7 Best Bars in Covent Garden, London

Things could hardly get more glamorous than at the Savoy's lesser-known Beaufort Bar—a black-and-gold art deco–inspired spot with dramatic low lighting that specializes in vintage champagne and an enticing spread of heritage cocktails. Dark and sultry, with a rising cabaret stage once graced by Gershwin and Josephine Baker, this venue has nightly live jazz piano music beginning at 7 pm.

Offering arguably the best light show on any London dance floor, London's first and most famous gay club Heaven is unpretentious, loud, and lively, with a labyrinth of rooms, bars, and live music parlors. Set under the arches at Charing Cross railway station and going strong since 1979, on Thursday through Saturday nights it's all about the G-A-Y club and comedy nights. Check in advance about live performances—they can take place any night of the week. If you go to just one gay club in London, Heaven should be it.

On any given night, ace jazz player Trombone Shorty might work his way through this beyond cool New Orleans–meets-Paris cocktail lounge on the second floor of Louie restaurant. Even if Shorty's not there playing that night, the friendly staff dish out deviled eggs, truffle pizzas, and themed cocktails until 2 am five nights a week.

This refreshingly ungentrified 17th-century pub was once known as "The Bucket of Blood" because the upstairs room and front yard were used as a ring for winner-takes-all, bare-knuckle fights—a popular form of live entertainment back in the day. Now it's a much friendlier place, serving British food and real ale. It's on the edge of Covent Garden, up a hidden alley off Garrick Street.

Discretion is the word at this under-the-radar cocktail lounge on the first floor above Rules, London's oldest restaurant (established in 1798). In rooms where King Edward VII used to clandestinely dine with his socialite mistress Lillie Langtry, old-school bartenders serve traditional classic cocktails, from manhattans and Hemingways to sidecars and martinis (which are stirred, never shaken). The decor reflects a bygone era, with impressive royal portraits, mounted antlers, patterned carpets, and copious Edwardian hunting scenes.

Specializing in low-intervention "natural wines" (organic, unfiltered, biodynamic, and sustainably produced with minimal added ingredients), Terroirs wine bar has an unusually large selection of 290 wines from small French and artisan winemakers. Red, white, sparkling and macerated orange and amber wines are served along with delicious, relatively simple wine-friendly dishes—charcuterie, tapas, cheese, and more substantial French-inspired dishes—at a bar and bare oak tables surrounded by whitewashed walls and wooden floors.

This is the sort of friendly flower-decked locale you might find on some out-of-the-way backstreet, except that it's right in the middle of town, between Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden. As a result, The Harp can get mighty crowded, but the squeeze is worth it for the excellent beer and cider (there are usually 10 carefully chosen ales, often including a London microbrew, plus 10 ciders and perries) and a no-frills menu of high-quality British sausages, cooked behind the bar.