Scarfes Bar

Verdict: Scarfes Bar Is Not Just a Hotel Bar — and That Distinction Matters

The most common mistake people make about Scarfes Bar is treating it as a backup option, something to do because you're already staying at the Rosewood London on High Holborn. That reading undersells it considerably. With a 4.7 Google rating across more than 3,375 reviews and two consecutive Opinionated About Dining Casual Europe rankings (ranked #448 in 2024, rising to #500 in 2025 on an expanded list), this is a bar that earns its own visit. If you want a serious cocktail program in a room that looks the part, Scarfes delivers. If you want the most technically adventurous cocktails in London, consider Tayēr + Elementary instead.

The Room and the Experience

Walk in and the first thing you register is the walls. Scarfes is named after the caricaturist Gerald Scarfe, and his work lines the room in a way that makes an immediate visual impression: vivid, satirical portraits covering nearly every surface. This is not a stripped-back, low-light cocktail den. It is a decorated, characterful room that skews more traditional London club than modern bar, with deep sofas, bookshelves, and a fireplace that makes the space feel deliberately unhurried. For a first-timer, that setting delivers the wow moment. For a return visitor, the question becomes whether the drinks program and service justify the price of another evening here — and broadly, the answer is yes, provided you go at the right time.

When to Go

Scarfes Bar opens daily at 4 pm and runs through to midnight seven days a week. The optimal window for a return visit is early in the week, Tuesday or Wednesday, arriving at opening or shortly after. Thursday through Saturday the room fills with post-work and hotel-adjacent crowds, and the atmosphere shifts from intimate to lively in a way that trades off against conversation. If you're going for a quieter experience , a date, a catch-up with someone you haven't seen in a while, or a focused tasting of the cocktail list , midweek early evening is the call. Sunday from 4 pm also works well; the pace is slower and the room never quite reaches the noise levels of a Friday night.

Groups and Private Dining

This is where Scarfes Bar separates itself more clearly from the standard hotel bar format. The space has the capacity and the layout to accommodate groups with more flexibility than a dedicated cocktail counter like Tayēr + Elementary, where seating is structured around the bar itself. For groups planning a private or semi-private evening, the lounge-style seating means larger parties can settle in without feeling like they've taken over a working bar. That said, if the private dining or group experience is the primary purpose of your booking , a corporate event, a celebration requiring a dedicated space , it is worth contacting the Rosewood London directly to confirm what can be arranged, as the database does not confirm specific private-room availability or minimum spend requirements. What the room's layout and hotel context do suggest is that this is one of the more accommodating bars in central London for groups of six to ten who want a shared evening without the formality of a private dining room.

Booking and Access

Booking difficulty here is low. Walk-ins are viable on quieter nights, and even on weekends the bar does not operate the weeks-in-advance booking pressure of London's most in-demand cocktail venues. That accessibility is part of the appeal for a return visit: you can decide on the day with reasonable confidence that you'll be accommodated, particularly if you're a smaller group arriving before 7 pm. The address is 252 High Holborn, WC1V 7EN, with Holborn Underground station close by.

How It Compares in London

Scarfes sits in a different tier from the £££ fine-dining bars attached to places like Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library or the restaurant destinations at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and CORE by Clare Smyth. Those are dinner-first commitments at the higher end of London's price range. Scarfes is an evening in itself, built around drinks and atmosphere rather than a tasting menu, and it competes most directly with other serious hotel bars and destination cocktail venues across the city. Against international peers, the OAD ranking puts it in the same conversation as Carico Milano in Europe's casual tier, while domestically it offers a more accessible and room-forward experience than the technically focused Tayēr + Elementary. For more options across the city, see our full London bars guide, and if Scarfes is part of a broader London trip, our London restaurants guide and our London hotels guide cover the rest of the picture.

The Bottom Line

Book Scarfes Bar if you want a central London cocktail evening with genuine atmosphere, low booking friction, and a room that rewards a second visit as much as a first. Go midweek for the leading version of the experience. If you're bringing a group of six or more, it handles that format better than most comparable venues in the area. If cutting-edge technique is your priority over atmosphere, route to Tayēr + Elementary instead.