Notting Hill, West London – Cocktail bar & late-night venue

If you’re longing for a direct flight to Mexico but have four remaining days of annual leave to ration until August, you might as well make peace with it over a Horchata Colada at a Latin American bar in Notting Hill.

Viajante87 (viajante meaning traveller in Spanish) wears its concept lightly but wears it well: every drink pulls from somewhere specific across Latin America, from the yellow pepper heat of Peru to the smoky mezcal valleys of Oaxaca, and nothing about it feels tawdry and over-thematic.

Viajante87 opened in late 2022 as a sister venue to Los Mochis – the Baja-Nihon restaurant next door – the brainchild of Finland-born UAE restaurateur Markus Thesleff, who has since brought in serious cocktail talent to run it.

Bar Director Pietro Collina previously led bars at Eleven Madison Park, NoMad Hotel and Claridge’s Davies & Brook, while Brand Manager Veronica Di Pietrantonio came from Mr Lyan’s Dandelyan and Lyaness – between them, bars that have topped the World’s Best Bars list multiple times over.

The bar relaunched its current Latin American concept in January 2023, with the cocktail menu built around the team’s own travels across the continent — changing seasonally as those travels evolve. Since then, it picked up a spot on the coveted Top 50 Cocktail Bars list.

We visited Viajante87 recently – here’s all you need to know about it:

The vibe

The entrance of Viajante87 does its best to keep you guessing. A door on a side street just off Notting Hill Gate, dressed in neon signage that – let’s be fair – could just as easily belong to a touristy trap bar in Zante. You might pause for a moment wondering if you’ve got the right place. You have – just make your way downstairs.

Being below street level, it immediately taps into a speakeasy, tucked-away feel. The design is polished, with a long backlit bar made from recycled glass, carved cork walls, and black marble tables. And lest we forget, a warming “ola” from the bar team. It felt warm and inviting, and on a Friday at 6pm, most tables were already booked. The staff were unhurried, and the room hummed with the building-up energy of somewhere that’s yet to reach its peak.

The drinks

The menu is organised by flavour profile: you’ve got low ABV and sparkling, spicy and refreshing, rich and complex, and non-alcoholic options. Every taste is covered. Here’s what we ordered:

Fresher and lighter

The Guava Fresca – a gin-based cocktail with sherry and guava cordial – most definitely celebrating the freshness of this majestic Brazilian fruit.

The Blood Moon – This was a rather tangy and refreshing drink with Patrón Silver, Aperol, pomegranate and lemon, elevated by an Oaxacan Pasilla chilli infusion. Who knew tequila and Aperol would be two peas in a pod?

The Aji Mama – possibly our least favourite, only because the rest of the line-up was operating at a slightly higher pitch. This one had Codigo Rosa tequila, aji amarillo and peach. It was clean and refreshing, easy to drink.

The Elote Old Fashioned – A very interesting riff on a classic old fashioned with toasted blue corn, smoked hay, and of course, the bourbon. It smelled like autumn in a glass and hugged our soul tightly.

Richer and deeper

You can’t set foot in a Latin-American bar and not order the Horchata cocktail, right? We ended the evening with two indulgent, weighty drinks:

Horchata Colada – with Brugal 1888, pineapple, coconut, Licor 43 Horchata and cinnamon – creamy, tropical, and flirting with melon and passionfruit notes. It’s quite a sweet one, but in that “good for what ails you” kind of way – a cure-all in disguise. Its only fault is that it goes down dangerously easily.

The Mole Manhattan – a touch more sophisticated, with Cynar, fig, sesame and a mezcal base. We thought it would be dessert-y sweet given that chocolate was part of the cast. There’s a subtle cocoa note running through it, but, much to our contentment, it remains resolutely spirit-forward and very balanced.

The food

Ready for a rather eccentric duo? We present you truffle and guac. The Truffle Guacamole on Crispy Rice sounds like a flex on paper (anything with truffle on it does) but it turns out to fully justify the bravado. They might not be natural co-stars, but add them to a crispy rice base, and you’ve got yourself a decadent little bite.

The Falafelito had no business being on a Latin American menu but it was entirely welcome there – it disappeared too quickly as we sipped our second cocktail. There are many other bar snacks on the menu – including three different tacos and calamari, so you can really stay here a while if you want to.

Verdict

Viajante87 is not the loudest bar in the room, but it’s cool and considered. The cocktail menu remains loyal to the buoyant flavours of Latin America, but there’s an adventurous streak running through it. All the drinks are just a level above what you would expect when you read their descriptions. It runs until midnight on Thursdays and 2:30am on Fridays and Saturdays – and given how good the evening got by 8pm, the later hours must be absolutely worth staying for.

Key details

Price range: £16–£18 per cocktail / £10–£23 for food

Hours: Thurs, 6pm – 12am / Fri & Sat, 6pm – 2.30am

Best for: Date nights, group celebrations, cocktail explorers

Address: 87 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3JZ

Website: www.viajantebar.com

Socials: @viajantebar

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