Connaught Bar's cocktails pop up in Delhi and Mumbai
London's No. 8 bar left Mayfair for two Diwali-season nights with The Oberoi, swapping its usual bar stools for stops in New Delhi and Mumbai.
The Connaught Bar, ranked No. 8 on the World's 50 Best Bars 2026, took its cocktail programme on the road this week for a two-city pop-up in India, pouring drinks at Oberoi hotels in New Delhi and Mumbai over the Diwali season.
The Mayfair bar set up at Cirrus 9 in New Delhi on October 31, then moved to The Eau Bar inside The Oberoi, Mumbai, on November 1. Both nights ran in partnership with The Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, timed to coincide with Diwali.
The Connaught Bar sits inside The Connaught hotel in Mayfair, run by Maybourne Hotel Group, which also owns Claridge's and The Berkeley. At the World's 50 Best Bars 2026 ceremony in Milan on October 7, it placed No. 8 globally and held onto its title as the best bar in England.
A No. 8 bar doesn't need a passport to prove it travels well.
Connaught Bar's menu travels to Delhi and Mumbai
Giorgio Bargiani, the bar's assistant director of mixology and the International Bartender of the Year in 2023, led the pop-ups alongside fellow Connaught Bar mixologist Giorgio Iovine.
The curated menu leaned on the bar's signatures: Goodfellas, a film-inspired riff on the Fanciulli sweet Manhattan finished with fig, molasses, cherry and a touch of balsamic vinegar; the stirred Connaught Bar Martini; and Kindred Joy, an elevated take on the Paloma.
Amit Kaul, vice-president and general manager of The Oberoi, Mumbai, said the collaboration paired new ideas in mixology with the group's own focus on personalised hospitality.
Where Connaught Bar sits on the 2026 list
The Milan ceremony crowned Hong Kong's Bar Leone the World's Best Bar for a second year running, across a list spanning 26 cities and 14 new entries. Mexico City's Bar Mauro took the highest new entry at No. 10, and New York's Schmuck won Best New Opening — one of four New York bars on the list, the only American venues to make the cut.
Touring is becoming routine for bars at the top of that ranking, a way to put a single room's reputation in front of drinkers who will never fly to London for it.
By the time Mumbai's last round was poured, the bar itself was already back behind its own counter in Mayfair — open, as usual, to anyone who turns up with a reservation instead of a plane ticket.
