The Star at Night (permanently closed)

Address: 22 Great Chapel St, London, W1F 8FR , United Kingdom

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

We love this little back-streets bar and it acts as a beacon of civilisation next to the carnage of the enormous Crossrail site next door - many lesser businesses would have shut up shop ages ago. A family-run enterprise now in its third generation, the Star might look like a pub, and it certainly has the charms and character of a lived-in but well-maintained boozer, with its walls adorned by old enameled advertising signs. But look more closely: it's not a pub, it's a bar, they take cocktails seriously and in fact recently became a gin-focused bar with its own gin club.

With a wide, if not exhaustive, selection of gins and tonics available, and its own-spec Seven Dials gin now adorning the back-bar, you might be best going with a gin and tonic flight in order to get the best out of your visit. G&Ts are their speciality, served like the Spanish - Spain is the largest gin market in the world, don't you know? - in large balloon glasses rather than the standard UK highball. Not into gin? There's a decent selection of spirits on the back-bar and they can stir or shake the classics to your request. A tapas menu is also on offer including charcuterie, tortilla and cheeses. Friendly and familiar service makes for another tick.