Mandarin Bar, located within the Mandarin Oriental hotel is modern, contemporary and cutting edge. Internationally-renowned designer Adam Tihany has created Knightsbridge's most fashionable meeting place for discerning Londoners and hotel guests. Live music is played nightly Mon. to Sat. and this buzzing bar even has its own cigar divan for cigar aficionados. Light, exotic bar snacks and nibbles are available all day, including lobster spring rolls with oyster sauce and Dim Sum with fried 5 spice cabbage and soy sauce. Signature cocktails include the Madame Butterfly; Fresh watermelon shaken with Grand Marnier and passion fruit liqueur, strained into a tall flute and topped with ice-cold champagne.

This is an excellent example of a good Hampstead pub - old (built in 1704), higgledy-piggledy and Bohemian. It has several interesting bits and pieces on the walls including a good collection of signatures and photographs of famous people with local associations. The walls are dark green and red and everywhere you look is dark wood - chairs, tables, fire surrounds and around the bar. It's cozy and dark and a good place to spend a winter's evening or to relax over a meal and a pint after a walk on nearby Hampstead Heath.

Despite its location on Shaftesbury Avenue, this Latin bar and music club could be featured in a book of "Underground London." A hush-hush address, it leans toward radical jazz-fusion on some nights, and phat funk on other occasions. It boasts two full bars and a different musical theme every night. Tue. & Wed. are the only nights you probably won't have to queue at the door. Mon. showcase features jazz, hip-hop, and drum and bass; Fri. provides R&B and swing; and Sat. "Garage City" buzzes with house and garage. All the music here is live.