Bam Bou & The Red Bar (permanently closed)

Address: 1 Percy Street, (end Charlotte Street), London, W1T 1DB, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7323 9130
Email: reservations@bam-bou.co.uk
Website: view Bam Bou & The Red Bar’s website

Door: Open door/walk-ins
Style: Cocktail bar
Food: Tapas/plates & dishes

We've long been a fan of Bam Bou's Red Bar, which sits on the top floor of this adoringly rickety building, even before Caprice Holdings got hold of it and shook things up by parachuting in accomplished ex-Merchant and Savoy hotels bartender Ladislav Piljar to make this a destination cocktail hotspot. Now it's just had a further rebirth, emerging from a clever makeover and with a new menu that gives Ladislav rightful claim to curating the UK's biggest Japanese whisky collection.

The revamp has removed a wall that previously blocked the bar from the rest of the lounge space so has opened up new lines of sight and incorporated a nice new seating area that's perfect for groups, who can now gather without blocking the corridor. Overall, the new look is faithful to the original but it all seems somehow classier and more polished.

The over 100-strong (and counting) Japanese whisky collection is accompanied by a cocktail menu divided into eight sections: champagne, vermouth, gin, vodka, rum, cognac, tequila and Japanese whisky - each section having a choice of four classically influenced cocktails.