Bardo St James's

A discreet door on Suffolk Place, a few steps from Trafalgar Square, drops you down into Bardo: a low-lit Italian supper room built in the key of La Dolce Vita. Luca Maggiora, the impresario behind the Toy Room and Project nightclubs, opened it beneath Kinnaird House in October 2021, handing the kitchen to Amalfi-born chef Graziano Bonacina, who cooked at Sette in the Bulgari Hotel. The room reads as a 1960s Roman fantasy: oxblood velvet, brass sunburst mirrors set into arched alcoves, Murano chandeliers, and a long marble bar in glazed turquoise tile that runs the length of one wall.

At the centre of it all is a bandstand. Live music plays six nights a week, moving through jazz, blues, soul and old ballads, and it is the thing that sets Bardo apart from the polite Italian rooms around it. Off the main floor sit a walk-in wine cellar and a whisky room, a private lounge with its own bar, and a panelled private dining room. The cocktail list came from Luigi Milone, formerly of Cipriani.

For a private event the whole place takes 120 seated or 300 for a reception, with the stage already in position for a band or a DJ set. Smaller groups take the Kinnaird Lounge behind its own bar, the mezzanine that looks down over the music, or the dark-wood Private Dining Room under its chandelier. It is a natural fit for a birthday, a launch or a late celebration that wants a room already wired for music rather than a blank hall.