Mocktails, made with fruit rather than syrup

Most mocktails are a soft drink with a mint leaf dropped on top. Ours are built the way the alcoholic version would be: muddled fruit, fresh mint, lime, ice and soda, shaken to order and served tall. A mojito is mint, lime, sugar and ice; the rum is the optional part. Take it out and you still have the best long drink on any menu, which is why all five of ours are built the traditional way and none of them contain alcohol.

The five

Lemon Mint is the purist's version. Mix Berries is the one that sells out. Pineapple and Blue are for people who want something brighter, and the Layali Mojito is the house one, which changes with whatever fruit is best that week. They are the reason a lot of people come in who do not drink, and the reason a table of six can order the same round. Prices are on the menu below.

A drinks list with no alcohol on it at all

Being the designated driver, pregnant, in recovery, under 21 or simply not drinking usually means an evening of soda water. Layali is the opposite case: the entire drinks menu happens to be alcohol-free, because that is how the shop was built. There is no bar and no alcohol licence. Between the mocktails, nine fresh juices, five juices with milk, five smoothies and fourteen milkshakes, there are more than forty drinks to work through before you get to the coffee. If you want something that feels like a cocktail, the Mix Berries Mojito or the Blue Mojito, served tall over crushed ice, taste like an evening drink rather than a soft drink.

Soft drinks

For anyone who wants a can, the soft drinks list is short and honest: sparkling Vimto, a soda can, Red Bull, Laziza and water. Laziza is the malt drink from the Levant; sparkling Vimto is the fizzy version of the juice on the fresh juice page.

Sweetness and children

The mocktails are built on fresh fruit and lime rather than syrup, so they are less sweet than you would expect; ask for less sugar if you prefer. Children can have any of them, because there is no alcohol and no non-alcoholic spirit substitute in any of them.