Milk & Honey is possibly the most well renowned cocktail bar in the UK. With its combination of exclusivity, brilliant drinks and comfortable atmosphere, it holds legendary status amongst both bartenders and the rich and famous alike. Milk & Honey London opened it’s secretly located doors in April 2002 following the success of Milk & Honey New York (Born January 2000), since then the bar has won numerous awards, most recently the 2008 CLASS awards for Best Bar and best bartender (Fraser Chapman).

For some strange reason I had never gotten around to visiting Milk & Honey, until recently that is when fellow geek, Tom Aske and I paid a trip there a few weeks back. Tom knows most of the staff there so we didn’t have a problem getting a table without a reservation, however moseying on up under any other circumstance would not be recommended. Even paid up (£350 pa) members are advised to phone ahead in order to secure a table, if you’re lowly enough to not even hold membership you need to book a two hour slot before 11pm. For members the bar stays open to 3am six nights a week. Then there is of course the problem of finding the place. Back in the day Milk & Honey made its name by being one of London’s best kept secrets, I even remember an early copy of the Sauce Guide not disclosing address information. These days the secret is unsurprisingly not so well kept and i’m gonna put it right out there now by revealing a huge industry secret… it’s on Poland Street. (Shoot me down)

Once you’re buzzed through the blank industrial steel doors the receptionist will direct you through to the main bar. Milk & Honey is set over four floors, with a basement bar, ground floor main bar, the first floor private Red Room and then an upstairs private hire room.

Tom and I took a seat in a dimly lit booth, and when I say dimly I mean dimly, with just enough glow to read from the cocktail list. There is a wonderful 1930’s speakeasy theme to the bar, consistent through the music, decor and even the bartenders apparel. The bar area is superbly styled, with a dark wooden art deco pattern taking up much of the wall space, pale leather seating and plenty of interesting vintage cocktail equipment lovingly displayed behind glass fronted alcoves. I didn’t get near enough to the bar itself to examine the setup, but it kind of glowed ominously in the background with just the right amount of presence. For me, the relatively small area was occupied by just the right amount of people, private and personal with a low hum from the other 15 or so drinkers in the room.

Time to tackle the cocktail list. Tom ordered (I think) a Pink Lady and I had a Rum Swizzle. The cocktails at Milk & Honey are  priced quite competitively, especially compared to some of the two digit numbers flashed around in the hotel bars, and even though The Connaught and The Dorchester do make some lovely cocktails, Milk & Honey are hard to beat on value. As you would expect the list is modestly sized and focusses on the Savoy Cocktail Book esque ‘golden era’ of mixed drinks, with sections for Swizzles, Punches, Sangrees and even Cocktails.

Just as we finished our first round, James Wall, one of the bartenders made an appearance from out of The Red Room upstairs. Tom knows James fairly well and I had met him at the CLASS awards last year, next time I see him i’ll buy him a drink, because he invited us up stairs to the Red Room for a cocktail. A good result for my first visit.

Upstairs is a much more warming atmosphere, red walls, open fire, dark leather sofas, hidden bar and an even higher calibre of cocktail memorabilia. I ordered The Final Ward and Tom had a Fish House Punch. With only four other people inhabiting the area we felt pretty important!

You might have noticed that I haven’t written about how the cocktails tasted. The intention of these ‘review’ posts is not to analyse the quality of the offering, or judge how well a particular drink was stirred or put together, but rest assured that I wouldn’t bother writing about a bar if it wasn’t worth a visit.

Time to leave after a quick visit to the gentleman’s room. Mildly intoxicated by this point, I must have stood for thirty seconds in front of the male and female restroom doors trying to fathom whether I was a ‘Milk’ or ‘Honey’. I opted for ‘Honey’ – going with the logic that I don’t have breasts. I think I was wrong.

Milk & Honey
Poland Street (work the number out for yourself!)
Soho
London
07000 655 469‎

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