Jake Missing

photo credit: Jake Missing Bonne Route is a twinkling hangout that should really be gatekept. The dinky next to rail station sits opposite a dry cleaners, beside an estate agents, underneath a cherry blossom tree and, when you're sitting on the pavement with a glass of crémant, feels like the kind of place where you might write your first novella. Or at least daydream about it.

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch Brian Danclair, the chef and founder of Fish, Wings & Tings landed in London from Trinidad in the 90s, before opening this Brixton institution in 2012. Since then, Fish, Wings & Tings has become synonymous with bright Caribbean flavours, a colour palette that defies January blues, and jerk chicken that, while isn't London's finest, always hits the spot.

photo credit: Jake Missing Rasputin's is the right kind of love letter to America's dingy dive bar culture. An homage that's smack-bang in the middle of Mare Street's occasional mess (and, rather poetically for London drinkers of a certain age, next door to The Dolphin), this gloomy den pleasingly combines £8 glacial martinis, the faint odour of hot dogs and antique furniture, and a friendly atmosphere that sees people happily pitch up at the bar by themselves.