Rosewood London, Scarfes Bar: hours, cocktails, live music and how to get a table

Scarfes Bar, inside Rosewood London on High Holborn, opens every day at 4pm and takes walk-ins subject to availability, with tables held for an hour and a half. Cocktails on the Heroes & Villains menu cost £20 to £24 plus 15% service, and free live music plays 6 nights a week.

Updated 13 October 202611 min readHow we write the guide

Scarfes Bar: the long wooden counter with its stools, the lit shelves of bottles and the globe chandeliers

Who Scarfes Bar is for

Why go

You want an evening with live music, some of the world’s most decorated cocktails at menu prices under £25 before discretionary service and a warm room with a fire, 12 minutes’ walk from Covent Garden.

The menu and its prices

When to look elsewhere

You need a guaranteed table at a set time and are not staying at the hotel: here only residents and groups of 6 or more can book, while The Ritz’s Rivoli Bar and The Langham’s Artesian take everyone’s booking.

Other bars

Why Scarfes Bar is unlike other hotel bars

A drawing room with a fire and a thousand antique books, a cartoonist’s caricatures on marble walls, and a menu that satirises its own trade.

The bar takes its name from Gerald Scarfe, the English cartoonist behind the drawings for Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Disney’s Hercules: his paintings cover the marble walls (menu). The room is modelled on a drawing room and a gentlemen’s club, with a roaring fire, velvet armchairs and more than 1,000 antique books chosen by a Portobello dealer (the bar); the interior is by Martin Brudnizki (The Rake).

It sits in the building’s east block, designed by P. Moncton and built in 1929 and 1930 for Pearl Assurance, which had its headquarters here until 1989 (Wikipedia). In 2017 the Evening Standard called it a hotel bar shaken free of the usual stuffiness, and the description still holds: no published dress code and live music almost every night.

The rankings keep it high: No. 31 in The World’s 50 Best Bars 2025, No. 47 among Europe’s 50 Best and No. 35 in the Top 50 Cocktail Bars in 2026, Best International Hotel Bar at Tales of the Cocktail in 2024 (the bar). On the 50 Best extended list of 2026 it is No. 77 (awards).

The Heroes & Villains menu, launched on 1 April 2026 under Director of Bars Andy Loudon, took more than 6 months to develop: 20 cocktails for 10 figures, a heroic side on the page and a villainous one hidden under a tab. Paul McCartney becomes a tequila Strawberry Fields Forever and a rum Man on the Run (press release).

We studied the bar on 4 October 2026: its pages, both menus, the press release, Google’s results in Britain, where the bar’s own site is not in the first 10 and the first result is an events portal; and the hotel’s 2,000 most recent Google reviews. Scarfes comes up in 48 of them, averaging 4.73 stars with 42 fives; on Tripadvisor the bar has 4.4 out of 5 from 622 reviews.

An evening at Scarfes Bar, from 4pm to the music

Without a booking, what matters is when you arrive: try the 4pm opening for a table; after dinner, allow for a wait.

Opening
The bar opens at 4pm, Monday to Sunday, and works on a walk-in basis: each table is allocated for an hour and a half, after which the team tries to keep you on. A booked table is released after 15 minutes.
The 6pm rule
From 6pm under-18s are no longer admitted (the bar’s rules). Anyone spending the afternoon with children does so before then, or next door at Holborn Dining Room.
A hero from the menu
The Heroes & Villains menu puts a Scarfe caricature and its hero cocktail on each page: High Society, with The Botanist, tonka vermouth and manzanilla, costs £22; Hot-Air Balloon, with The Macallan 12, £24.
The villain under the tab
Pull the tab and the villain appears: the classics bartenders love to hate, from the Cosmopolitan to the Mojito. Diva is a lychee Cosmopolitan with Grey Goose, £22; Man on the Run a Ramos Gin Fizz on Brugal 1888 rum, £24 (press release).
Yorkshire pudding and lobster rolls
Food is served from 4pm to midnight: Yorkshire pudding with roast beef costs £28, the lobster rolls £24, fries with jalapeño ketchup £9, 30 grams of King Imperial caviar £116 (September 2026 menu).
The music, then late
Live music is free 6 nights a week by the bar’s own account; Thatsup lists it Tuesday to Saturday. The hotel says it closes “late”, without an hour; Tripadvisor says 1am.

From Scarfes to the great hotel bars of the Strand and the West End

The Savoy’s American Bar is the nearest, 15 minutes’ walk away; The Langham’s Artesian is 27, The Ritz’s Rivoli 29, the Connaught Bar 35.

Loading map…

Rosewood LondonScarfes Bar: daily from 4pm
The SavoyThe American Bar, 15 minutes’ walk
The Langham, LondonArtesian, 27 minutes’ walk

The Heroes & Villains menu and its prices

What the cocktail menu, in force since 1 April 2026, and the food menu dated 5 September 2026 said on 4 October 2026.

On the menu

20 house cocktails, 10 heroes and 10 villains, £20 to £24
Final Act, with Campari and pear and black cardamom soda, £20
Billecart-Salmon Champagne by the glass from £26
A house lager made with Freedom, £9.50
Food from 4pm to midnight, from fries at £9 to caviar at £116
A discretionary 15% service charge; prices include VAT

Scarfes Bar’s rules

From the bar’s own pages and menu, read on 4 October 2026.

