The Best Bars in the World

Angelita Madrid

Madrid, Spain

Angelita Madrid operates at the serious end of Madrid's wine bar scene, drawing consistent Opinionated About Dining recognition from 2023 through 2025.

Also recognized by Falstaff, Macarfi, Opinionated About Dining, Star Wine List

Argo

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Located on the ground floor of the Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong in Central, Argo has placed on the World's 50 Best Bars list every year since 2022, reaching as high as #34 globally and #3 in Asia. Named to Tatler's Best Bars Asia-Pacific 2025 list, it operates at the upper tier of Hong Kong's hotel bar circuit, where programme depth and regional recognition matter as much as the address.

Also recognized by Food & Wine, SCMP 100 Top Tables, Tales Spirited Awards, Tatler

ATLAS

Singapore, Singapore

Inside a 1920s-era building on North Bridge Road, ATLAS occupies one of Singapore's most architecturally striking bar spaces, with a 15-metre ceiling, leather banquettes, and a three-storey gin tower stocking more than 1,300 bottles. Recognised with a White Star on Star Wine List, it anchors the serious end of Singapore's cocktail and spirits scene, where programme depth matters as much as the room.

Also recognized by Pinnacle Guide, Star Wine List, Tatler, Top 500 Bars

Attaboy

New York City, United States

Attaboy NYC is a New York City cocktail bar with no printed menu, a bespoke drinking format, and a long awards trail that runs through World's 50 Best Bars and Top 500 Bars. Its lineage from the former Milk & Honey space gives it rare historical weight, while the 2025 expansion changed access without abandoning the bar's tightly controlled style.

Also recognized by Architizer A+Awards, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Atwater Cocktail Club

Montréal, Canada

Ranked #36 among North America's best bars in 2025, Atwater Cocktail Club has grown from a neighbourhood cinq à sept spot into one of Montreal's most decorated drinking destinations without losing the local ease that defines it. A deep collection of rare agave and sugar-cane spirits anchors a cocktail program that runs from technically inventive milk punches to approachable classics, all served in a glittery, DJ-driven room on Avenue Atwater.

Also recognized by Canada's 100 Best, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Baba au Rum

Athens, Greece

Baba au Rum occupies a distinct position in Athens's bar scene, where rum-focused programming and a deliberately composed interior set it apart from the city's wine-bar and cocktail-counter mainstream. Located on Klitiou 6 in the historic centre, it draws a crowd that treats spirits seriously, positioning it closer to specialist bar culture than to the casual drinking rooms that dominate nearby Monastiraki and Psyrri.

Also recognized by Falstaff, Pinnacle Guide, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars

Baltra Bar

Mexico City, Mexico

Ranked #20 in North America and #78 globally by World's 50 Best Bars in 2025, Baltra Bar in Condesa has built a consistent presence at the summit of Mexico City's cocktail scene over five consecutive years of recognition. Positioned on a quiet residential street in one of the city's most walkable neighbourhoods, it draws a crowd that takes its drinking seriously without the theatrics that define some of its peers.

Also recognized by Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Bar Benfiddich

Tokyo, Japan

Bar Benfiddich belongs to Tokyo’s serious cocktail tier: a 17-seat Nishishinjuku room where farm botanicals, old bottles and historical technique shape the programme. Its repeated Asia’s Best Bars and World’s 50 Best Bars placements make it a reference point for drinkers comparing Tokyo’s precision-led bars with more improvisational, ingredient-driven counters.

Also recognized by Tabelog, Tatler, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Bar Cham

Seoul, South Korea

Bar Cham has climbed from #50 in Asia's Best Bars in 2020 to #6 in 2025, placing it among the more consistently recognised cocktail bars on the continent. Situated in the Jongno District neighbourhood of Bukchon, the bar frames Korean aesthetics through classically grounded technique. It opens Wednesday through Monday from 18:00 to 01:00.

Also recognized by Tales Spirited Awards, Tatler, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Bar Leone

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Bar Leone brings Italian-accented cocktail culture into Central’s dense drinking circuit, where the ritual matters as much as the glass: pacing, seating, aperitivo instincts, and late-evening momentum. Its 2026 OAD Casual in Asia ranking at No. 52 gives it a credible regional signal without turning the experience into a trophy stop.

