Bar 45’s festive menu brings “Christmas in a glass” to 45 Park Lane

As any seasoned traveller can tell you, a great hotel can be made or broken by the quality of its bar. The hardworking hotel bar is at once a meeting place and evening wind-down, a centre piece for pre-dinner aperitifs and, at its best, a microcosm of the ambience, design and flavour of the hotel as a whole. Bar 45, at the Dorchester Collection’s 45 Park Lane, is an elegant example of this. 

One of the world’s busiest and – in our admittedly biased view – best international cities, London’s hotel scene offers world-class hospitality for every occasion, whether its visitors are looking for a decadent tourist location or sleek business hub. Located on Park Lane right next to door to its grand dame big sister, the Dorchester, 45 Park Lane is an artistic hub that blends contemporary style with refined art deco influences. Where The Dorchester offers tradition and grandeur, 45 serves up energised refinement from its fashionably outfitted suites, sensational culinary options – including The Cut by Wolfgang Puck – to its indulgent, dreamy subterranean spa (featuring Park Lane’s longest swimming pool).Continuing this cool and contemporary approach, Bar 45 is part-cocktail bar, part-art gallery. Warm wood-panelled walls are adorned with ever-changing exhibitions featuring artists and photographers such as Andy Gotts, Ian Turnock and Ewan David Eason.

The art deco inspired bar is renowned for its excellent cocktails, bringing flavoursome twists to classic and modern recipes alike – 45’s mixology team have created more than 200 variations of negroni alone in recent years – and is known for its seasonal menus. The latest, launched on 5 December, is a curated festive cocktail menu that delivers pure indulgence through its extraordinary combinations and top-shelf ingredients. The Red Gimlet combines Plymouth Gin, Aperol, cacao, strawberry and absinthe, while the Kir 45 mixes Perrier-Jouët brut champagne with lillet blanc, lacto berries and elderflower – finished witha spritz of Bar 45’s No 4 aromatic garnish – for a sweet and sharp long drink that my guest described as “Christmas in a glass”.

The menu is completed with two excellent negronis: the Pear & Ricotta Negroni features a Monkey 47 base blended with Calvados, cacao bitter, red vermouth, pear and washed with ricotta cheese – an unexpected but delightful twist that adds a rich smoothness to the sharp flavours of the negroni. Finally, the limited edition Negroni 47 combines the extraordinary Monkey 47 distiller’s cut 2025 with red vermouth and Italian bitter for an elevated version of the classic negroni flavour. In fact, Bar 45 is the only London venue serving the 2025 distiller’s cut of this already premium gin. Complementing the cocktail menu is a selection of sharing plates and larger snacks designed by 45 Park Lane’s executive chef Elliot Grover. Stand out selections include steak tartare bites with black truffle; spicy tuna tartare cones with beluga caviar; Wolfgang Puck crab and lobster roll; and prawn spring rolls with spiced honey. A selection of sliders – wagyu beef, wild mushroom or buttermilk chicken – showcase the venue’s premium ingredients in bite-sized form, while salads and sandwiches are also available for guests settling in for a relaxed lunch or dinner.

With its unrelenting passion for quality and flavour, relaxed and artistic ambience, and knowledgeable and friendly team – led by Enrico Perri – Bar 45 remains one of my favourite bars in London, guaranteed to provide the perfect, unexpected twist to your favourite cocktail. 

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