The Soho cocktail bar built around an invented character and a menu that reads like a short story.
Published Dec 18, 2025 · Last reviewed Mar 1, 2026 · How we pick bars · by Mei-Lin Zhao
Madame X sits on the upper Soho stretch of Hollywood Road, a small-format cocktail bar opened around the conceit of an invented character whose biography drives the cocktail menu. Each drink is named for a chapter or relationship in the fictional Madame X's life; the menu reads in two pages of narrative copy before it reads as a list. Sandeep Hathiramani, the operator, has been profiled by Class Magazine and Tatler Asia as one of the city's character-driven cocktail concepts.
The right visitor wants the cocktail menu read out by the bartender, a slow pace, and the design and glassware to be part of the night. The wrong visitor wants a fast classic round — the room is built around the narrative and the speed of service is paced to it — or a quiet conversational corner, since the small format gets two-deep by 22:00 weekends.
One small room with a long bar, banquettes around the edge and theatrical lighting; the design uses period portraiture, framed letters and a back bar of bespoke glassware to support the Madame X conceit. Tatler Asia's bar feature describes the room as 'committed to the story, down to the last coupe' — the right read.
Order from the narrative section of the menu rather than the back-page classics — the named cocktails (HK$160–195) are the build the bar is designed around. r/HongKong's monthly cocktail thread consistently flags the second-chapter cocktail as the recurring recommendation; Class Magazine's review highlighted the glassware-paired pours as 'the move' for first visits.
Skip the back-page classics — they're competent but they aren't the reason the room exists. Small plates (HK$140–220) are designed around the menu's chapters and work as round-three food rather than a dinner sub.
Through 20:30 the bar reads as small-group date night and cocktail tourists working through the narrative menu. From 21:30 the room shifts to a slightly younger, dressed-up Hong Kong Island local crowd doing a second-bar stop after a Soho dinner. Tatler Asia notes the post-22:00 hour as 'when the room is most itself' — the narrative pacing lands best when the bar is full but not three-deep.