Hope & Sesame

A Refrigerator Door and What Lies Behind It

In Guangzhou's Dongshankou district, the approach to Hope & Sesame reads as deliberately unremarkable. The entrance is concealed behind a functioning Cantonese cha chaan teng, one of the city's ubiquitous milk-tea-and-toast cafes, and the bar itself opens through a refrigerator door. The concealment is not merely theatrical: it positions the experience inside a longer tradition of Southern Chinese daily life before pivoting, sharply, into something else entirely. Once inside, exposed brick sits against antique timber panelling, low lighting underscores the raw textures, and the overall effect is closer to a discovered room than a designed space. The bar feels like it has always existed in that particular form, assembled from time rather than constructed for an opening night.

That tension between the mundane exterior and the considered interior has defined Hope & Sesame since Bastien Ciocca and Andrew Ho opened it in 2016. In the years since, it has become one of the most consistently recognised cocktail programmes in Asia, placing on Asia's 50 Best Bars every year from 2019 onwards and reaching #7 on that list in 2025. The same year marked its debut on the World's 50 Best Bars ranking. For context on what that trajectory means: very few bars outside the established centres of Tokyo, Hong Kong, or Singapore have built that kind of sustained presence on both lists simultaneously. Guangzhou is not a city that typically draws international bar pilgrims. Hope & Sesame has been changing that calculation, gradually and without much noise.

The Cocktail Programme: Technique as Cultural Translation

Southern China's cocktail scene has moved through several phases since the early 2010s. The first wave imported Western bar formats more or less wholesale. The second began folding in local ingredients — baijiu, aged citrus peel, regional teas — but often as garnish rather than structural element. Hope & Sesame belongs to a third position: a programme where local flavour logic and advanced extraction technique are genuinely integrated, not decorating each other from a distance.

The bar uses ultrasonic infusion and rotary distillation, two methods that allow for precise flavour extraction at low temperatures, preserving aromatic compounds that conventional maceration would destroy. In practical terms, this means the Cantonese pantry , ingredients like dried tangerine peel, osmanthus, fermented black beans, and preserved plums , can be translated into cocktails at a fidelity level that feels credible rather than illustrative. The drinks do not taste like a history lesson. They taste like what happens when someone with serious technique decides that regional ingredients deserve serious treatment.

Menus rotate seasonally and thematically, often organised around cultural narratives or reimagined nostalgic references. The approach mirrors what the better omakase bars do with food: a fixed programme that rewards repeat visits and resists the tendency to let signatures calcify into tourist traps. Given the bar's ranking trajectory , from #35 in Asia in 2019 to #7 in 2025 , the programme has clearly compounded rather than plateaued.

Andrew Ho's 2025 Altos Bartenders' Bartender Award from Asia's 50 Best is worth noting in this context. That award is peer-voted, meaning it reflects how other working bartenders in Asia assess influence and leadership. It is a different signal from a critic's ranking: it suggests the programme's approach has moved outward into the wider community of Asian cocktail practice, not simply drawn attention from above.

Where Hope & Sesame Sits in the Regional Bar Scene

The bar occupies a specific position in Southern China's cocktail geography. Guangzhou operates at some remove from the more internationally visible bar cities of Shanghai and Beijing. Coa (Shanghai) in Shanghai and Janes & Hooch in Beijing represent the kind of programmes that benefit from those cities' established international hospitality infrastructure. Hope & Sesame has built comparable recognition from a different base, one where Cantonese food culture is dense and serious but the bar scene had less of a head start.

Within the Pearl River Delta and surrounding region, the comparison set is worth mapping. Obsidian Bar in Shenzhen operates in the adjacent city, and The Ritz-Carlton Bar & Lounge in Macau serves a different market segment entirely, anchored to the hotel circuit. Hope & Sesame's independent, format-driven model places it in a different competitive set: closer to bars like CMYK in Changsha, which are building serious programmes in Chinese cities that operate outside the first-tier hospitality spotlight. Internationally, the peer comparison extends to bars like Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu and Jewel of the South in New Orleans , programmes that have built global recognition from cities that require you to make a specific decision to visit them.

The Top 500 Bars ranking placed Hope & Sesame at #26 in 2025, providing a third independent data point alongside the two 50 Best positions. Consistent performance across multiple ranking systems, which use different methodologies and voter pools, is a stronger signal than dominance on a single list.

