Movies: Top 10 Best Bars & Restaurants For Outdoor & Indoor Movie Screenings

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There are those bars and restaurants in London that allow alcoholic drinks during movie screenings, and there are even many London bars and restaurants have featured in famous movie scenes, but if you’re torn between the prospect of a good Sunday sesh reading the papers with a roast dinner down the pub, or a trip to the cinema to see that latest Almodóvar release, you might just feel like combining the two instead.

Crazy as it might seem, here is a top 10 to keep restaurant, bar, pub and movie lovers completely happy, with indoor screenings and rooftop films on offer.

Now sit back and enjoy the movie. Just get a pint in first.

Image courtesy of Rooftop Film Club

Tags: Theatre & show, Bars, Restaurants

Axis at One Aldwych
West End / Bar / Restaurant / Hotel / Cuisine: British

West End - This restaurant in Aldwych, on the verges of Theatreland, The Strand, and Covent Garden, is part of the grand One Aldwych Hotel, which has its very own luxury screening room serving up a summer of top cinema classics. You can enjoy a 3-course dinner at Axis, the hotel's other restaurant, plus a Grey Goose Martini and popcorn all for £42.50. Upcoming movies include Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. To Rome With Love, Bourne Legacy, Magic Mike, and Lopper. Click here for more information

Roxy Bar & Screen
Borough & Southwark / Bar / Restaurant / Cuisine: Bar

Borough - Roxy effortlessly mixes high quality drinks, tasty food - the ingredients of which are sourced mainly from the nearby Borough Market - and movies. Screenings take place from Sunday to Wednesday with Friday and Saturday reserved for normal late bar and music nights. Food and drink is available throughout the screenings but we thoroughly recommend calling ahead to book (free of charge) because this venue is very popular. If you want to reserve a table or a sofa for a film screening you need to be a member or arrive very early (first come, first served). The bar also welcomes movie makers and producers to come and chat with their audiences on occasion.

The Exhibit
Balham / Bar / Restaurant / Cuisine: American

Balham - This split-level bar and diner boasts a boutique cinema for 24 people with cosy two-seater leather sofas (perfect for couples), sound proofing, air conditioning, state-of-the-art digital projector and THX surround sound. A 2-course dinner in the diner and a cinema ticket is only £15.95pp (bargain) AND you can take your dessert and drinks into the film with you. It's also available for private hire. Upcoming films include Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Hobbit, The Master, and Sightseers.

Oscar Bar & Restaurant
Fitzrovia / Bar / Restaurant / Hotel / Cuisine: British

Fitzrovia - This appropriately cinematically-named restaurant in the Charlotte Street Hotel has Sunday afternoons/evenings down to a T. As the weekend draws to a close you can enjoy either a 3-course lunch or dinner, OR an Afternoon Tea, plus a movie in the hotel's state-of-the-art screening room (with room enough for 75 film-lovers) for only £35pp. Upcoming films include: Les Misérables, Lincoln, The Impossible, Hitchcock, Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty, and Song for Marion. Click here for more info

Grand Union Wandsworth
Wandsworth / Bar / Restaurant / Club / Cuisine: Bar

Wandsworth - Free classic movies, free popcorn, every Sunday. A perfect way to battle Sunday blues. Every Sunday at 7pm in the cosy Snug room. Click here to book. Upcoming movies: Ocean's Eleven; Erin Brockovich; and Scarface.

Floripa London
Shoreditch / Bar / Restaurant / Club / Cuisine: Brazilian

Shoreditch - This Brazilian bar and club is not only known for its vibrant, lively colours, characters and lifestyles of a Friday or Saturday night in east London. It is also the home of Floripa Domingo Cineclub which, as the name suggests, is a Sunday Film Club that requires a more chilled out and laid back crowd. From 3.30pm a screen descends from the main bar's ceiling and quiet couples and groups of mates sit with their faces either looking upwards towards the Brazilian and Jazz classic movies being screened, or downwards towards the amazing grass-fed South American fillet of beef Sunday roast with all the Brazilian trimmings. Perfect with a glass (bottle) of something distinctly Latin

Ambar at ODEON IMAX Swiss Cottage
Swiss Cottage & Primrose Hill / Bar / Cuisine: Bar

Swiss Cottage - No other London bar or restaurant has a better cinematic experience than this north London lounge bar. It has several screens, showing movies almost round the clock. Unsurprisingly this is because Ambar is actually the late night bar in the recently refurbished 1937 Odeon cinema. We recommend arriving far too early for your movie so that you can hang out in the Art Deco inspired splendour of Ambar, sipping on cocktails or Dom Perignon Champagne. What we like most is that your drinks can be decanted into plastic wine glasses and taken into the movie with you. It's like being at home; if your home is kitted with a ruddy great cinema screen with Dolby Surround Sound, that is.

Brasserie Max
West End / Bar / Restaurant / Cuisine: British

Covent Garden - The Weekend Film Club on Saturdays at this Seven Dials' hotel provides Afternoon Tea or a 2-course dinner with a glass of wine, plus a movie in the 47-seater hotel screening room, all for only £35pp. Upcoming movies include The Master, Silver Linings Playbook, The Life of Pi, Les Misérables, Argo, Lincoln, To The Wonder, Gangster Squad and Cloud Atlas. Click here for more info

The Water Poet
Shoreditch / Bar / Cuisine: British

Shoreditch - Now in its third successful year, The Underground Picturehouse downstairs at The Water Poet Spitalfields continues with a fantastic new season of films for 2013 featuring some of music's great 'wish I was there' live concerts. Offering big screen viewing with Dolby surround sound for a truly intimate experience, The Underground Picturehouse offers unique programming and clever collaborations together with comfy sofas and beanbags. A dedicated cinema menu and bar offer refreshments, with private hire also available.

Wenlock & Essex
Angel & Islington / Restaurant / Cuisine: British

Islington - The glamour and disco gleam of this north London hedonist's paradise continues on through the week all the way to Sunday when the Shortcutz Film Network takes over the space for the weekly short film club. Every week 3 short films are screened, for free, with film producers, actors, technicians and screenwriters conducting Q&A sessions after the films. A brilliant showcase for amateur filmmakers and professionals alike. This night is hugely popular so arrive early.