Last night, though, the game was well and truly up. At the global 2026 edition of The 50 Best Bar awards in Milan, Waltz secured the ranking of 32nd, and the brilliance of the bar was made plain for all to see.
This is something of a flex, considering it’s the first fresh bar to enter the list since Scarfes at the Rosewood London hotel, which was finally recognised after a decade of work in 2023.
When the news was announced at the ceremony, the room reacted with an appropriately raucous roar of excitement, mostly from the establishment’s founder, Gento Torigata, his team, and the rest of the London bar scene, including those representing fellow winners Satan’s Whiskers, The Connaught Bar and Scarfes.
While the aforementioned other bars share very little DNA, one thing that unites them is the fact that they are both short of a London institution. Whether you’d prefer to enjoy The Connaught Bar’s bespoke martinis, Scarfes’s piano sessions or Satan’s Whiskers’s furry taxidermy friends, each promises an indisputably good, fad-free experience that, alongside sublime service, has a timeless appeal.
Perhaps that is what some of the 800 anonymous judges who vote to crown The 50 Best recognised in Waltz: the makings of a place with an enduring allure. But for me? What makes Waltz one of the capital’s best bars is that and plenty else.
Tucked behind an understated frontage guarded by a linen curtain, inside is a charming yet sleek cubby hole of warm, lightly polished wood, enveloping shades of blue and the sound of the owner’s favourite jazz. The centrepiece of the room is a long stretch of elm counter, made from a tree felled in Islington’s Gibson Square. Behind it, the pared-back bar is bookmarked by a pair of handsome, chunky speakers, while a vast indigo murmuration of starlings flutters overhead. Apparently, designer David Ross took inspiration for the look from Japanese listening bars, but used British craftspeople and materials to assemble a more tactile vibe designed to feel more at home in London instead.