Editorial Review

The walls of this airy-but-secluded lounge are lined with stingray skin. A 22-foot-long piano does double duty as the bar top. Ask your waiter, who's in 1920s-style dress, to surprise you with a cocktail. (A Bloody Mary with oysters, perhaps?) Seasonal cocktail list, with specialties including "The King's Speech" and Jasmine-tea-spiked English fruit punch. Light bites run from Devon crab to sea salt caramel. Patrons run to prime ministerial wannabes and hotel guests who are visiting London to make the media rounds. Scotland Yard is next door and rumoured World War II-era tunnels may be underneath. Enter via the lobby of the "five-star" Corinthia Hotel.