Also recognized by Food & Wine, Opinionated About Dining, SCMP 100 Top Tables, Tales Spirited Awards

Bar Mordecai

Toronto, Canada

Bar Mordecai sits in Toronto's modern cocktail conversation as a high-energy room with a serious drinks program beneath the theatre. Its North America's 50 Best Bars placements from 2022 through 2025, plus a Top 500 Bars rank in 2026, put it beyond neighbourhood novelty and into the city's recognised bar tier.

Also recognized by Canada's 100 Best, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Bar Pompette

Toronto, Canada

Bar Pompette gives Toronto's Little Italy a French-accented cocktail room with serious technical range beneath the café ease. Recognition from World's 50 Best Bars, North America's 50 Best Bars, Top 500 Bars and the 2026 Tales Spirited Awards places it in the city's higher cocktail tier, but the appeal is less trophy-case polish than sharp drinks, local-seasonal thinking and a room built for lingering.

Also recognized by Canada's 100 Best, Food & Wine, Pinnacle Guide, Tales Spirited Awards

Bar Trigona

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Named in Tatler's Best 20 Bars Asia-Pacific and ranked among Asia's 50 Best Bars every year since 2019, Bar Trigona operates from the Four Seasons Kuala Lumpur with a drink programme built around indigenous Malaysian ingredients. Its food menu is designed to work alongside the cocktails, not merely accompany them. For anyone tracking the evolution of Southeast Asian bar culture, this is a reference point.

Also recognized by Food & Wine, Tales Spirited Awards, Tatler, Top 500 Bars

Bar Us

Bangkok, Thailand

Bar Us Bangkok belongs to the city’s newer technical cocktail tier, where menu structure, back-bar intent, and Thai flavour references matter more than speakeasy theatre. Recognition includes Asia’s 50 Best Bars No.4 in 2025, World’s 50 Best Bars No.41 in 2024, Top 500 Bars rank 30, and multiple Tales Spirited Awards 2026 nominations.

Also recognized by Tales Spirited Awards, Tatler, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

BKK Social Club

Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok's bar scene has largely chased Japanese-inflected minimalism, which makes BKK Social Club's full commitment to Mexican drinking culture a pointed divergence. Ranked #37 in Opinionated About Dining Casual Asia 2025 and led by Phillip Bischoff, the bar serves agave-forward cocktails alongside non-alcoholic options like tepache and horchata, all delivered by staff in white jackets inside a gilded, glamorous room on Charoen Krung.

Also recognized by Food & Wine, Opinionated About Dining, Tales Spirited Awards, Tatler

Caretaker's Cottage

Melbourne, Australia

Ranked #21 on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2024 and #47 in Top 500 Bars for 2025, Caretaker's Cottage occupies a converted 19th-century caretaker's residence on Little Lonsdale Street. The bar's reputation rests on two anchors: a freezer-cold signature martini made with custom-commissioned gin, and what many consider Australia's definitive boilermaker pairing. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 4pm.

Also recognized by Australian Bar Awards, Tales Spirited Awards, Tatler, Top 500 Bars

Cat Bite Club

Singapore, Singapore

Tatler's 2025 Bar of the Year for Singapore and ranked No. 44 in Asia's 50 Best Bars, Cat Bite Club on Duxton Road operates at the intersection of agave spirits and rice-based liquors, with a programme serious enough to place it among the region's leading cocktail bars. The format is deliberately intimate, the hospitality easy, and the margarita reportedly the leading in the city.

Also recognized by Pinnacle Guide, Tales Spirited Awards, Tatler, Top 500 Bars

Civil Liberties

Toronto, Canada

Civil Liberties is Toronto’s no-menu cocktail reference point: a neighbourhood bar with serious technique, custom drinks, and enough international recognition to place it beyond local cult status. Its 2026 Tales Spirited Awards Regional Top 10 Honoree nod for Best International Bar Team – Canada, plus multiple North America’s 50 Best Bars rankings, put the room in a competitive tier where hospitality matters as much as drink construction.

Also recognized by Canada's 100 Best, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Cloakroom

Montréal, Canada

A dim, stylish hideaway offering custom cocktails.

