Asuka N.
Yelp
After having a couple drinks at the American Bar, we decided to make our way to the back of the hotel and check out the Beaufort Bar. Surprisingly, it felt a bit more crowded back here, and we did have to wait a little bit before getting seated, but in the end we got ourselves a seat towards the back of the bar. There are some bar snacks you can order outside while waiting, but the cocktail menu is substantially smaller than what you will see once seated. It's also worth noting that, compared to the American Bar, there are substantially less cocktails available here, although if you are in the mood, you can pony up 12,000(!!!) pounds to try some 300 year-old rum. While the Beaufort has higher ceilings, the roominess feels a bit more intimate given the jet-black finished on the walls. The seated bar is up where the cabaret stage used to be, but there's not much room for people to sit there. And while they churn out old-school American tunes at the American (no surprise there), the female rocking the piano was going all over genres and time periods and doing an absolutely phenomenal job of singing...definitely a place where I enjoyed the music more.
As for the drinks, though - I will say that the American, hands-down, is the better place from a drinks perspective. The Ratification, which looks quite interesting on paper, was definitely made strong, but there wasn't a clearly defined flavor profile coming through once you got beyond chipotle bitters. The Embankment Gardens was also promising, but everyone else I was with said it was too sweet - perhaps a bit too much syrup from the get-go, although that was whittled away slowly as the ice melted. Food is also served here; I ended up going with the foie gras 'lollipops', a fun way of saying torchon covered with different foods. I liked the beets the best - it's definitely the most natural; the almond was okay, as the almond very much matches the creaminess of the foie. The pistachio was a bit off, as the funkiness of the nut just doesn't work as well. I did like the crunchiness the nuts provided as a textural difference, though.
I'd come back to the Beaufort, if only to sit in one of the slightly recessed booths, sip on a drink, and soak in the brilliance coming from the piano on the other side. They do serve food here - a little bonus over the American - and they have a wide selection of wines and liquors as well - but I think that if you're going to be spending dough for drinks, the bar at the front of the hotel is a tad better. That said, the fact that the Beaufort isn't the best bar in the hotel speaks volumes about the quality of the establishments that the Savoy has...I don't think I've been to any other 'hotel bars' that come anywhere close to these two in terms of quality and ambiance.