Hours	Daily from 4pm until late; Tripadvisor lists 5pm to 1am
Reservations	For hotel guests and groups of 6 or more; the online page, though, takes groups of up to 5
The table	Allocated for 1 hour 30 minutes; released after 15 minutes’ delay
Under-18s	Not admitted after 6pm
Service	15% discretionary, added to the bill
Music	Live and free, 6 nights a week
Private hire	Daily from 7am to 2pm

Staying at Rosewood London to get a table

Residents can book Scarfes, and one review describes an entrance just for hotel guests.

A Deluxe Room: a white bed with a pale blue throw, an upholstered bench and a black-and-white key-pattern rug

A Grand Premier Room: a white bed, a desk and armchairs beside 2 tall windows

The bar’s rules keep reservations for hotel guests. A couple in January 2026 describe a residents-only entrance while everyone else queues every night: twice, and a table straight away (reviews). The rooms start with the 29 m² Deluxe; the Grand Premier tops 37. On Google Hotels, on 4 October 2026, a night for 2 started at £431 on 8 January 2027 and £505 on 1 August, without saying which room.

The rooms and suites

Scarfes or another hotel bar, from Holborn to the West End

Hours, bookings and rules from each bar’s own page, read on 4 October 2026, and the minutes on foot from Rosewood London.

What divides these bars is booking. The Ritz’s Rivoli Bar and The Langham’s Artesian take everyone’s booking; the Connaught Bar takes nobody’s; Scarfes only residents’ and groups of 6.

The nearest is The Savoy’s American Bar, 15 minutes away on the Strand: it opens at noon, admits guests from 16 and asks for elegant dress. Scarfes publishes no dress code and admits only adults after 6pm, as Artesian does.

One mistake to avoid: trusting an old opening time. In July 2025 a group arriving at 4.50pm was told the bar opened at 5pm; today the bar and the hotel both say 4pm, while Tripadvisor still lists 5pm.

Bar	Where	From its page	From Rosewood London
Rosewood London	High Holborn	Daily from 4pm; only residents and groups of 6 can book; cocktails £20 to £24 plus 15%.	You are here
The Savoy, the American Bar	Strand	Noon to midnight, Sundays to 10pm; from 16; elegant dress.	15 minutes’ walk
The Langham, Artesian	Regent Street	4pm to midnight, to 1am Thursday to Saturday; bookable; over-18s only after 6pm.	27 minutes’ walk
The Ritz, the Rivoli Bar	Piccadilly	Daily 11am to midnight; bookable; £30-a-head minimum spend.	29 minutes’ walk
The Connaught Bar	Mayfair	Monday to Saturday, 4pm to 1am; no reservations; Martini at £30.	35 minutes’ walk

Walking minutes computed on OpenStreetMap’s streets from Rosewood London to each hotel on 4 October 2026, the day we read the bars’ pages.

What guests say about Scarfes
Of Rosewood London’s 2,000 most recent Google reviews, read on 4 October 2026, 48 mention Scarfes, averaging 4.73 stars. The happy ones talk about the bartenders, the jazz and the cocktails; one guest in March 2025 calls it possibly the best hotel bar in the world.

Questions about Scarfes Bar

Booking, hours, dress code, prices, music and teenagers: what people ask before an evening at Scarfes.

Can you book Scarfes Bar?

It depends. The bar’s rules keep reservations for Rosewood London guests and groups of 6 or more; everyone else walks in, at tables held for an hour and a half. The online reservations page, though, takes groups of up to 5: the bar’s 2 pages disagree.

What time does Scarfes Bar open?

At 4pm, every day, according to the bar and the hotel’s page, both of which say “until late”. Tripadvisor lists 5pm to 1am, and Thatsup 4pm to midnight on Mondays. Food is served until midnight.

Is there a dress code at Scarfes Bar?

Neither the bar nor the hotel publishes one. On Tripadvisor a December 2024 question about jeans went unanswered; in the same hotel, Holborn Dining Room asks for casual dress.

How much is a cocktail at Scarfes Bar?

£20 to £24 on the Heroes & Villains menu, plus a discretionary 15% service charge; prices include VAT. Billecart-Salmon Champagne by the glass starts at £26 (wine list).

Is there live music at Scarfes Bar?

Yes, free, 6 nights a week according to the bar; Thatsup lists it Tuesday to Saturday. In reviews, guests mostly mention jazz nights.

Can you take children to Scarfes Bar?

Until 6pm: after that, under-18s are not admitted (the bar’s rules). The same rule applies at The Langham’s Artesian; The Savoy’s American Bar admits guests from 16.

Can you eat at Scarfes Bar?

Yes, from 4pm to midnight: Yorkshire pudding with roast beef at £28, lobster rolls at £24, buttermilk fried chicken at £18, beetroot falafel at £16, bread and butter pudding at £12 (September 2026 menu).

Is Scarfes Bar inside Rosewood London?

Yes, at 252 High Holborn, in the east block of the hotel’s building. It is 15 minutes’ walk from The Savoy’s American Bar and 12 from Covent Garden, on OpenStreetMap’s streets.

Arrive at 4pm or stay the night: after dinner it is first come, first served, and the table is yours for an hour and a half

Scarfes Bar on its own site

Written and checked by Lumina, independently of Rosewood London. Lumina sells no rooms or tickets: every link leads to its source.

Sources