Callooh Callay
The house daiquiri here is built on a blend of three rums, Havana 3yo, El Dorado 3yo and Rumbar Overproof, with the lime cut with kalamansi, and it costs GBP 9.50 (Top 50 Cocktail Bars).
Why go
It opened on Rivington Street in November 2008, at a time when cocktail bars in the then up-and-coming Shoreditch area were thin on the ground,
which is why 50 Best's own directory calls it one of the trailblazers in the London cocktail scene's resurgence
(Top 50 Cocktail Bars; 50 Best Discovery). Richard Wynne has owned and run it throughout, and he named the hidden bar inside it, JubJub, and his Islington site, Little Bat, from the same Lewis Carroll source (Pub & Bar, 2019). The list is built by fortifying and blending rather than by pouring: house vermouths flavored with mango chutney or with cherry and tonka, a baked-apple vodka martini, a cola highball rebuilt from Eminente rum and Torres brandy. The kitchen is now run by Park and Kim, an American-Korean diner brand doing smashed burgers and loaded fries. Wynne's group has moved fast lately: Callooh Callay Chelsea closed in March 2026 and reopened on 15 April as The March Hare on the King's Road, and the Callooh Callay team took interim charge of Silk Stockings in Dalston from November 2025 (CLASS, Apr 2026).
Order this / avoid
- Order: the House Daiquiri, GBP 9.50, which Top 50 Cocktail Bars rates
one of the best in town
for the three-rum blend and the kalamansi-cut lime4. Then the Cherry Cola if you want to see the fortified-vermouth trick, or the Green Card if you drink spicy margaritas. Eat the smashed burger. - Avoid: treating the wardrobe as the point. The mirrored door and the hidden JubJub room are the reason people photograph the place, and the drinks are the reason it has lasted 18 years. If you want JubJub, ask when you book rather than hoping.
What locals & experts say
- World's 50 Best Bars (50 Best Discovery):
Callooh Callay was one of the trailblazers in the London cocktail scene's resurgence,
withmost of the venue literally hidden through the looking glass, or at least a mirrored wardrobe door,
andCallooh Callay a former World's 50 Best Bars regular.
No year or position is published for those appearances.3 - Top 50 Cocktail Bars: on the signature,
The team uses their own Rum blend (Havana 3yo, El Dorado 3yo and Rumbar Overproof) with the lime being cut with Kalamansi to give that extra flavor that will make this daiquiri one of the best in town.
On the staff,Even on busy nights, the staff, are attentive, knowledgeable and up for a laugh.
4 - CLASS, Hamish Smith (April 2026):
Callooh Callay Shoreditch, opened in 2008 and went on to register a slew of appearances in The World's 50 Best Bars.
2 - Time Out London (1 July 2026): still on the 12 Best Bars in Shoreditch list, 18 years in, alongside Tayer + Elementary, Seed Library, Happiness Forgets and Nightjar.6
- Local rec: Jeff has it as a "Home bartender rec," a recommendation picked up from the bar staff at Home in Shoreditch, which is also on his list. REAL.
Good to know
- Timing: Monday to Wednesday 6pm to 1am, Thursday 6pm to 3am, Friday and Saturday 4pm to 3am, Sunday 6pm to 3am (venue site). It is one of the few Shoreditch rooms open that late on a Sunday.
- Booking: worth doing, and the venue also sells cocktail masterclasses, private hire and weddings.
- Dietary: nothing published, by the bar or by the Park and Kim kitchen. Ask on arrival.
- Hygiene: FSA rating 5 at the Hackney inspection of 15 February 2025, with a clean sheet on all three components (FSA).
- Menus change form, not just content: past editions have been cassette tapes and comic books, and the current one is called Calloohpoly (venue site).
- The rest of the group: Little Bat in Islington, and The March Hare at 316-318 King's Road, which replaced Callooh Callay Chelsea on 15 April 2026.
Craft signals (cocktails: menus as objects, and guests on a calendar)
Two signals, both drink-side. The menus are shipped as designed objects, cassette tapes and comic books among them, which means a new list is an event here rather than a reprint, and during London Cocktail Week the bar hands its taps to guests, Baba Au Rum of Athens among them. The second is the house production behind the drinks: a three-rum house blend, lime cut with kalamansi, and fortified house vermouths, which is blending and fortifying rather than pouring.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Rec via: "Home bartender rec" REAL.
Verdict
should-visit — A bar that blends its own daiquiri rum from three rums and cuts the lime with kalamansi, and sells it at GBP 9.50, has its priorities in the right order, whatever the wardrobe door suggests. Callooh Callay has been doing this since November 2008, which makes it one of the rooms that started Shoreditch's cocktail scene rather than one that followed it, and it stays open until 3am four nights a week. It falls short of the top rung because the accolades cannot be pinned to a year and no critic has ruled on it lately.