Revealed: Best cocktail bar in North West is in Bolton

KOO Bar in Westhoughton has been crowned the best cocktail bar in the North West at LUXlife Food and Drink Awards for the second year running.

The stylish cocktail and gin bar, located in Market Street, first opened its doors in 2017 and has been a favourite spot for locals ever since.

The bar prides itself on using top quality alcohol brands and fresh fruit in cocktails.

Bar Manager Charlotte Genery said: “Our most popular cocktails are definitely the classics, the pornstar martini has always done well, as has the espresso martini.

“We now have three variations of the espresso martini on our menu, including one we’ve created for our most recent autumn menu which is a popcorn version. They are the ideal cocktails to have after a meal.

“We’ve got a great team working here who have been an amazing in helping us deliver the level of customer service we strive for and creating fantastic cocktails at the same time.

“I’d really like to thank them and give them the recognition they deserve having won this award again.”

Like many hospitality venues, KOO was forced to close for several months through the pandemic due to countless lockdowns.

A spokesman for the bar said: “It feels great to be back open again, we’ve really had a stop-start couple of years and Bolton has had it tougher than almost anywhere else in the UK.

“It’s great to have won this award after a hard couple of years. We won the award in 2020 for the first time but it was just as Bolton had gone in to a localised lockdown in September, so we didn’t really feel like celebrating it too much at the time. Hopefully this year will be different.”

Further plans are in place for KOO.

The spokesman added: “We’d like to get live music on and also host networking events for local businesses or have charity nights to raise some much-needed money for local causes. We’ve also got plans to completely renovate our beer garden and make it an all-year-round space, not just for the summer.”