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Waltz

London

An authentic Japanese bar for the drinker’s drinker

Just when it felt like London had the full deck – every style of bar you could possibly want to drink in – Gento Torigata waltzed in. In a stroke his debut London watering hole was the talk of the town. A perfect little piece of Japan in Shoreditch, and a bartender's bar from the off.

Waltz is low on show – don't expect concept menus and theatrical cocktails – but do expect classically underpinned drinks, made the old way with meditative precision and care. Pulling up to Waltz's stunning natural oak bar, sawn from a fallen local tree, you soon realise the bartenders are the act and you're in the front row. The cutting of the ice, the hypnotic stirring of mixing glasses, the oscillation of the shakers... Waltz is an antidote to the now-ubiquitous doctrine of pre-batched cocktails.

Stools at that bar are in high demand, so your visit may start at the high tables that frame the bar's perimeter. It's all one space but here is the perfect spot to try one of the bar's Japanese Highballs – whisky and shochu. The perfect livener as you sway to the jazz soundtrack that gave rise to the bar's name (Bill Evans' Waltz for Debby). Up at the bar you might want to try something more ambitious. The menu is split into In Season and Evergreen sections, with the former inspired by Japan's historic calendar, which separates a year into 72 micro seasons. There are always new drinks to try but you sense that the most evergreen of the year-round fixtures is the Matcha Old Fashioned with Japanese whisky, matcha and honey.

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