Charoenkrung, Bangkok
Walk-in welcome before 21:00 on weekdays. Reserve for weekends.
Bangkok's Most Serious Rum Programme
Tropic City opened in a converted Charoenkrung shophouse in 2018 and quickly became one of the most respected cocktail bars in Southeast Asia. The room is a Caribbean themed two-floor space with rattan furniture, parrots painted on the walls, and steel drum music at sensible volume. The back bar holds around 80 rums, including bottles you cannot find anywhere else in Bangkok.
Order the Tropic Mai Tai. It uses three rums — Wray and Nephew White Overproof, Hampden Estate, and Plantation Original Dark — and reflects the bar's commitment to building drinks the original Trader Vic way rather than the sweet pre-made versions that pass for Mai Tais elsewhere. The Painkiller is also excellent. The seasonal menu rotates four times a year and has consistently been one of the more thoughtful cocktail programmes in the city.
The crowd is mid-thirties professionals and travelling cocktail nerds. The bartenders are knowledgeable and unhurried. If you are exploring the wider Bangkok cocktail scene, Tropic City is the rum specialist worth visiting between trips to Vesper and Teens of Thailand.
