Where to take City slickers
Those City kids sometimes need to blow away the cobwebs from the stuffy offices with a drink or two after work.
Bonds 5 Threadneedle Street, EC2 (020-7657 8088).
Bonds is the fabulously upmarket bar of the Threadneedles Boutique Hotel, situated in a listed building that used to be the headquarters of the Midland Bank. Its very good cocktails are, kindly or otherwise, named after food and drink critics.
Le Coq d'Argent 1 Poultry, EC2 (020-7395 5000).
Sir Terence Conran's rooftop bar and restaurant has just gone up a peg or two in my estimation. It has long sported an excellent wine list and a fabulously good cocktail menu, and the huge outside terrace is, as always during the colder months, covered by a canopy and warmed by garden heaters. But now they provide you with warm, fluffy blankets to cover your shoulders or wrap around your knees.
Pacific Oriental 1 Bishopsgate, EC2 (020-7929 7117).
City guys and gals still looking for a party venue could do much worse than to take a trip to the Pacific microbrewery and bar. This is a fun-packed disco bar where gangs of young office workers congregate to see how far they can get with each other. A restaurant above the bar has an interesting menu of pan-Asian cuisine.
1 Lombard Street 1 Lombard Street, EC3 (020-7929 6611).
One of London's most glittering examples of a banking hall conversion, this upmarket bar and restaurant has a loyal following of moneyed City folk.
A circular bar sits beneath a dramatically ornate domed ceiling, and an efficient team of appropriately friendly staff mix up some smashing cocktails. Very good wine list.
The Market Bar 2 Crutched Friars, EC3 (020-7480 7550).
Modern basement bar where the price of drinks fluctuates according to market forces. A hi-tech monitor displays the 'highs' and 'lows' of the day, along with the current trading price. Gimmicky, but fun.
