"Send out for whisky baby, send out for gin..."…read more The London Distillery Company has certainly mastered the latter - in the form of its superb Dodd's gin - and is now well on its way to tackling the former. Its Battersea nerve centre is a playground of gleaming copper, stainless steel and exotic glassware, presided over by the two-headed Willy Wonker that is Darren Rook and Andrew MacLeod Smith. When I visited, the diminutive whisky still ("Matilda") had just been installed and is - even if you've visited a fair few distilleries - quite unlike anything you've seen before. As well as being considerably smaller (she almost seems to stoop for the low ceiling) Matilda is partially connected to a second column for as-yet unspecified "experimentation". The distillery itself is at one end of a former Victorian dairy warehouse, now converted to an achingly cool commune of craft businesses, including bar, street restaurant, and arts space, where models rub shoulders with boxers and architects. Peer in the through the large picture windows to see Andrew and Darren hard at work on their latest creation, before popping over to the Doodle Bar opposite to sample the fruits of their labour. It's about as far away from the world of traditional Scotch Whisky as it's possible to get, and I love it.

This is the 3rd shop from Theatre of Wine, a great addition to the High Street. The wine selection…read moreis pretty amazing, and they also have a fair selection of craft beers so worth popping in to look at those too. There's plenty of room here for the wine tastings that they hold, and the staff are really friendly and knowledgeable. When I was there the chap said they were considering what else they might expand into, cheese, coffee maybe, definitely an exciting new business to have in the area.

I got brought a brewery tour as a gift, and had a great time here. I have done a lot of brewery…read moretours in America but this was my first in the U.K. We did a weekday tour starting 7pm. The place is in a bit of a random spot, I wasn't too keen on our walk there but we made it. We ordered a pint as we were early, their speciality Cake boy, a hazelnut beer I wasn't too keen on it and wished I haven't ordered a whole pint. Plus it was expensive £13 for two pints! It should be cheaper directly from the brewery. Also i definitely wouldn't have ordered a whole pint if I had known I was going to have to chug the thing as we weren't allowed to take drinks on the tour with us! This is very different from US brewery tours and they usually welcome drinking on the tours. However I understand why, as the tour starts out in their private tap room, where you drink and taste all their different beers on tap. I think we tried around 5-6 beers, we even got to still taste their stout even though they had ran out of it on draft. They actually opened bottles of it, to pour for us -- I was impressed and their stout was nice, it's different from others stouts as I'm not a stout drinker. The pours were a third of a pint each too. The tour in whole was 2 hours but didn't actually last that long. The tasting lasted around an hour -- this is something I haven't experienced at US breweries, where the staff go into soo much detail about each beer and taste them with you. Usually a brewery tour is only 20-30 minutes touring the facility. This tour was more like bourbon tours I have been on. The actual tap room we were in was full of Michael Jackson's (the beer critic) glass collection -- cool or what? After the tasting we finally toured the facility, which lasted around 20 minutes or so. The tasting was better than the tour, I could have skipped the tour, their was nothing special. As traditional with British health and safety laws, we were required to wear safety goggles on the tour, even though it was the evening and nothing was happening. One thing that did disappoint me, was you weren't able to keep a tasting glass after the tour, you had to buy one from the gift shop. Also as I'm not up to date on British craft beer, I was surprised to learn that Meantime sold out to SAB Miller a few years ago and then was later sold to a Japanese company. However though we enjoyed the tour overall (I think it was all the beer -- lol). We stayed after the tour finished, had another pint and actually ended up chatting to our tour guide for the evening. We had a great time.

They closed their brewery in north Greenwich and did not update website. Took a one hour trip for…read morenothing.

Nice micro-brewery with friendly service. They had only four or five beers on tap when I visited…read morebut they were all for GBP 5 a pints. I had a Saison which I enjoyed.