Also recognized by Canada's 100 Best, Pinnacle Guide, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars

Coa

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Ranked #17 in Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025 and a three-time holder of the #1 Asia title, Coa occupies a lower-ground space on Shin Hing Street in Central with a forty-page agave spirits list and a cocktail programme that rotates a new drink every week. The food menu, developed with award-winning Mexican restaurant Chicano, grounds the experience in the culinary culture that produced the spirits on the shelf.

Also recognized by SCMP 100 Top Tables, Tales Spirited Awards, Tatler, Top 500 Bars

Danico

Paris, France

Inside Galerie Vivienne, one of Paris's 19th-century glass-roofed arcades, Danico operates as a bar that has earned a #49 ranking on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2024. Accessed through the Italian restaurant Daroco, it runs a rotating cocktail programme drawing on global ingredients and advanced technique. The Xplorer series, now complete after five country-themed menus, has been replaced by a France-focused special edition.

Also recognized by Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Double Chicken Please

New York City, United States

On Allen Street in the Lower East Side, Double Chicken Please has climbed from a neighbourhood curiosity to among the more-cited cocktail bars in North America, ranking #6 on Opinionated About Dining's Casual list in 2025. The bar's format sits at the intersection of conceptual bartending and accessible pricing, drawing a crowd that ranges from industry professionals to first-timers navigating the LES bar scene. Chef Mark Chou leads the program.

Also recognized by James Beard Award, Opinionated About Dining, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

El Gallo Altanero

Guadalajara, Mexico

El Gallo Altanero has ranked on the World's 50 Best Bars list every year since 2022, reaching #48 globally in 2024 and placing eighth in North America in 2025. Located in Guadalajara's Colonia Americana, it represents the leading edge of Mexico's agave-driven cocktail movement and draws serious bar travellers well beyond the city's own circuit.

Also recognized by Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Employees Only NYC

New York City, United States

Employees Only NYC remains a defining West Village cocktail room because it treats classic drinking as theatre without letting the room swallow the drinks. Its long run on the World's 50 Best Bars list, including #95 globally and #18 in North America for 2025, places it in a rare category: a 2004-era New York bar that continues to compete with younger technical programs.

Also recognized by Opinionated About Dining, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Handshake Speakeasy

Mexico City, Mexico

Handshake Speakeasy places Mexico City's cocktail scene in the global conversation through technical drinks, theatrical rooms, and major awards momentum. Its 2024 World's 50 Best Bars No. 1 ranking, North America's 50 Best Bars No. 1 placements in 2024 and 2025, and Tales Spirited Awards 2026 Top 10 Nominee status make it a serious reference point for modern agave-led barcraft.

Also recognized by Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Hope & Sesame

Guangzhou, China

Ranked #7 in Asia's Best Bars 2025 and making its World's 50 Best Bars debut that same year, Hope & Sesame has operated from Guangzhou's Dongshankou district since 2016. Entry is through a concealed refrigerator door; the programme inside runs on ultrasonic infusion, rotary distillation, and seasonal menus built around regional flavour and cultural narrative.

Also recognized by SCMP 100 Top Tables, Tatler, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Jigger & Pony

Singapore, Singapore

Jigger & Pony sits in Singapore’s serious cocktail tier: a Tanjong Pagar bar with long-running Asia’s 50 Best Bars momentum, and an editorial-style drinks programme built around annual “menuzines.” The draw is not speakeasy concealment; it is polished hotel-lobby confidence, classic cocktail grammar, and a team comfortable turning technique into readable, social drinking.

Also recognized by Tales Spirited Awards, Tatler, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Kaito del Valle

Mexico City, Mexico

Kaito del Valle is an all-women-run bar in Mexico City's Juárez neighbourhood that blends Japanese izakaya culture with kawaii aesthetics. Ranked #40 in North America's Best Bars 2025 and holding a spot in the World's 50 Best Top 500, it has built a sustained presence on the international bar circuit. The bar recently moved to a new location on Hamburgo, keeping its place in one of the city's most concentrated drinking corridors.

Also recognized by Pinnacle Guide, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

La Factoría

San Juan, Puerto Rico

La Factoría has held a position in the World's 50 Best Bars global rankings every year since 2015, reaching #12 in North America in 2022. Located on Calle San José in Old San Juan, it operates Tuesday through Saturday on daytime and early-afternoon hours, making visit timing a genuine planning consideration.

