The 8 best first-date bars in Shoreditch

Right. First-date bars in Shoreditch. The brief is: somewhere you can hear each other, somewhere with drinks that aren't £19 for a Negroni made by a 22-year-old, and crucially somewhere with five other bars within walking distance for if it's going well or going terribly.

Shoreditch and the bordering bits of Hoxton, Dalston and Bethnal Green are the best date area in London precisely because the density of decent bars is mental. Pick wrong, walk five minutes, try again. Here's the eight I'd send a friend to.

The proper cocktail bars

Nightjar is one for a reason. The Old Street basement does live jazz five nights a week, the drinks menu is genuinly interesting, and the lighting flatters everyone. Caveat: you have to book about two weeks out, and the £6-per-person music charge after 9pm is annoying. Aim for a 7pm Tuesday, the band's usually a quartet rather than the bigger weekend bills.

Discount Suit Company off Wentworth Street is everything Nightjar pretends to be without the gimmicks. Tiny basement, walk-in, no live music, just three bartenders who know what they're doing. The drinks list is short and actually good. If your date isn't a cocktail person, this one converts them.

Happiness Forgets in Hoxton Square is the third in this trio. Smaller than Discount Suit, even quieter, no music to shout over. Book — it's 28 seats and a Wednesday is full by 7.

The pub-with-a-twist option

The Sun Tavern in Bethnal Green is the move if you want to start in a proper East End pub and end up drinking serious things. Front bar is a real pub, back is where the cocktail nerds hang out. You can swap atmospheres mid-conversation without changing venues.

Callooh Callay in Shoreditch has the secret-room-through-the-wardrobe thing that everyone's sick of, but the back bar is properly nice and the prices haven't crept up like everywhere else has. First-date catnip if your date is into the gimmick. Skip if not.

The wine option

If your date has tried five different cocktail bars this month already, take them somewhere wine. Sager + Wilde on Hackney Road is the best wine list east of Soho — by-the-glass selection is generous, the small plates are real food rather than garnish, and the room is bright enough that you can actually see each other.

P. Franco in Lower Clapton is a bit further out but the wine list is wild and the bar-counter format means you sit elbow-to-elbow with your date, which forces the kind of conversation Tinder couldn't. Worth the bus ride.

The natural-wine micro-bar

Three Sheets in Dalston is six seats at the counter, husband-and-wife operation, menu rotates. You can't book, you might wait, and you'll definately end up chatting to whichever stranger is sitting next to you. Strong move for date number two when you're trying to seperate the wheat from the chaff.

How I'd actually plan it

Start at one of the walk-in places (Discount Suit, Sun Tavern, Three Sheets, Sager + Wilde) so you're not pinned to a 7pm Nightjar booking if it's going badly. If it's going well, walk five minutes and try a second bar. If it's going badly, the Old Street tube is right there.

For pairing the drinks with something to do after — a late film at Curzon Aldgate, a comedy late show at Soho Theatre, a gig at the Shacklewell — the London this-week page is the quickest way to find something walkable.

What I haven't put on the list

The Hoxton Hotel rooftop, Tonight Josephine, Box Park — all fine but they're first-drink-with-mates places, not first-date places. The vibe is wrong. You want low-music, good lighting, and bartenders who don't ask if you want them to "come up with something based on your mood." Hard pass on that energy.

Eight bars, five-minute walks between most of them, you'll be fine.