The Hoxton Pony

Cocktails are among the best in town at this 400-capacity bar and restaurant, which opened in Shoreditch in May 2008. The high calibre of the imaginatively-mixed alcoholic drinks can be put down to the brains behind the super cool split-level club, Gerry Calabrese and TV presenter Andy Pearson. Son of cocktail maestro Salvatore Calabrese, Gerry also owns the Pool Bar which employs some of the capital's finest mixologists. While most hipster restaurants now pride themselves on serving in-season ingredients, here even the cocktails are made with organic fruits which vary depending on the time of year. For the Hoxton Pony Tea Party, sandwiches are served alongside iced cocktails from self-cooling infusion jars and poured into tea cups. The surroundings are pretty slick too. They've brought in architect Yanik Allard, former creative manager at Polo Ralph Lauren UK, to do the design. A varied playlist changes depending on the time of day and regular live acts and DJs keep the place jumping late into the night. They claim to add "an individual and unconventional slant to the gang of venues found in Shoreditch". We're not sure about that but we do like the cocktails.