Also recognized by Food & Wine, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Lady Bee

Lima, Peru

In Barranco, Lima's most atmospheric neighbourhood for nightlife, Lady Bee operates at the intersection of serious cocktail craft and small-plate cooking. it occupies a specific tier in Lima's bar scene where the drinks program and the food arrive at equal weight. Chef Gabriela León leads the kitchen.

Also recognized by Opinionated About Dining, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Library Bar

Toronto, Canada

Library Bar Toronto is a grand-hotel cocktail room with a literary spine: Deco accents, a former guest-library setting, and a drinks program tied to Michael Ondaatje’s Toronto novel In the Skin of a Lion. Its credibility rests on more than nostalgia, with James Grant’s Internationally prominent Global Bartender of the Year title and recognition from North America’s Best Bars and Top 500 Bars.

Also recognized by Canada's 100 Best, Pinnacle Guide, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars

Licoreria Limantour

Mexico City, Mexico

Expect a high-volume room with serious technical control, Mexican-rooted drinks, and a playful approach to back-bar nostalgia.

Also recognized by Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Locale Firenze

Florence, Italy

Inside a 13th-century palace once home to a Medici-era diplomat, Locale Firenze operates at the serious end of Italian bar culture. Ranked #15 in the Top 500 Bars (2025) and #36 in the World's 50 Best Bars (2024), the programme pairs modernist technique with low-waste discipline and a kitchen-bar dialogue that sets it apart from Florence's broader cocktail scene.

Also recognized by Opinionated About Dining, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Moebius Milano

Milan, Italy

A former textile warehouse in central Milan reimagined as a cocktail bar, bistro, and fine-dining space, Moebius Milano ranked 38th at the World's 50 Best Bars in 2024 and 9th in the Top 500 Bars list in 2025. The drinks programme draws on culinary technique, the ground floor runs globally influenced small plates, and the first-floor Moebius Sperimentale operates as a glass-enclosed Michelin-starred restaurant. It resists easy categorisation, which is precisely the point.

Also recognized by Pinnacle Guide, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Native

Singapore, Singapore

Native sits in Singapore’s serious cocktail tier, with repeat appearances on World’s 50 Best Bars, Asia’s 50 Best Bars, and Top 500 Bars. Its value is not spectacle; it is a drink programme that helped make regional ingredients, technical prep, and local reference points part of the city’s premium bar conversation.

Also recognized by Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Nutmeg & Clove

Singapore, Singapore

Nutmeg & Clove has spent eleven years building one of Asia-Pacific's most recognised bar programs from an eight-table saloon on Purvis Street. Named in Asia's Best Bars Top 10 multiple times and ranked #24 in the 2025 edition, it turns Singapore's neighbourhood memory — kopitiam counters, mama shop shelves, itinerant ice cream carts — into formally structured cocktails that read as cultural argument as much as drink.

Also recognized by Tatler, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Origin Bar

Singapore, Singapore

Named to the World's 50 Best Asia's Best Bars list in both 2024 and 2025, and included in Tatler's Best Bars Asia-Pacific 2025, the program balances technically considered cocktails with the kind of warm, unhurried hospitality that distinguishes the better luxury-hotel bar tier from standalone venues chasing awards alone.

Also recognized by Pinnacle Guide, Tales Spirited Awards, Tatler, Top 500 Bars

Panda & Sons

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

One of Edinburgh's most recognised cocktail bars, Panda & Sons operates beneath Queen Street in a space designed to resemble a 1920s barber shop. The programme has evolved considerably since opening, moving from novelty concept to a serious technical operation that holds its own against the city's most ambitious drinking destinations. Book ahead: the format rewards those who arrive with purpose.

Also recognized by CLASS Bar Awards, Pinnacle Guide, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 50 Cocktail Bars

Paradiso

Barcelona, Spain

Paradiso operates behind a refrigerator door on Carrer de Rera Palau in Barcelona's Ciutat Vella, placing it squarely in the city's most technically serious cocktail tier.

Also recognized by Falstaff, Opinionated About Dining, Pinnacle Guide, Tales Spirited Awards

Salmon Guru

Madrid, Spain

Wine Spectator Award of Excellence

On Calle de Echegaray in the heart of Madrid's Barrio de las Letras, Salmon Guru has become a reference point in the city's serious cocktail conversation.

