Step into COYA, set within a historic building across the road from Green Park, into a lively, elegant space that might just as easily be in Lima as it is in London. Offering the best of Peruvian food, drink and atmosphere, COYA is at once upmarket and unpretentious, with genuine service and upbeat attitude.

You’ll want to make a beeline for the Pisco Bar, with its collection of in-house pisco infusions on display. Peruvian-inspired design features hand-painted murals and leather panels, warmly lit and perfectly blending heritage with sophisticated contemporary cues. There’s comfortable leather seating, plenty of tropical greenery, and bespoke scented candles throughout the space.

The Pisco Sour is, quite rightly, the star of the show when it comes to drinks here, although there’s a broad selection of cocktails to choose from. The menu draws on the Quechuan world and the mythology of the Incan Golden Empire for inspiration, incorporating South American flavours such as cacao, sweetcorn and tepache, with a touch of Asian influence through the use of kalamansi, shiso and more. Don’t miss the Tres Leches Punch, one of a handful of clarified milk punches – half of which are dairy free. Non-alcoholic cocktail options are available too, made with the same care as the rest of the list. The menu itself features colourful illustrations that are a celebration of Peruvian culture.

While pisco may feature most prominently here, this is also an agave spirit bar, with a serious collection of tequilas, mezcals, sotols and raicillas, and a solid selection of rum too. 

An indispensable element of the atmosphere at COYA comes from its careful attention to the music – an ever-changing blend of contemporary Latin beats, Afro-Peruvian rhythms and more. The bar is host to live performances and DJ sets every night, with a live band performing Thursday to Saturday nights in the members’ club.

Behind the scenes, the team produce an array of in-house ingredients such as shrubs and cordials, tepaches and milk punches, in a small lab – a consequence of the bar’s location in a historic building. Sustainability is a key tenet, not only during prep, where waste is reduced by repurposing ingredients wherever possible, but in everything from sourcing of spirits to the use of a glass crusher when recycling bottles. While many ingredients are inevitably sourced from South America or Asia, others are sourced locally where possible.

The team at COYA benefit from training covering drinks, food and service, as well as leadership training, not to mention trips abroad to broaden their knowledge. The venue’s commitment to staff has paid off, with a number of senior team members having started out as barbacks, and high staff retention overall.

Beyond the bar, COYA works with the Savitri Charity, which helps to improve healthcare and education in under-resourced communities, as well as carbon-negative platform Skoot – both of which tie into the bar’s ethos regarding social responsibility and sustainability.