Our favourite Bethnal Green bars

The Sun Tavern is right between two bus stops that service the number 8, 388 and D3 buses and a minute’s walk from Bethnal Green Underground. Whether you live in Bethnal Green or just passing through, it’s hard not to end up in The Sun Tavern at some point – usually on your way home when the music and warmth inside and the promise of a nightcap call out to you.

We’ve been in The Sun for many a last call, whether beer, a cocktail or a dram of Irish whiskey. This Bethnal Green bar is long and narrow, and a prime example of intimacy – if you’re up at the front end, you’ll probably be seated near the end of the L-shaped bar where the DJ decks are set up.

It’s raucous, it’s good-natured, and you’ll probably end up talking to strangers. There’s no scotch to be found but the collection of Irish whiskey, the great DJ sets and The Sun’s cocktails more than make up for that.

Arguably one of the best bars in Bethnal Green hence its place on our list. If you haven’t already been, you really should. On a quiet residential street, in an old building, and down a flight of stairs, you'll find one of the sauciest bars around.

The drinks are cheap, the entertainment is top-class, the decor is so-bad-it’s-good, and if you’ve ever had the privilege of singing karaoke in front of the big game show Love Heart on the stage then you know exactly why we love it.

The crowd at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club is always a good one, incredibly open and inclusive – everybody’s just trying to have a good time. It’s an atmosphere that’s hard to fake or replicate but the Club is what it is and it’s best not to analyse it and just enjoy it.

Looking from the outside in, Love Shack is one of those Bethnal Green bars that looks like it’s either going to be awful or great and you won’t know until you step inside and it’s surprisingly – thankfully – a sweet little spot. This is a bar for some of the tastiest vegan food and for lovers of the Pickleback. The kimchi Chik’n burger and smoked jackfruit tacos are top-notch and the place does a pretty good vegan brunch as well.

The outdoor seating area is where you want to be on a sunny spring or summer day, it’s right outside Cambridge Heath Overground so you’ll hear the metallic clack-clack of the train in the background. Inside it’s comfortable and relaxed with an aesthetic that borders on retro kitsch and is the definition of eclectic.

Love Shack has a cool private hire area, you access it through the main bar via an actual secret bookshelf and enter a windowless railway arch of a room with its own bar. It’s a pretty great spot for a private party, you get to enjoy the baffled looks of the people in the main bar every time you pass through the bookshelf.

Located on Bethnal Green Road, Coupette is a dimly-lit and intimate cocktail bar that has been on lists for best bars in London and Top 50 Bars Worldwide.

Coupette doesn’t disappoint with its ever-revolving cocktail menu, French-inspired small plates and ambience, but there’s something else we really rate about the place. Calvados is a French brandy produced in Normandy, hard to find in London, made from apples or pears and Coupette has an extensive collection of the stuff. Stocking this alone makes Coupette worth the trip.

This is the place for the cocktail connoisseurs, people who pre-plan a visit to a bar when there is a guest bartender and who want to try innovative concoctions. It’s also a nice place to pop in for a nightcap.

Located on a quiet residential street between Bethnal Green Station and the top end of Mile End Park, The Florist Arms feels like a local because it is. You sink into worn leather sofas, the stonebaked pizzas are delicious and well-priced and there’s plenty of beer to choose from.

We don’t think we’ve ever taken a walk in Mile End Park and not walked a few streets over to have a pint at The Florist Arms. The local dogs are friendly, the staff are friendly and the Bethnal Green bar exhibits the artwork of local artists. You could easily sit down on a sofa and not get up again until hours – and several drinks – later. You’ll have to get up to get another round in but when you’re there with mates you don’t have to get up every round.

Another watering hole found on Cambridge Heath Road, this Bethnal Green bar looks shabby on the outside (it used to look even shabbier not that long ago). It feels very much like a Victorian taproom with many original features retained throughout. The bar has a great atmosphere, a suntrap of a backyard at the right time, a good selection of beers and regular DJ sets.

We respect that The Dundee Arms rejects having a social media presence, and whilst we haven’t had the raclette, spring onion and truffle oil toastie, opting to only have a couple of pints whenever we’re there, we have to respect a place that only offers one hot food item. There’s something no-nonsense about it that feels like a leftover from its shabbier days even if raclette and truffle oil are completely out of place with that shabbiness.

Located on Cambridge Heath Road, Satan’s Whiskers is hidden behind a wall of profuse graffiti and windows with heavy wooden blinds, you have to look up to make out the red ‘Satan’s Whiskers’ on the black sign above the door.

Another intimate cocktail bar that has topped the world’s best bars lists. This is the cocktail bar for connoisseurs with a goth edge – there’s plenty of weird taxidermy that blends in with the old framed prints of early 20th-century spirit posters.

Satan’s Whiskers is known for serving up classic cocktails that are so good, that they also come in bottled versions for you to take home. Whereas the other cocktail bars on this list are good for a nightcap, Satan’s Whiskers is the kind of bar we like to start our night in.

Located on Paradise Row near Bethnal Green Underground, Mother Kelly’s is the epitome of what most people think East End bars look like, large and spacious in a re-purposed railway arch with a bit of graffiti on the walls.

The Bethnal Green bar and bottle shop is well-known and well-loved for its many craft brews on tap, its fine selection of sours and nearly one entire wall of refrigerators belonging to the bottle shop. There’s good seating outside earlier in the afternoon, and on hot days, it’s nice because it rests in the shade later in the afternoon. At night you’ll be drinking under fairy lights.

Located on the quiet and residential Globe Street, just around the corner from Bethnal Green Underground, The Camel is a restored Victorian pub well-known for its pie and mash menu. It also happens to be a couple of doors down from The Florist Arms and it’s very easy to convince yourself to pop into one pub when you’ve just left the other and told yourself you were definitely going home.

Come here for a pie & a pint. These are handmade gourmet pies with delicious fillings like steak and chorizo all served with buttery mash and peas and the pub also offers daily specials. We can attest to the pies being delicious even if we cannot recall exactly what pie we had because there were a couple of pints that preceded it. It was probably steak. It was definitely good.

Another boozer located on Bethnal Green Road near the Underground station, The Shakespeare is the old-school boozer you go to if you’re weary of overpriced craft beers and you just want a cheap pint of larger or Guinness. No fuss no frills.

Pop in for a pint by yourself or to catch a match on the telly. There’s a decline of pubs like this in the area in favour of shinier and newer pubs, but the Shakespeare is as it reads on the label, and if you’re looking for something more than this then try the tavern next door. If not, pull up a seat, order a pint, open a packet of crisps and enjoy the fact that there’s not somebody sitting at the next table taking arty photos of their pint.