Down the cavernous halls of Whitehall’s Old War Offices, surrounded by opulent Michelin-starred restaurants and the supremely swish Raffles hotel, lies Kioku Sake Bar – less blindingly flashy, sure, but just as high-calibre. The street-level accompaniment to Kioku’s top-floor, five-star sushi restaurant has the effortless style and homely hideaway calm of a Japanese listening bar, prim décor and lines of hundreds of sake bottles sitting beneath immaculately balanced light. And Kioku’s substance more than matches its style. There are over 140 sakes on offer, each affectionately described, plus a trim list of sake cocktails and a refined menu of innovative, Japanese-infused small plates. The drinks and food are entirely different to those of the upstairs restaurant Kioku By Endo, making the bar very much worth a separate visit.
Order this
The Daikon Gibson suspends itself entirely on the front of your tongue, with silky and potent Ginjo sake ‘vermouth’ and tangy pickled daikon combining with clean Roku gin and yuzu tang. Kioku’s cocktails all exude a sense of craft – and this does even more so.
Time Out tip
Make the most of Kioku’s formidable sake collection and the bar’s in-house sake sommelier to explore the tipple. Discover how the vessel material affects each sake, get a taste of the many, many different styles and regional varieties – and find a new favourite.