, and was renamed The Connaught in 1917, during the First World War, after Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught. The Connaught Bar opened in 2008 and has its own columned street door on Carlos Place, with a lantern and "Connaught Bar" lettered over it. David Collins Studio designed the room around 1920s English and Irish Cubist art and kept the hotel's original ornate ceiling, and the old wood panelling is layered with gold and silver paint, the banquettes and tub chairs are green or bronze crocodile-skin leather, the round marble tables are studded and the floor is polished marble. Agostino Perrone, now Director of Mixology, has been at the Connaught Bar since it opened, and the official page says he leads it with Giorgio Bargiani.
The Martini Trolley at the Connaught Bar
The five bitters on the trolley are Dr. Ago (Perrone's own blend of bergamot and ginseng), lavender, coriander, tonka and cardamom, and the bartender puts them on a paper card for you to smell before you pick one or more (the dropper bottle on the trolley spells it "Lavander"). The martini is always stirred, poured from a height into a glass chilled with slow-frozen ice, spritzed with lemon and finished with a spiral of citrus zest, so what arrives is a very cold gin martini made with dry vermouths and finished with the bitters you chose. Try it with Perrone's Dr. Ago.
The Number 11 (£29, $39) puts all five bitters in one glass: Grey Goose vodka, Fords gin, Martini Ambrato, Amalfi lemon oil, distillation of five bitters (cardamom, tonka bean, ginseng and bergamot, lavender, coriander seeds). The menu calls it "The Connaught Martini refined. 11 years in the mix."
Masterpieces, Ad Maiora and a £2,210 Rob Roy
The Masterpieces page holds the house standards, some of them on the menu since the 2008 opening, at £25 to £30 ($34 to $40) a drink. According to the menu, the Mulata Daisy (£26, $35) is Perrone's own favorite: Bacardi Heritage rum, Crème de cacao, fresh Lime juice, Caster sugar, Fennel seeds, Galliano L'Autentico. The Vieux Connaught (£29, $39) is Zacapa 23yo rum, Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky, blend of dry vermouths, Benedictine, Angostura bitters, Orange bitters and saffron smoke, and the Fleurissimo (£29, $39), made in honor of a former guest, Princess Grace of Monaco, is Rémy Martin VSOP cognac, home-made Connaught bitters, Violet liqueur, a sugar cube and Billecart-Salmon Brut champagne. Traditionalists should try Good Fellas (£26, $35), a remake of a 1931 Fanciulli recipe from the Waldorf Astoria cocktail book, made with cardamom leaf-infused Woodford Reserve whiskey, Martini Rubino vermouth, Abbott's bitters, black cardamom syrup and balsamic vinegar.
The newer Ad Maiora list ("towards greater things") is £25 ($34) across the board. LUCI is Discarded Banana rum, homemade Falernum, Verjus, Lutece Aperitif, St. Germain liquor and clarified pineapple juice, and it's one of five drinks on the menu that also come alcohol-free, for £20 ($27). The splurge is on the vintage page, where the Silver Jubilee Rob Roy (Macallan Silver Jubilee 1977, 1970s Martini Rosso vermouth, 1970s Angostura) is £2,210 ($2,961), or roughly 74 Connaught Martinis. A small welcome cocktail arrives with olives and taralli when you sit down. For food, the Connaught Cheeseburger is £41 ($55), pizza is served until 10pm, and caviar starts at £115.
Getting a Table in Mayfair
"The Connaught Bar operates a no reservation policy," according to the official page, so it's walk-in only, Monday to Saturday from 4pm to 1am (Sunday isn't listed). On a Saturday there can be a queue by quarter past 4, so get there close to opening. At peak you'll be sent to stand at the bar until a table frees up, which can take 15 minutes or more, with not much room to set down a £30 drink. A 15% discretionary service charge is added to the bill. The bill comes with a card listing the recipes for what you drank. There's no official dress code, though listings elsewhere say smart casual and plenty of guests dress for it. Elsewhere on the site, Bemelmans Bar in New York is the hotel bar to pair with this one, and Bar High Five in Tokyo is where the bartender builds your drink with no menu at all.
The house Connaught Bar Gin is £24 a measure at the bar, and is now sold by the bottle for £115.
Photos: The Connaught, Bex Walton / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0), Bex Walton / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0), Bex Walton / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0), Bex Walton / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0), Ewan-M / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
