The World’s 10 Best Bars
Discover the best of the world, from unforgettable stays and local flavours to inspiring experiences and so much more. Explore our growing collection of guides and find your next favourite.
Double Chicken Please
New York, United States
Double Chicken Please approaches cocktails through the shared language of food and design. On Allen Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the bar houses two complementary experiences: Free Range and The Coop. Familiar flavours are taken apart and reassembled, giving drinks an identity that draws as much from a meal as from a conventional cocktail recipe. Free Range introduces a playful, interactive menu alongside shareable dishes. The Coop has a more composed setting with mid-century décor and cocktails organised around culinary ideas. Cold Pizza, for example, brings together tequila, Parmigiano Reggiano, tomato, basil and burnt toast, while Mango Sticky Rice explores rum, mango, tea and coconut. The names offer an accessible starting point for combinations that become more intricate in the glass. Food remains part of the visit, with a full menu in The Coop and dishes intended for sharing at Free Range. Choosing between the two concepts helps shape the evening, whether the priority is interactive discovery or a closer look at cocktails inspired by recognisable dishes. Across both spaces, the connection between flavour, presentation and design gives the bar its particular character.
Sips
Barcelona, Spain
Sips brings an open, sociable approach to cocktails on Carrer de Muntaner in Barcelona. Its main bar, Drinkery House, is arranged to encourage contact between bartenders and guests, with no conventional physical barrier separating the two. The setting reflects a broader idea: careful technique can be part of a relaxed evening in which flavour remains easy to discuss and enjoy. The drinks draw on classic cocktail making as well as methods from cooking and pastry. Recognisable ingredients are explored through different textures, densities and combinations, with clarification used for its effect on taste. Glassware and serving pieces are developed around the liquid, so their role is to support the way a drink is experienced. This attention to texture and presentation gives the menu a distinctive identity without requiring guests to approach it as a technical exercise. A conversation with the team can begin with familiar preferences, such as fruit, bitterness or a particular spirit, before moving towards something less expected. Drinkery House is the social centre of the Sips experience, suited to visitors who enjoy seeing considered cocktail making unfold within an informal bar atmosphere.
Bar Leone
Hong Kong, China
Bar Leone brings the spirit of an Italian neighbourhood bar to Bridges Street in Hong Kong’s Central district. Founded by bartender Lorenzo Antinori, it is shaped around community, familiar drinks and an atmosphere that encourages people to settle in. Personal memorabilia and references to Italian popular culture give the room a lived-in character, with humour and nostalgia woven into the setting. The cocktail approach favours recognisable classics, careful ingredients and considered preparation. The bar describes this outlook as Cocktail Popolari, reflecting its interest in making the pleasure of a well-made drink approachable. Seasonality informs the selection, while familiar recipes provide a starting point for conversations about flavour and personal preferences. Olives and other small details of the aperitivo tradition support the social rhythm of the bar. For visitors exploring Central, the address offers a place to pause and move from sightseeing into an evening out. Its appeal is closely tied to the relationship between the drinks and the room: an Italian sensibility expressed through a Hong Kong neighbourhood setting, with conviviality at the centre of the experience.
Paradiso
Barcelona, Spain
Paradiso begins with an unusual entrance in Barcelona’s El Born district: a refrigerator door inside a pastrami bar leads into the cocktail room. Beyond it, curved wooden forms create an enveloping interior that the owners liken to the frame of a whale. The transition from an everyday shopfront to this carefully staged setting establishes the character of the visit. The cocktail menu combines culinary techniques with an interest in texture, aroma and presentation. Drinks such as Perception bring savoury ingredients, including tomato and celery, into conversation with fruit and spirits. Other creations explore combinations of sherry, smoked pineapple, coconut, citrus or floral notes. The details change as ideas develop, but the approach consistently treats the drink as something to experience through several senses. Research takes place in Paradiso’s own laboratory, where the team explores new methods and serving ideas. In the bar, that work becomes an evening of distinctive glasses, unexpected flavour combinations and conversation about what is being served. The original Rera Palau address suits visitors who want a cocktail stop with a strong sense of place and a theatrical approach to hospitality.
Connaught Bar
London, United Kingdom
Connaught Bar offers a composed setting for cocktails within The Connaught on Carlos Place in Mayfair. Leather seating, marble tables, mirrored surfaces and softly lit corners create a room in which the details reward attention. The atmosphere suits a drink before dinner or an evening spent exploring the menu at a more measured pace. The Martini Trolley is a defining part of the service. Guests can select aromatic bitters to shape their preferred version of the drink, making its preparation a personal exchange with the bartender. The bar also produces its own gin, while the wider list brings together signature cocktails, vintage serves, wines and spirits. New creations are introduced through the year as ingredients and ideas change. Canapés provide a savoury accompaniment, and the hotel’s restaurants make it possible to continue the evening within the same address. The experience is centred on the relationship between a carefully furnished room, precise cocktail preparation and attentive conversation. For visitors to London, it offers a particularly clear expression of the Mayfair hotel bar tradition, with enough variation in the drinks to encourage a return visit.
