Mocktails in Soho, taken seriously.

Not drinking in Soho used to mean a lime and soda and a slightly apologetic bartender. The room is built around drinking, the menu is built around drinking, and the person on the 0% order gets whatever juice is open. For a night out in the middle of a drinking town, that's a poor deal.

We think it's a solvable one.

What we mean by a proper mocktail

The word covers a lot of sins. Most places mean fruit juice in a nice glass. We mean the same thing we mean by a cocktail: a real 0% spirit underneath it, fresh citrus, and the same technique as everything else on the bar. Our mocktail bar list runs to ten alcohol-free cocktails at £11, from a 0% Passion Fruit Martini to a 0% Negroni that uses four different alcohol-free spirits on its own.

They arrive looking identical to the boozy ones, too. Nobody at the table can tell who's drinking and who isn't, which, if you've ever been the sober one at a birthday, you'll know is most of the point.

Who orders them

Fewer teetotallers than you'd think. Mostly it's people doing a dry month, people driving, people pregnant and not announcing it yet, and people pacing themselves on a school night. Mixed tables are the norm now, half the round boozy and half not, everyone ordering from the same menu card.

How to play it

Same as any other night here. Book a table, come down the stairs behind the red door, and ask the bartender what they'd make you. If you like bitter drinks, say so. If you want something that reads like a martini, they'll build you one. The main list and the 0% list come off the same station, so the answer is never "we have a nice orange juice."

We're open until 1:30am Tuesday to Saturday. Not drinking doesn't have to mean going home early.