The best booze trolleys in London

There’s something so utterly fabulous about a drinks trolley.

It’s like having your own personal booze butler or pie-eyed private jet (after all, the mile-high drinks trolley is the first place most of us encounter a moveable alcohol feast).

Behold the sommelier or bartender, smartly wheeling over their goodies, lavishing their attention exclusively upon you as they pop, pour or mix your chosen manna, murmuring compliments about your divine taste as they go. Let’s get trollied.

Champagne trolley at Story

When you sit down at the start of your bespoke 11-course tasting menu at Tom Sellers’ storied Bermondsey restaurant and the marble trolley glides smoothly towards you, it’s not just champagne they’re offering. They’ve got way more fizzy foresight than that. Besides classic Dom Pérignon at £29 a glass, there’s très hip (and, shhh, better value) grower champagne from Bérèche & Fils and English stuff from Davenport in East Sussex. Not sure whether you need fizz to start? Crucial info: the cult bread course with its beef dripping candle genuinely requires crisp, crackling bubbles to cut through the glorious fat. So get that trolley over, now.

Martini trolley at the Connaught

The sleek emerald Martini trolley has been wending its way through The Connaught Bar ever since the hotel reopened 10 years ago, serving the needs of those requiring an ice-cold hit of gin ’n’ vermouth (vodka Martinis being decidedly less chic) with serious aplomb. Tanqueray 10 is the standard gin of choice, although any other that takes your fancy is available, soon including the Connaught’s very own small batch spiritual blend from master mixologist, Agostino Perrone. It’s then up to you to pick from the special compartments holding olives, homemade bitters and freshly delivered Amalfi lemons to decide upon your Martini’s special twist. This is what is known as ‘the dream’.

Digestif trolley at Hide

‘To me, the beauty of a trolley is that it comes to you,’ says Oskar Kinberg, head bartender at Hide. ‘It’s the essence of feel-good luxury. You don’t even have to get out of your seat.’ While the super-slick Piccadilly restaurant is a haven for oenophiles, with thousands of wine bottles available from owner Hedonism Wines, it is crucial that you save a little space in your drinking boots for the digestif trolley. Its clinking collection of 28 different daily-changing spirits and liqueurs ranges from amaretto to a 200-year-old cognac, with a wildly sliding price scale to match every tipsy taste; from a Clynelish 14-year-old whisky at £13.50 for 50ml to a Strathisla 1967 single malt punching in at £190 for 50ml.