Decent drinking dens

It's Friday night. You're up for a drink in town - a fancy one, with an olive and lots of pose value. So don't bother with a pub, a bar franchise or a hotel, the best places to drink these days are attached to some of our swankier restaurants. Here's where...

Baltic 74 Blackfriars Road, SE1 (020 7928 1111)

Self-confessed vodka addict, Jan 'W?dka' Woroniecki, opened East European restaurant Baltic this summer. Diners eat in the lofty but cosily lit dining room at the rear, while voddie fanatics refine their liquid diet in the narrow bar. Go for the naturally flavoured home-made vodkas. It makes the trek to Tate Modern bearable. Drink: karamalowka (vodka flavoured with burnt sugar).

The Bush Bar & Grill 45a Goldhawk Road, W12 (020 8746 2111)

Hidden down a mews passageway off Goldhawk Road, this bar and restaurant is a voyeur's paradise. Spot media luvvies using the well-positioned mirrors. Conceived by the founders of The Groucho Club and the young trio behind Woody's. Drink: champagne mojito (mint, brown sugar, fresh lime chopped, dash of fresh lime juice, 25ml Havana Club, crushed ice, champagne).

Cecconi's 5a Burlington Gardens, W1 (020 7434 1500)

Probably the poshest of them all. This Italian restaurant has recently been revitalised (by David Collin, yawn) to include an intimate (read small) chi chi bar. The second offering from the impeccably groomed Hani Farsi, it attracts the smart art set from Cork Street, Savile Row gents and the rich. Expert bartender Christian Nicholson is a one-man show of witty repartee. Drink: the Bellini with white peach is tdf.

Che 2 St James's Street, SW1 (020 7747 9380)

Despite the neon glare of the garish Mondrian-style back bar (which makes the barfly experience a bit like ordering a McDonald's), this cocktail joint and cigar divan in the old Economist building continues to reel in the high-fliers. Cigar aficionados alight here. Drink: Bisquit Cohiba cognac while pulling on a Cohiba cigar.

Great Eastern Dining Rooms 54 Great Eastern Street, EC2 (020 7613 4545)

This moderately priced Italian dining-room and bar still packs in the cool art crowd (and Kylie!), despite the influx of suburban tourists and West Enders. Drink a fancy foreign beer at the bar among barnet-obsessed Hoxtonites with 'cutting-edge' fringes, or from Thursday to Saturday descend to Below 54 to sip cocktails and generally flail about like Warhol's Factory extras until 1am. Drink: Mango 54 (Zubrowka bison-grass vodka, mango juice, apple juice, a dash of gomme).

Hush 8 Lancashire Court, Brook Street, W1 (020 7659 1500)

Tucked away just a skip from New Bond Street, Hush is the ideal retail therapy pit-stop. Nouveau wealth abounds: the louche first-floor cocktail lounge attracts the 'polo shirt' brigade and accompanying blondes to match. Ex-007 Roger Moore occasionally dines, but you're more likely to spy proprietor Geoffrey Moore ? tall, tanned, cravat and Panavision-shades. Lush. Drink: Absolut Hush! (Taittinger champagne, Absolut vodka, Chambord, orange bitters and raspberry pur?e).

Iso-Bar at Isola 145 Knightsbridge, SW1 (020 7838 1044)

Oliver Peyton has turned the pricier, upper-level restaurant into a bar. Wash down your antipasti truffle and mozzarella (it's the new cheese and pineapple don'cha know) with one of the 70 Italian wines by the glass. Drink: Isola martini (with truffle-infused vermouth).

Ling Ling at Hakkasan, 8 Hanway Place, W1 (020 7927 7010)

Very Sex and the City. This moody temple of Asian chic is hidden, with speakeasy promise, down a back alley with a junkie past. Ling Ling is the lounge bar on the side with a 3am licence on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and cocktails to match the d?cor. Drink: Minnie Mushka (muddled lemon grass, 50ml wyborowa, 50ml rhubarb sake, 20ml calpico, dash of infused rhubarb syrup).

Smith's of Smithfield 67-77 Charterhouse Street, EC1 (020 7236 6666)

Smith's offers two-tier drinking in warehouse surroundings (no-frills brick and ducting). Join the City suits and creatives of Clerkenwell in the ground-floor caf? bar, or pose on wannabe-Met Bar banquettes in the first-floor cocktail bar. Not to be confused with the meat market opposite. Drink: cosmopolitan or champagne.