Best bars in Thonglor.

Top four are the destinations worth flying for. Middle is the working rotation for a Thursday. Bottom three are second-stop, slower, and the right call after midnight.

Three floors of low-lit Edwardian rooms on Thonglor Soi 4. The cocktail menu rewards repeat visits, and the third floor is the calmer pick when Sunday brunch crowds spill upstairs. Order the Rabbit Hole Old Fashioned and take the corner banquette on the second floor.

A 16-seat counter on Thonglor Soi 13 run by Supawit Muttarattana, one of the most quietly serious bartenders in Bangkok. Tasting menus only. Six courses, eighty minutes. The Backstage Negroni is built on house bitters and sits in your memory longer than it has any right to.

An unmarked door at the end of an alley off Thonglor Soi 7. There is no menu. You answer three questions about mood and base spirit, and the bartender builds the drink. Joseph Boroski opened the first Bangkok branch in 2014. It still feels new every visit.

Thai folk music meets cocktails built on yadong, the Thai herbal spirit. The crowd is half Thai, half expat, and the live band starts at 8:30pm Wednesday through Sunday. The Yadong Sour is the entry point. Sit at the back near the stage and order the pork rinds.

House-distilled Iron Balls gin made on site and a brass counter that reads like a 1940s steamer cabin. The Iron Balls Negroni is the safe call. Outdoor tables fill first on cooler nights. Closed Mondays. Pair with a plate from Lo Cale next door and you have a night.

A narrow cocktail car tucked behind Sukhumvit 38, just below the Thonglor line. The room reads as a 1930s train carriage and the menu rotates seasonally. The Q&A Highball is the order. Booking essential on Fridays. Calmer on Tuesdays and the bartender will talk.

A three-storey house just off Sathon, technically south of Thonglor but the same crowd ends up here at 1am. Live jazz on the second floor on weekends, rooftop on the third. The Smalls Sazerac is the right move. Cash only above 100 baht. Last call sometimes runs to 3am.

A small Sukhumvit 51 bar with a gallery upstairs and a programme that rotates between Thai indie acts, jazz nights and film screenings. The Bangkok Mule is the easy call. Open from 6pm, closes at midnight on weekdays, later at weekends. The kind of bar that builds a Tuesday night.

The Bangkok outpost of the Danish craft brewery, set in a Ekkamai Soi 10 house with thirty taps that rotate weekly. The Bangkok Stout is the brewed-on-site pick. Outdoor seating in the courtyard. The kitchen runs a tight burger menu. The right second stop after Backstage.

The 49th-floor rooftop of the Marriott Sukhumvit 57, with a 360-degree open-air deck and a DJ from 9pm on weekends. The Bangkok Mule is the order. Two-for-one happy hour before 7pm is one of the better deals among the higher rooftops. Dress code is enforced after 8pm.

Run by the same team as Asia Today, this Soi Nana shophouse turned the gin and tonic into a Thai cocktail. The Pandan Gin Tonic is the order. Forty seats. No reservations. Arrive before 8pm or queue. The right second-stop pick on a southbound night out from Thonglor.

A bartender's bar on Ekkamai Soi 12, opened by alumni of Bamboo Bar and Q&A. The menu is a six-course flight of cocktails paired with snacks. Twenty seats and the room reads as a hotel lobby in Tokyo, 1972. The Mahaniyom Old Fashioned is the right close on any Thonglor night.