Alice Cheongdam

Below Cheongdam-dong: What a Basement Bar Reveals About Seoul's Cocktail Scene

The descent matters in Seoul cocktail culture. Some of the city's most serious drinking happens below street level, in spaces where lighting is deliberately considered and the outside world recedes. Alice Cheongdam is a bar in Seoul's Gangnam District, at B1, 47 Dosan-daero 55-gil, and it is ranked No. 11 in The World's 50 Best Bars 2025. Alice Cheongdam, on a side street off Dosan-daero in Gangnam's Cheongdam-dong neighbourhood, follows that logic to a particular conclusion: a bar conceived around the disorienting logic of Alice in Wonderland, where the physical environment does real narrative work and the cocktails are the plot. You find the entrance, you go down, and what you encounter below has been calibrated carefully enough to earn a place on Asia's 50 Best Bars list every single year since 2016.

That longevity is worth pausing on. Seoul's cocktail scene has changed substantially in the decade since Alice Cheongdam first appeared on the Asia's 50 Best Bars list at number 15 in 2017. The city now has multiple internationally ranked programmes across different neighbourhoods, and bars like Charles H, Bar Cham, and Gong Gan have built their own distinct identities in that period. Against that backdrop, Alice Cheongdam's presence on the list for nine consecutive years reflects something beyond novelty. The bar's 2025 ranking of number 13 in Asia, up from number 46 in 2024, is a significant upward move that places it back near the level it held at its 2016 debut, when it ranked number 11 in the region.

The Space as the Argument

Seoul's high-concept bars tend to bifurcate into two types: those where the concept is essentially decorative, and those where it reaches into the drinks program and the hospitality logic. Alice Cheongdam belongs to the second category. The Lewis Carroll reference is not a surface treatment applied to a conventional bar format. It informs the spatial approach, the way the room is ordered, and the kind of experience the bar is trying to construct around its guests.

Basement spaces in Seoul's Gangnam district often work against themselves, defaulting to dark interiors that feel claustrophobic rather than atmospheric. Alice Cheongdam uses the below-grade footprint differently. The space has attracted consistent attention from Tatler Asia, which included it on its Leading Bars Asia-Pacific 2025 list, and Bars with elaborate conceptual frameworks often disappoint at the level of the actual evening, but the review volume and score here indicate the opposite pattern.

For context on what the Cheongdam-dong setting means: this is one of Seoul's most expensive commercial and residential pockets, adjacent to the luxury retail strip on Apgujeong-ro and the gallery and restaurant cluster that has developed along Dosan-daero over the past decade. The neighbourhood attracts a mix of local creative industry, fashion, and finance, and its bars tend to operate at a premium positioning. Within that geography, a basement bar that has maintained international recognition across nine years has earned a specific kind of authority.

Recognition Patterns and What They Signal

The trajectory of Alice Cheongdam's Asia's 50 Best Bars rankings offers a more detailed read than a single year's position. The bar entered the list at number 11 in 2016, then tracked between 26 and 47 across the following years before dropping to 46 in 2024 and recovering sharply to 13 in 2025. The parallel inclusion on the Top 500 Bars list at global number 156 provides a cross-reference point: that ranking places it in a comparable set of globally recognised programmes, not just a regional one.

Across Asia's bar scene, the venues that sustain list presence over this many years are generally doing so because their underlying drinks program evolves rather than repeating itself. The awards pattern is consistent with a bar that has treated its conceptual framework as a generative constraint rather than a fixed identity. For comparison, bars that rely purely on concept without programme depth tend to peak early and fade from ranked lists within a few years.

Seoul's internationally ranked bars have followed the broader regional trend toward technical precision in their cocktail programs, with an emphasis on house-made ingredients, extended maceration, and format-driven serves. Bar D.Still represents a different approach within the city's premium tier, while the range of recognised programmes across South Korea, from Climat in Busan to Muyongdam in Jeju Si and Regency Club in Incheon, reflects how far the country's cocktail infrastructure has broadened beyond Seoul. Alice Cheongdam sits at the top of that national picture by current ranking.

Hours and Getting There

The address is B1, 47 Dosan-daero 55-gil, Gangnam-gu, which places it in the grid of streets between the main Cheongdam-dong strip and the Dosan Park area. The Apgujeong Rodeo station on Seoul Metro Line 7 is the closest subway access point, with the walk taking under ten minutes depending on which exit you use. Gangnam's taxi infrastructure is dense at the hours Alice Cheongdam operates, making rideshare and conventional taxi the more practical late-night option for return.

Reservations are recommended. Given the bar's recognition level and its Cheongdam-dong positioning, arriving earlier in the evening is a practical consideration for those without confirmed reservations.

For broader Seoul planning, the bar sits within a neighbourhood context worth building a full evening around. The restaurant density along Dosan-daero makes a pre-drinks dinner viable without needing to cross districts. Further afield in Korea, Anjuga in Ansan Si and Seuwichi in Heungdeok represent the recognised bar scene outside the major city centres. For readers with broader Asia-Pacific itineraries, Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu and Jewel of the South in New Orleans occupy comparable positions of sustained critical recognition in their respective markets.