From make-your-own cocktails to beer can chicken, this crowd-pleasing Southbank bar will have you hopping along, writes Megan Miller.
Bar snacks don’t come much better than the cheeseburger spring roll.
Crunchy sesame-sprinkled cigars of oozy, cheesy mince that fuse two fast food loves have become a signature at Hopscotch, a new breezy Southbank watering hole that seats you and 150 friends without feeling like a beer barn.
It’s a colourful set-up, full of benches, booths and stools to perch amid an eclectic industrial fit-out. An ample riverside patio with artificial grass floor opens to a warehouse space accented with concrete, neon, tiles and bright art.
There’s no table service so you’ll order food at one bar and drinks at another.
The jetsetting menu travels to Hawaii with a poké of salmon and kimchi or tofu and seaweed, a Mexican burrito box, a Japanese-style beef tartare on wasabi crackers, and a Thai-inspired tom yum salad with chicken, herbs and papaya.
The Reuben is top-notch with generous slices of smoked pastrami between good rye with melty Swiss cheese and pickles for cut-through.

It’s crowd-pleasing food, mostly quick, quality bites to enjoy in one hand while there’s a drink in your other. Perhaps not the beer can chicken, though. Feeding four “or two if you’re hangry”, it’s a whole bird cooked low and slow with a beer can up its, umm, stuffing, with sides of mac ’n’ cheese, slaw, Brussels sprouts and gravy.
Natty turns are everywhere – from cauliflower-cheese croquettes served in half an egg carton to the nitro ice cream bar and hopscotch grid on the floor. Free popcorn in a daily-changing flavour fuels a thirst for those 30 beers on tap.
Not into beer? Unlock a DIY cocktail kit for two (espresso martini or pina colada) or say yay to frosé.

Hopscotch is cool, vibrant and satisfies just about every casual dining need, from work meetings to Tinder dates and TGIF drinkies. Hop on in.
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