The Dongshankou Context

Dongshankou is one of Guangzhou's older residential and commercial districts, known for its Republican-era architecture, tree-lined streets, and a concentration of independent food and beverage operations that sit some distance from the newer development corridors. It is not the obvious location for a bar that now draws visitors from outside China. That placement reflects something about how Hope & Sesame has positioned itself: embedded in the fabric of a specific Guangzhou neighbourhood rather than occupying the kind of premium commercial address that signals ambition through real estate. The cha chaan teng facade reinforces this. The bar is not performing accessibility , it is located inside the actual texture of Cantonese daily life and choosing to open through it rather than past it.

For visitors arriving specifically for the bar, Guangzhou's metro system connects Dongshankou station directly to the district. The area rewards time spent on both sides of the bar visit: the neighbourhood's food scene operates at a density and quality level that reflects the city's wider reputation as one of the serious eating destinations in mainland China. Our full Guangzhou restaurants guide maps that side of the city in detail, and our full Guangzhou bars guide places Hope & Sesame within the broader local bar context.

Planning the Visit

A bar that now holds dual placements on the world and Asia 50 Best lists, plus a peer-voted bartender award from 2025, operates with corresponding demand. Reservations are the sensible approach for anyone travelling specifically for the experience, particularly on weekend evenings when the combination of local regulars and destination visitors compresses available seating. The concealed format and fixed-capacity interior mean that walk-in access becomes unreliable once the bar's rankings generate inbound interest beyond the immediate city. Booking ahead by at least a week for weekend slots would be prudent; weeknights offer a more navigable entry point. For those building a wider Guangzhou itinerary, the full Guangzhou hotels guide, full Guangzhou wineries guide, and full Guangzhou experiences guide cover the remaining categories.

Frequently Asked Questions

How would you describe the overall feel of Hope & Sesame?

The bar opens through a refrigerator door behind a Cantonese cha chaan teng in Dongshankou, Guangzhou's older residential district. Inside, exposed brick, antique timber panelling, and low lighting create a space that reads as found rather than designed , less a modern cocktail bar than a room that seems to have accumulated its character over time. Its position at #7 on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025 reflects both the quality of the programme and the deliberateness of the environment.

What should I drink at Hope & Sesame?

The programme integrates local Cantonese ingredients with advanced extraction techniques including ultrasonic infusion and rotary distillation. Menus rotate seasonally and thematically, so the specific offering depends on when you visit. The consistent editorial direction is regional flavour logic applied with technical precision , drinks that use the Cantonese pantry as a genuine structural element rather than decoration. The bar's consistent climb up the Asia's 50 Best rankings since 2019 reflects a programme that has developed rather than repeated itself.

What's the main draw of Hope & Sesame?

The convergence of a technically serious cocktail programme and a Cantonese cultural reference point makes it one of the few bars in mainland China's non-first-tier cities to achieve sustained global recognition. Its 2025 debut on the World's 50 Best Bars at #63 (alongside a #7 Asia ranking and a #26 Top 500 Bars position) places it in a peer set that includes the leading independent bars in Asia. The bar operates from within the texture of Guangzhou's daily life rather than above it, which is its particular character.

How far ahead should I plan for Hope & Sesame?

Given its current rankings , #7 Asia's 50 Best Bars and World's 50 Best Bars debut in 2025 , demand has grown beyond the local Guangzhou base. For weekend visits, planning at least one week ahead is advisable; for holiday periods or event windows tied to the bar industry calendar, further in advance. Weeknight visits offer more flexibility but the bar's profile means that even midweek slots fill with destination visitors.

How has Hope & Sesame influenced the broader cocktail scene in Southern China?

Since opening in 2016, Hope & Sesame has been one of the primary reference points for bars in Southern China attempting to integrate regional ingredients with contemporary technique. Andrew Ho's 2025 Altos Bartenders' Bartender Award , a peer-voted recognition from Asia's 50 Best Bars , signals that the bar's influence has extended beyond Guangzhou into the wider Asian bar community. The bar's approach to Cantonese ingredients, using methods like rotary distillation to extract flavour at a level of precision not available through conventional maceration, set a template that younger programmes in cities like Shenzhen and Changsha have referenced in building their own identities.