You know that the Bar at Galvins isn’t your average bar because you don’t find your average bar located on the 28th floor of the Park Lane Hilton. However, it takes more than a view to convince us to pay upwards of £16 a cocktail.
Fortunately, Galvin at Windows has a menu in tune with the skills of its head barman, Boris Ivan. Inspired by his travels throughout Asia, the updated drinks list is the bounty of clocking up all those air miles.
The bar itself is an opulent affair, low banquet seating lines the edges, dim lighting sets everything in its best hue and there’s that unmistakable hotel bar formality that you either enjoy or you don’t. We enjoy it, although not quite as much we enjoy the views over Hyde Park and beyond from the floor to ceiling windows – it was named for a reason.
We stick to cocktails and complimentary nuts but a bar menu serves small plates and a particularly fine looking Korean beef and kimchi burger from its Michelin starred restaurant. Influenced by South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan, the cocktail list contains a mix between hard-hitting heavy liquor drinks and delicate, fruitier tipples. Being the hard-hitting heavy liquor types we loved the Hikari Quad, a New Style Plantation and pomelo Old Fashioned. Also in touch with our delicate side, the Sencha Highball appealed with its balanced combination of Hakushu 12-year-old, yuzu and sencha tea. See, something for everyone…
The cocktails were hugely impressive but while the prices are high the quality and care in the mixing, combined with the views and hotel bar aura make the Bar at Galvin Windows somewhere worth spending time and money.
