Kiyori: the cocktail lounge London keeps searching for is fifty feet underground

You have done the usual circuit. The “we’ll just grab one” that turns into a room you can’t hear yourself think in. The bar that looks perfect on your phone, then hands you a drink that tastes like it was designed for a photo, not a palate. The place you try once, then quietly never suggest again.

What you actually want is simpler, and rarer: a cocktail lounge in London that can become your little secret hideout. Somewhere you can take a friend who thinks they’ve seen it all, a colleague who notices detail, or a date who understands the difference between “nice” and considered. Somewhere that holds the night, rather than rushing it.

Kiyori is that place. Tucked beneath Aki, our Japanese restaurant in a Grade II listed former bank on Cavendish Square, Marylebone, it sits down in the original bank vaults and changes with the hours: unhurried conversation in the early evening, then something more magnetic when the night decides it is not finished with you yet.

A properly defined cocktail lounge in London

You’ll see the word “lounge” used a little too casually around London. It shouldn’t be. A lounge is not a bar with softer lighting and a chair you can’t sit in for more than twenty minutes. A lounge is a decision about pace. It is a room that flatters conversation, where you can arrive early and still feel exactly on time.

That is where Kiyori starts. It is built for the pre-dinner drink that becomes the real beginning of the evening, for after-work drinks that don’t feel like a compromise, and for the kind of table that makes you sit a little differently, not because anyone is watching, but because the room has standards and you instinctively meet them.

And because this is Aki, the details behave like details should. The glass has weight. The lighting does not fight your face. The music sits low enough to be felt, not performed. You can stay. You are meant to.

An underground bar in London, down in the original bank vaults

Kiyori is not “downstairs” in the way restaurants sometimes use the word. It is down in the original vaults of a former bank, and the descent changes the temperature of the evening. You go from the main room’s high design and high clarity to something quieter, darker, more private. Not hidden for the sake of it. Hidden because it suits the intention.

The room was shaped by designer Francis Sultana: gold and bronze tones, gilded ceilings, mirrored surfaces and low light, with original artwork by Aziza Kadyri on the walls and mosaics by Bouke de Vries. There is a dedicated dancefloor too, which earns its place as the night deepens.

It is an underground bar in London that doesn’t ask you to cosplay nightlife. It simply gives you the right room for the hour, and lets you choose what kind of night you are having.

One bar, three ways to spend a night

Cocktails with structure, not noise: how to choose at Kiyori

A good lounge cocktail behaves like good tailoring: clean lines, precise construction, nothing decorative that can’t justify itself. Kiyori’s menu leans into Japanese spirits, bright botanicals and ingredients that feel deliberate rather than performative. Not sure where to start? Choose by mood.

The list also includes the Espresso & Miso Martini, Ichigo, the Kiyori Paloma and the Shisorita. See the full Kiyori menu.

Bar bites: wagyu, tempura and robata

If you need food, Kiyori runs a tighter, more deliberate menu than the main restaurant upstairs. It is built for a room that prioritises conversation over courses. Enough to keep you sharp, not so much that the night gets heavy.

And if the evening suddenly demands the full omakase or sashimi experience, the main dining room is just upstairs.

Every regular starts with one drink: come and find yours in Marylebone

The problem with finding a new place in London is not a lack of options. It is that most options are built for somebody else’s idea of a good time. Too much theatre. Too much sameness. Too much of the feeling that you have arrived in a room designed for strangers, and you will remain one.

A regular hangout does something different. It makes you feel recognised before you are. It gives you a table you can return to, a mood that holds and a rhythm that makes sense: early drinks that feel intimate, later hours that feel alive, and a door you can open without needing a reason.

Here at Aki, we are dedicated to Japanese craft in everything we serve, and Kiyori is where that craft goes underground: precise cocktails, plates made for the table, and a room that does half the work for you. Come on a Wednesday for the conversation or a Saturday for the dancefloor, and see how quickly “one drink” becomes your regular. Bringing a date? Start with our guide to date night in Marylebone.

Kiyori is the cocktail lounge and bar beneath Aki, a contemporary Japanese restaurant at 1 Cavendish Square, Marylebone, London W1G 0LA, minutes from Oxford Circus and Bond Street, and listed in the Michelin Guide. Open Wednesday to Saturday from 5pm. Reserve a table at Kiyori.