On the one hand, this shop is a one trick pony. On the other hand, what a trick! It's a…read moremicrodistillery right in the middle of Camden Lock. So if you're looking for hand crafted, small batch gin at a price that won't break the bank, these guys are really unique. Stop in for some photos, too. They keep the shop immaculate and the still is just gorgeous. There's only one thing to buy there, right now, which is a bottle of their gin. But it's worth it to stop in, have a small taste, take a few photos, and buy a bottle of gin.

Searcys Champagne Bar on the second level of the Westfield Mall is an oasis for the non shopping…read moreother half of a chronic browser. Beer and spirits are also served. Amen.

I love this Sex and the City approach to shopping. You can shop 'til you drop and then get a…read morelovely glass of champers and a delicious open sandwich for lunch for just £10 - such a treat and such good value adding to a great shopping experience! Love the bar too nice decor!

So we decided this would be a damn good way to spend and evening and let me tell you it was! I am…read morestill amazed at how much fun we had! Got there right at the time our reservation was. We were directed into a bar with a total of 16 people and lo and behold we were given a Tom Collins!? A nice way to start our hour long history of Gin lesson! As we wound our way through London's Gin history we also had a Gin and Tonic and a Gin Paloma and more Tom Collins! The gin was plentiful and so good. Next we broke up into 2 groups of 8 and went to meet with our Master Distiller. There we learned more about Gin and the flavorings that make up the Sprit itself. Here we tasted each distilled spice, fruit, etc. as we tasted these we made our notes and built our Gin. They use a high profile Vodka (as do most Gin producers) and we added distilled flavorings that we chose based on nose, taste and finish. The Master distiller then took our choices and came up with the percentages needed to make out Personalized Gin. After all ours were made we tasted each other's concoctions and really had such a great time. Labels were added to our bottles that we got to name and then we were presented with a bottle of their Portobello Road Gin as well. Oh.....they keep your recipe on file so you can re-order whenever you want! My wife who isn't a Gin person.....had a blast and learned to appreciate a couple Gin Cocktails. WELL WORTH THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

Excellent! My husband and I visited London and were looking for an experience to break up the many…read morerestaurant reservations we had (foodies haha). I had heard about the Ginstitute before, and being that I'm a lover of gin, thought we'd give it a shot. I booked our reservations online through their website two days prior. The website asks for an address to send the vouchers, but being from the US, we opted to collect them at the venue (just put in their address instead - 186 Portobello Road). You can enter through The Distillery and just walk to the back. We were lead downstairs to the lecture room with maybe 20 other people, served our first drink (Tom Collins), and the lecture began! There were more tastings throughout the lecture. Next came the gin-making/mixing part. We were sat at a large table with various botanicals and educated on which to put in, what is generally used, etc. We tasted a few different flavors and came up with our own concoction of sorts, which was bottled and given to us to take home! We were also sent home with 2 bottles of tonic and a bottle of their Portobello Road Gin. The whole experience lasted around 3 hours, and it was definitely worth every penny of £120pp. The Ginstitute is located in Notting Hill (Notting Hill Gate tube station) where there are a ton of cute shops and cafes to browse through. Could easily spend a day or two there! I didn't have anything to eat or drink at The Distillery, but the staff was nice and customers looked happy; always a good thing. I wholeheartedly recommend The Ginstitute! Eat something beforehand though ;)

Fabulous cocktails made with GIN At this young and hip bar inside of the MM sustainable community…read moremarket located in a gorgeous old church. They are located right near the altar and I guess this is their offering to the cocktail gods! Our custom crafted gin and tonic's made with different fever tree mixers, fresh herbs and berries were so good that we came back two nights in a row to this Mayfair gem. I had the Ruby and the Rosa and my husband enjoyed the Hendricks cucumber gin and tonics. All of them were outstanding and served up with fun and flare! Oh and once you have a gin and tonic or fun cocktail here be sure to check out the rest of the market with its incredible food stalls.

very hot and fancy place for local young people! Gin and tonic is cool! Many different types of…read morefood from different countries! And many different types of drinks too! Drinks and dinner together! Great place for frds gathering!