The Elephant in the Room

Head down Goring Road and you'll find The Elephant in the Room doing what good local bars should: keeping things unpretentious whilst taking what they do seriously. It's the kind of place where regulars outnumber tourists, which tells you everything. The atmosphere shifts depending on when you arrive—quiet enough for a conversation early on, but genuinely buzzy once the evening picks up. You're looking at a proper bar operation here, not some Instagram backdrop, which is exactly why it's pulled a 4.6 rating from nearly 100 reviews.