The London Natural Wine Bar Map, Updated
Where to drink pét-nat without pretension — a working map of the city's best low-intervention lists.
The brief
Low intervention has stopped being a genre and become a default. What matters now is not whether a list is natural, it's whether it's any good — and whether they'll let you drink a decent bottle without a lecture.
South
40 Maltby Street, Bermondsey — an importer with a kitchen attached and the best short menu in the city. Go at lunch, sit at the counter, order everything with anchovies in it. Naughty Piglets in Brixton for the same instinct with more cooking.
West
Straker's in Notting Hill for a fire-driven kitchen and a list that takes risks. Bandol in Chelsea for the tidier, Provençal end of the same idea.
East
Manteca in Shoreditch pours as well as it cooks. The Kingsland Road stretch north into Dalston has the highest concentration of small rooms with fridges full of things you have not heard of.
Central
Soho's wine bars have quietly caught up. The rule in W1 is to ignore the list and ask what they opened today.
How to order
Say what you usually drink and what you're eating. Any good room takes it from there. If they answer with a lecture instead of a glass, drink somewhere else.