Daisy Meager
Senior Editor, London
Daisy, a lifelong Londoner, has been writing about food and restaurants since 2013 and is on a personal quest for the city’s best martinis.
LDNGuide
The Silly Little Mini Martini Guide
Because good things come in small packages. Or, you just don’t want to be half-cut by the time your main arrives.
photo credit: Alan Frost
When it comes to martinis, you always remember your first, sometimes your second, but rarely your third. Enter the tiny ’tini. A mini martini is guaranteed to stay glacial, comes in a teeny glass that makes you feel dainty, and will mean your night won’t come to a premature end. (We can’t guarantee that last one.) Really though, it’s just a silly little cocktail for when you’re in a silly little mood. See you at the bar.
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No rating: This is a restaurant we want to re-visit before rating, or it’s a coffee shop, bar, or dessert shop. We only rate spots where you can eat a full meal.
THE MINI MARTINIS
Daisy Meager
The Sips: 1 (but 1.5 sips is more civilised)
The Price: £4
All hail the drink and snack two-for-one. Tayēr + Elementary’s One Sip Martini is served freezing cold, ready mixed in a shot glass direct from the sleek bar’s huge freezers, with a blue cheese-stuffed olive plopped in at the last second. It’s dangerously easy to take the one-sip advice because the drink’s balance of vodka, vermouth, and fino sherry goes down incredibly easily. And at £4, it’s also easy to keep them coming. But pace yourself—Old Street is hard enough to navigate without martini goggles on.
Daisy Meager
8.5
The Sips: 3
The Price: £8 + £3.75 (mandatory) jalapeño popper gilda
The tiny ‘tini from Rita’s, a new American restaurant in Soho, kick-started our obsession. Just look at that adorable teeny martini glass—if you’re not moved, we can’t be friends. This glacial gin-based three-sipper comes with drops of citrussy lemon oil. A gilda, with anchovy, jalapeño, a blue cheese-stuffed olive, and chile oil, is an extra few quid, but essential in our eyes. We’ve drunk a lot and bought a kit to make them at home, and got the literal diamante-encrusted gilda t-shirt.
Daisy Meager
The Sips: 3
The Price: £5
No matter what the haters say, a dirty martini always goes down well in our books, and the pickled green mango brine adds a gorgeous, zippy, floral element. Sit at the London Bridge restaurant’s counter to watch jagged flames shoot up from woks in the open kitchen, cool down with this aperitif, and order an electrifying Thai feast. The crispy fried prawn heads are a particularly excellent drinking snack.
8.2
The Sips: 4
The Price: £7
We have a suggestion for Elton to rework “Tiny Dancer” into an ode to The Cadogan Arms’ Tiny Chasers. We can confirm that if you’ve had a busy day today, rolling into the fancy Chelsea pub solo and ordering oysters, chips, and a weeny gibson is a power move. The gin, vermouth, and teensy pickled onion combo is a real sharpener. Knock back the small tumbler and order another.
Alan Frost
Perfect For:Drinking Great Cocktails
The Sips: 4-5
The Price: £6
We like Little Mercies’ way of thinking. The mini drinks at the Crouch End bar come under a section of the menu called, “What to drink when you are still thinking about what to drink”. The oyster martini, made with vodka which has been infused with oysters. It’s more briny than fishy. We were advised to drink it fast so it stays bone-chillingly cold—as it should be. Just know this is approaching a full-sized drink, which makes it great-value, but you may need a focaccia chaser if you’re knocking it back quickly.
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