American Bar at The Savoy
London, United Kingdom
The American Bar brings the intimacy of a cocktail lounge to The Savoy, just off the Strand in central London. Opened in 1893, it has a history woven into the development of the modern mixed drink. Its polished room, with a piano, softly lit tables and an assured sense of occasion, makes an inviting pause between the theatres and restaurants of the surrounding West End. The drinks programme moves between established classics, reinterpretations and original creations. Menus draw on people, events and encounters associated with the hotel, giving a familiar spirit an unexpected historical connection. Whisky, rum, gin and fortified wines appear in carefully considered combinations, while the bar's long tradition provides a useful starting point for anyone who prefers to order a favourite cocktail. A visit rewards a little time and curiosity. Discussing preferred flavours with the team can be as useful as studying the menu, particularly when choosing between a recognisable classic and a more exploratory drink. The appeal lies in the relationship between the setting and the craft: an old London address that continues to treat the cocktail as a living form.
Alquímico
Cartagena, Colombia
Alquímico occupies a characterful mansion in Cartagena's historic centre, with three levels that offer different routes into Colombian cocktail culture. The main room places the bar at the centre of the action, a balcony level gives more attention to reworked classics, and the rooftop takes its inspiration from the team's farm in the coffee-growing region of Quindío. Moving between them is part of the evening's pleasure. Ingredients provide the connection. Colombian fruit, herbs and other regional produce shape drinks developed through the bar's relationships with growers and its own research kitchen. The programme extends to fruit wines and meads, allowing familiar cocktail structures to carry flavours closely connected to the country. Seasonal creations sit alongside classics and alcohol-free choices, so the experience need not follow a single style of drinking. The setting becomes increasingly animated as the evening develops, particularly on the roof, where music contributes to a sociable, celebratory atmosphere. Yet there is detail behind the energy, from the different menus on each floor to the provenance of the ingredients. Alquímico suits visitors interested in both Cartagena's nightlife and the broader Colombian landscape that supplies its bars and kitchens.
Handshake Speakeasy
Mexico City, Mexico
Handshake Speakeasy sits within NH Collection Mexico City Reforma in the Juárez neighbourhood, behind the bustle of the streets around Amberes. Its two bar spaces share a taste for low lighting and intimate conversation, with dark finishes and theatrical curtains creating the sense of stepping into a room apart. The atmosphere draws on the visual language of the speakeasy while the drinks look firmly towards contemporary technique. Cocktails are developed with a culinary approach, including clarification and extended preparation in a dedicated laboratory. A piña colada can arrive clear and light in texture, challenging expectations without losing its familiar flavour. Martinis and other recognisable forms provide further starting points, while inventive combinations encourage guests to consider aroma, temperature and texture alongside the base spirit. Upstairs and downstairs have distinct moods, with the basement generally offering a more energetic soundtrack. Both place the interaction with the team at the heart of the visit, making personal preferences a useful guide through the menu. Reservations are sensible for this compact, sought-after address. Handshake is particularly rewarding for drinkers who enjoy the surprise of a technically elaborate cocktail presented with restraint.
ATLAS
Singapore, Singapore
ATLAS occupies the grand ground-floor lobby of Parkview Square in Singapore's Bugis neighbourhood. Its soaring interior takes inspiration from the Art Deco buildings and European hotel lounges of the early twentieth century, with an imposing scale that gives even a short visit a sense of occasion. The surrounding district offers a useful contrast, with busy streets and cultural landmarks just beyond the doors. Gin is a central preoccupation, supported by an extensive collection that ranges from historical bottles to contemporary distillations. The cocktail programme draws on the drinking traditions and decorative culture of the period, while Champagne, still wines and whiskies provide alternatives. A martini offers one way into the collection; a conversation with the team can help identify a spirit or style less familiar to the guest. Food and afternoon tea make ATLAS more than an evening cocktail stop, and the room lends itself equally to an unhurried daytime appointment or a later gathering. Its appeal comes from the coherence of architecture, glassware and drinks, all referencing a particular era without turning the experience into a historical reconstruction. Reservations are useful when planning around its dining and tea services.
Jigger & Pony
Singapore, Singapore
Jigger & Pony brings a sociable approach to cocktail drinking at Amara Singapore in Tanjong Pagar. Named after the bartender's double-ended measuring tool, the bar builds its identity around the precision of classic drinks and the pleasure of sharing them. Its hotel setting places it close to a neighbourhood rich in restaurants, making it an easy centrepiece for an evening or a considered stop before dinner. The menu treats familiar recipes as material for fresh interpretation. Martinis, highballs, sours and stirred drinks sit within a programme that explores ingredients and techniques while preserving a clear sense of balance. Citrus, whisky, gin and less expected accents such as wasabi give the selection variety, and changing menu themes provide a reason to return. Food, wine and beer broaden the options for a group with different preferences. Hospitality is deliberately warm and conversational. Guests can follow the menu closely or use it to begin a discussion about flavour, whether the preference is for something bright and refreshing or darker and more spirit-led. The result is a bar that accommodates serious interest in cocktails while keeping the social experience relaxed, generous and central to the visit.