SOMA Soho

Strikingly stark, SOMA is the kind of bar that makes you feel slightly smug that you know where to find drinks in the centre of London that still feel far from the beaten track. It’s a serious ‘impress a date’ spot.

Making your way down an incense scented stairway into the one-room basement bar has a bit of speakeasy vibe to it. Walls are completely covered in inky black curtains that hide private booths while the bar with its scrubbed stainless-steel top takes centre stage. 

Really good bars can fall into the trap of becoming pretentious, but the team at SOMA are so obviously excited about what they do they can’t be anything other than enthusiastic and it’s contagious. Informed recommendations and detailed explanations make the experience feel much more than the sum of its parts, with drinks designed to be riffs on classics. A comforting place to be if you like the safety net of familiarity but wish you were actually a bit edgier (guilty). 

A Penicillin moonlighting as the 'Sesame' is crystal clear and flavoured with the warmth of ginger, Metaxa 12 (a drink akin to a brandy), whisky and sesame oil. The latter adds a full mouth feel while the spirits seamlessly combine for a drink that’s smooth and punchy without being shockingly strong. Elsewhere a Margarita of sorts (the 'Chaat') comes with addictive gooseberry salt sprinkled down one side and expertly tempers Mezcal with the subtle spicing of Chaat Masala. There's nothing boring or bland about this menu and each drink has been meticulously crafted with superb results.

Apparently the bar has just one bag of rubbish each evening. In their efforts to be low-waste, the team uses leftover rice from Kricket upstairs to make crackers, and elements like the gooseberry salt are actually discarded skins from the dessert menu, which are dehydrated and blitzed.

Plates of delicately pickled vegetables and bowls of roasted, curry-leaf-scented nuts provide the perfect foil for the cocktails. However, the limited food choices ensures you give the serves the attention they deserve.

Created by Will Bowlby and Rik Campbell (the duo who created Kricket, one of London’s best Indian restaurants) SOMA is the restauranteurs' first foray into bars.

The venture was born out of the popularity of Kricket’s cocktail list, which the co-owners saw as reason enough to open a dedicated bar in order to show them off in their full glory. The result is SOMA, a place the pair have given the drinks the headline slot. Kricket’s Head of Beverages Will Rogers is in charge when it comes to the menu, having worked alongside bar manager Angelos Bafas to come up with a list of crowd-pleasers. Bafas’ accolades include time at Aqua Shard, as well as being previously voted as one of the top 5 bartenders in the world.

Similarly to Kricket, SOMA’s drinks are centred around Indian flavours. Drinks include a Gooseberry Chaat Margarita, which is made with tequila, triple sec, homemade gooseberry cordial and a little chaat masala; a Coconut and Jaggery Old Fashioned that combines bourbon, jaggery, coconut and mace bitters; and a savoury Pickled Mooli Martini which features vodka, dry vermouth, pickled mooli and fennel oil.

While the drinks are the main focus, there is also a short menu of snacks to help line the stomach. Think homemade crackers fashioned out of leftover rice from the restaurant – a delicious way to cut down on a waste. 

Simple interiors create an elegant backdrop and have been fashioned through a collaboration between architects Bureau Cake and interior designer Max Radford. Holding court in the middle of the room is the 9-metre-long hand-finished stainless steel bar, which can seat 23 guests. Walnut furnishings and pops of colour give the whole space a speakeasy vibe, and exclusive events and private functions can be catered for by way of the lounge room.