SANE in Angel: New Sake Bar Near Me on Camden Passage

SANE Sake & Wine Bar opened in summer 2026 at 2 Camden Passage, a five-minute walk from Angel station, and it is the newest sake bar near me answer north of the river. Sake by the glass starts at £7.50 for 100ml, the room doubles as a bottle shop, and on Fridays and Saturdays it stays open until 11:45 pm. On Mondays it is closed.

SANE is the project of Maxime Maiano, a French sommelier with an MSc in oenology from Bordeaux, who founded the import company One to Wine in 2014 and worked as head sommelier at Mandarin Oriental. Hot Dinners notes he built the list at Somssi, the now-closed Michelin-starred restaurant at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, and created the sake and no-and-low programme at Jason Atherton's Row on 5. The bar's own site calls SANE the culmination of a 12-year vision.

He is not working alone. Assistant general manager Matt Roscoe came from Oblix at The Shard, and Maple Lau is the bar's sake specialist, the person to ask when you want to compare a cloudy ginjo with an aged bottle. The bar took over the former site of the short-lived wine bar Must, and an August 2026 press release billed it as London's first dedicated sake and wine bar, a claim the owners make themselves.

The official Sake & Wine List prices sakes per 100ml, per 300ml and by the bottle. The entry point is Kiku-Masamune Tokkuri Taruzake Junmai, a cedar-cask style, at £7.50, £26 or £52. Kamoizumi Nigori Ginjo, a cloudy pour, costs £14, £42 or £70, and Tedorigawa Kinka Nama Daiginjo, unpasteurised and polished, is £15, £45 or £100. The 300ml carafe is the sweet spot for two people sharing.

The most distinctive glass is Mukai Shuzo Ine Mankai, a red rice junmai genshu, at £19 per 100ml or £130 a bottle; its colour alone makes it a talking point. Honest caveat: with seven sakes by the glass, SANE is smaller than a specialist sake bar and shares the list with wine and soju. Come for the curation and the pairing ideas rather than for a wall of fifty pours.

Because SANE is also a shop, any retail bottle can be opened at the table for £15 corkage, which Harden's highlighted in its August 2026 review. The bottle-only list includes Dassai 23 at £140, Koshi no Kanbai Muku at £135 and Tamagawa Time Machine, an aged sake, at £65. Tamagawa Time Machine is the bottle to try if you assume all sake tastes clean and light.

The list also nods to Korea and to its own postcode. Fresh makgeolli from Sooldanji, brewed in London on Chapel Market a few minutes away, costs £30, and Hwayo soju is £11 for a 40ml measure. For a group, a bottle of makgeolli alongside a carafe of nigori makes a fun comparison of two cloudy rice drinks from different traditions, served at the same table.

The kitchen menu uploaded in July 2026 keeps things snacky and mixes Japanese and French ideas. Nasu dengaku, miso-glazed aubergine, costs £7, a Pinot Grigio flammenkuche £12, Japanese rice crackers with nori £6, and a mochi trio of yuzu, chocolate and matcha £7. The flammenkuche is the order that best shows the bar's wine-and-sake split, and it works with either side of the list.

Hot Dinners tried the sake flight with a cheese pairing in August 2026, priced at £15 for the flight plus £10 for three cheeses. That pairing is SANE's signature idea, and the reason a French sommelier opened a sake bar at all. Bear in mind that Hot Dinners visited as SANE's guests, so read its enthusiasm accordingly, but the prices it reported match the bar's own approach.

SANE opens Tuesday from 4 pm to 10:30 pm, Wednesday and Thursday from noon to 11 pm, Friday and Saturday from noon to 11:45 pm, and Sunday from noon to 7 pm. A midweek lunchtime glass, when the antique shops on Camden Passage are open, is the most relaxed way to see the place. Tables are booked through SevenRooms from 6 pm, so evening walk-ins depend on luck.

Hot Dinners also reported air conditioning, a terrace and a large space downstairs with a tasting room and private dining, so groups have options beyond the main room. Instagram, @sane_sakewine, is where the team posts new bottles and events.

Camden Passage is a narrow pedestrian lane of small shops just off Upper Street in Islington, which makes SANE an easy stop before or after dinner at Angel. Arrive from Angel station, walk five minutes north along Upper Street, and turn into the passage. Sooldanji's makgeolli comes from Chapel Market, a short walk away near the station, so you can see where one bottle on the list is actually made.

For a second stop, Harden's points out that Ebi, a sommelier-run wine bar at 5a Rosebery Avenue in Clerkenwell, is less than a mile away. It is run by Raku Oda, formerly of The Fat Duck, takes walk-ins only and keeps a short sake section on its by-the-glass board, which makes it a natural follow-on for anyone who enjoyed SANE's mix of wine and sake.

Address: SANE Sake & Wine Bar, 2 Camden Passage, London N1 8ED. Hours: closed Monday; Tuesday 4 pm to 10:30 pm; Wednesday and Thursday noon to 11 pm; Friday and Saturday noon to 11:45 pm; Sunday noon to 7 pm. Nearest Tube: Angel on the Northern line, five minutes on foot. Website: sane.wine, with booking through SevenRooms.

A 100ml pour of Kiku-Masamune with a plate of nasu dengaku comes to £14.50 before any service, and a whole bottle of the same sake to share is £52. Ask the Karpo APP for a late dinner on Upper Street after your visit, or for a sake bar open on Monday, when SANE is shut. The bar's Instagram is the place to watch for tasting events, new arrivals and any dates the downstairs room is booked out.