Opium - Soho, London

Gerrard Street has always been the nexus for Chinese delicacies in London, and has recently become a destination for experimental cocktails with the establishment of ECC. Now, both ideas are coming home to roost at Opium, Chinatown's newest cocktail parlour-cum-dim sum house. Spread over the top two floors of a Soho townhouse with a shabby chic design slightly reminiscent of Wang Chi's den in Big Trouble in Little China, Opium features four separate areas, each with their own distinctive, quirky personality. There's a Dining Room, a Chinese Apothecary and Parlour, The Attic and The Academy. Take note of the latter as its revamped the concept of a bar with a communal table around which bartenders craft intricate works of mixology, including their Double Bubble cocktail (Chivas 12yo, orange blossom and tapioca balls, served hot with a fortune cookie) and their signature Opium Cocktail Number One, in which a vial of ginseng is added to the libation to billowing effect. Nibbles are brought up from the dim sum restaurant below and  comprise of ridiculously moreish morsels like sesame and poppy lobster prawn toast, crab and samphire dumplings or crispy fried oysters with kumquat citrus. Just be careful how much you indulge, as like Lena Dunham in Girls you may emerge proclaiming to your parents that you are the voice of your generation!