Laki Kane Tiki Bar, Marylebone: Flaming £18 Zombie Till 3am

Laki Kane, at 31 Duke Street, W1U 1LG, is the new home of the rum bar that started on Upper Street in Islington in July 2018. The Islington room has closed, and in March 2026 the brand took over the former Burlock site a few steps from Oxford Street, working with the Burlock team. The move put one of London's best-known tiki bars right in the West End, and it kept what made the original famous: rum-making sessions, cocktails set on fire, a surfboard of shots and a late licence that runs to 3 am at the weekend.

Laki Kane was founded by Steve Kyprianou and Georgi Radev. Radev is the reason so many London bartenders know the name. He opened and consulted on Mahiki in Mayfair and was voted World Tiki Bartender of the Year in 2011, and he built Laki Kane as a rum-focused bar rather than a novelty theme room. That rum focus shows in the menu, where almost every drink is built on a named rum, and in the bookable rum-making sessions.

Several cocktails arrive in ceramic tiki mugs, and select mugs are sold for £30 if you want to take one home, which is a better souvenir than the paper umbrella.

The Duke Street bar opens four days a week. The hours are Thursday 5 pm to 2 am, Friday 5 pm to 3 am, Saturday 1 pm to 3 am and Sunday 2 pm to 9:30 pm. Monday to Wednesday are not on the timetable, so plan a visit for the end of the week. With a 3 am licence on Friday and Saturday, the bar bills itself as one of the few places in the West End where the night does not have to finish early.

Groups heading in on Friday or Saturday night should reserve rather than chance a walk-in. Saturday and Sunday afternoons host the Spirit of Tiki bottomless brunch, which explains why the room is already loud at 2 pm on a Saturday.

Happy hour is the best deal here. Between 5 pm and 7 pm, guests can pick any two cocktails from the happy hour list and pay for one. If you arrive straight from work on a Thursday or Friday, that window makes the more elaborate drinks much easier on the wallet.

The Pinup Zombie at £18 is the headline act. The menu warns that it will wake the dead, and it is served flaming, so it suits the photo moment as well as the rum lover. The Smoky Aged Mai Tai at £16.50 is the more serious drink. It is clarified until it is clear, aged in a young oak barrel and served under a hat that you lift to release a gentle cloud of smoke. The house signature, simply called Laki Kane, costs £16 and shakes Planteray Stiggins' Fancy Pineapple rum with cupuaçu, sapodilla, passionfruit, apple and lime. A Hurricane is £15. For two people, Birds of Paradise costs £36 and arrives with an erupting dry ice volcano, which is pure theatre and best ordered when the table is ready to share.

The August 2026 food menu leans Thai rather than Polynesian. A pad thai is £14.50, coconut prawns are £10 and a green curry is £16. The prawns are the right snack for the first round, while the curry turns a happy-hour stop into dinner. A discretionary 12.5% service charge is added to every bill, so keep that in mind when you are splitting the check across a big group.

Laki Kane runs two bookable experiences. The Tropical Cocktail Masterclass costs £30 per person and teaches the group to shake classic tropical drinks. The Rum-Making Experience costs £70 per person and lets guests blend their own rum to take away. Both accept bookings up to one month in advance, subject to availability, so book early if you are planning a birthday or a stag do.

For a celebration, the Let's Go Surfing shots are the bar's party trick. The shots are crowd-surfed to you on a Laki Kane surfboard with smoke and fire, which is loud, silly and exactly what the regulars expect at midnight on a Saturday.

This year the bar runs Halloween at Laki Kane from 30 October to 1 November, billed as three days of tropical terror. A special Zombie cocktail menu priced at £15 a drink runs across the weekend, which makes it a cheaper time to work through the bar's take on the most famous tiki drink. Expect costumes and a full room, so book a table before Friday night.

Duke Street runs north from Oxford Street into the quieter grid of Marylebone, so a pre-drinks walk is easy. The Wallace Collection on Manchester Square, a short walk away, is free to enter and full of armour, French paintings and porcelain, and it makes a calm hour before a loud night. Afterwards, wander through St Christopher's Place, the pedestrian lanes full of restaurant terraces, before coming back to the bar for the 5 pm happy hour. Selfridges is a few minutes away for anyone who wants to finish the shopping first.

Address: Laki Kane, 31 Duke Street, London W1U 1LG. Nearest Tube: Bond Street on the Central and Elizabeth lines. Hours: Thursday 5 pm to 2 am, Friday 5 pm to 3 am, Saturday 1 pm to 3 am, Sunday 2 pm to 9:30 pm. Booking: SevenRooms via the website. Happy hour: 5 pm to 7 pm, two cocktails from the list for the price of one. Prices: Pinup Zombie £18, Smoky Aged Mai Tai £16.50, Laki Kane £16, Hurricane £15, Birds of Paradise £36 for two, Tropical Cocktail Masterclass £30 per person, Rum-Making Experience £70 per person. A 12.5% discretionary service charge applies.

Planning more of the evening around the West End? Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP for a late dinner or a second bar near Bond Street.