Also recognized by Falstaff, Opinionated About Dining, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Satan's Whiskers

London, United Kingdom

Twelve years into its run on Cambridge Heath Road, Satan's Whiskers has settled into something East London rarely produces: a cocktail bar with no concept beyond the cocktails themselves. Ranked #22 in the Top 500 Bars (2025) and #29 in the World's 50 Best Bars (2024), it draws on a 900-strong list of classics and a live-to-order approach that keeps the drinks sharp and personal.

Also recognized by Bartenders' Choice Awards, CLASS Bar Awards, Falstaff, Tales Spirited Awards

Service Bar

Washington DC, United States

On U Street NW, Service Bar has held a consistent position among North America's most recognised cocktail programs, appearing in the World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars list every year from 2022 to 2025. The format is deliberately unpretentious: serious drinks inside a neighbourhood joint atmosphere, where the bar's technical ambition doesn't announce itself with ceremony.

Also recognized by James Beard Award, Pinnacle Guide, RAMMYS, Tales Spirited Awards

Sips

Barcelona, Spain

On Carrer de Muntaner in Eixample, Sips has become one of Barcelona's most discussed cocktail bars, ranking 56th on the Opinionated About Dining Casual Europe list in 2025. The bar operates in the progressive European cocktail tradition, where technical discipline and spatial design matter as much as what's in the glass.

Also recognized by Falstaff, Opinionated About Dining, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Superbueno

New York City, United States

Superbueno on First Avenue in the East Village holds North America's #2 bar ranking from World's 50 Best (2025) and a 2025 James Beard Award for Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service. The bar runs a technically driven Mexican-American drinks program alongside a food menu built around refined cantina classics, all delivered through a hospitality approach that has made it one of New York's most-visited bars.

Also recognized by James Beard Award, Opinionated About Dining, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars

Tayēr + Elementary

London, United Kingdom

Tayēr + Elementary occupies a split-room format on Old Street that has come to define a certain strain of serious London cocktail culture: technically demanding drinks on one side, a more accessible walk-in bar on the other.

Also recognized by Opinionated About Dining, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 50 Cocktail Bars, Top 500 Bars

The Cambridge Public House

Paris, France

Founded in 2019, The Cambridge Public House in Paris's 3rd arrondissement sits at #14 in Top 500 Bars (2025) and #19 in World's 50 Best Bars (2024). It holds the world's first B Corp certification for a bar, and runs a hybrid model: Guinness on tap, natural wines, and precisely crafted cocktails, all within a deliberate Anglo-French framework on Rue de Poitou.

Also recognized by Pinnacle Guide, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

The Connaught Bar

London, United Kingdom

The Connaught Bar has appeared in the World's 50 Best Bars rankings every year since 2010, reaching number one twice. Its David Collins-designed interior and technically precise cocktail programme — anchored by a signature tableside Dry Martini — set the standard by which other hotel bars in London and beyond are measured. Open Tuesday through Sunday in the heart of Mayfair.

Also recognized by Falstaff, Top 50 Cocktail Bars, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

Tlecān

Mexico City, Mexico

Ranked #3 among North America's Best Bars in 2025 and #20 globally the year prior, Tlecān on Avenida Álvaro Obregón is Roma Norte's most serious agave bar. Head bartender and co-owner Eli Martínez Bello sources bacanora, sotol, pox, raicilla, and mezcal directly from craft producers across Mexico, building a programme that functions as both a bar menu and an education in indigenous distillation traditions.

Also recognized by Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best

True Laurel

San Francisco, United States

Also recognized by Eater, James Beard Award, Opinionated About Dining, Pinnacle Guide

Virtù

Tokyo, Japan

Perched on the upper floors of the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Otemachi, Virtù has accumulated a consistent run of World's 50 Best recognition — including Asia's Best Bars positions in 2023, 2024, and 2025 — alongside the 2024 Michter's Art of Hospitality Award. The bar pairs skyline views across eastern Tokyo with a drinks program that maps Japanese produce onto a French spirits framework, served by a multilingual team with evident warmth.

Also recognized by Tales Spirited Awards, Tatler, Top 500 Bars, World's 50 Best