Bar Termini

Bar Termini is tiny, and that is the entire point. Tony Conigliaro, of 69 Colebrooke Row and the Drink Factory, opened it with Marco Arrigo, who spent two decades as head of quality for Illy, and between them they built something London had almost no version of: a proper Italian all day bar, coffee in the morning and aperitivo from the afternoon.

The room seats very few people and takes bookings in short slots, which sounds precious and is actually just honest about the space. The menu is correspondingly short. Six classics and four negronis, and the negronis are the reason to come: the classic, the superiore infused with pink peppercorn, the rosato with rose petals, and the robusto. Ordering all four across an evening is a legitimate way to spend it.

What separates it from the many Italian-ish aperitivo bars that followed is that both halves are taken equally seriously. The coffee is not an afterthought to justify opening early; Arrigo built the programme with the same rigour Conigliaro applies to the drinks.

Our verdict: the best negroni in London, served in a room the size of a corridor. If you only try one variation, make it the superiore.

Go if: you want the single best version of one drink. Skip if: you are more than three people, or you want to linger for hours.

Book the slot. Old Compton Street, Soho.