Jungle Cocktail Bar runs on the second floor of Austurstraeti 9 in the center of Reykjavik, a cocktail room that carries a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars Discovery list. It is easy to miss from the street, which is part of the appeal, and the climb up the stairs sets it apart from the ground-floor pub crawl below.
The menu reads classic with a twist, simple highballs for the early crowd and elegant coupettes for the drinkers who settle in, all carrying a touch of tiki that gives the bar its name. Visit Reykjavik and the Dineout listing both frame it as a drinks-led room rather than a party bar, at least until the weekend, when the volume climbs.
The space is compact and warm, a second-floor room built around the bar itself, where the work happens in full view. It reads intimate on a weeknight and crowded on a weekend, the kind of place where the bartender's recommendation beats the menu. There are no reservations, so timing is the only lever a visitor controls.
Order a highball early or let the bar build a coupette to taste, since the tiki-leaning house drinks are the reason to climb the stairs. Reykjavik cocktail prices are high, which makes the daily happy hour from four to six the smart window, a stretch when the same room costs noticeably less. The early sitting is also the quiet one, before the weekend crowd arrives.
The crowd shifts with the week, a laid-back drinks crowd midweek and a party feel on Friday and Saturday nights, per the bar's own framing. Best time to go is the happy-hour window on a weekday, when the prices ease and the room stays calm enough to talk. Late weekend nights are for drinkers who want the energy rather than the conversation.
Who it is for: cocktail drinkers who want a downtown room with a point of view and an early-evening deal. Who should skip it: large groups who need a booking and anyone after a quiet seat on a Saturday at midnight, since the weekend turns it loud.
The Discovery listing is the credential worth knowing. The World's 50 Best Bars program keeps a Discovery file of rooms it rates outside the main ranking, and Jungle's place on it marks the bar as one the global cocktail world takes seriously rather than a tourist stop. That recognition lines up with what the local guides report, since Guide to Iceland and Visit Reykjavik both file it among the city's better cocktail rooms. For a visitor choosing between a dozen downtown bars, that pedigree is a useful filter.
The second-floor address shapes the experience as much as the menu. Climbing the stairs at Austurstraeti 9 separates the room from the street noise below and gives it a quieter, more deliberate feel on a weeknight, the kind of space where a drinker can actually watch the bartender work. The tiki touches show up in the glassware and the garnishes rather than in a full theme, a light hand that keeps the drinks serious while signaling the bar does not take itself too seriously. The no-reservations policy means the only way to guarantee the calm version is to arrive early.
The happy hour is the detail that decides the visit. A coupette at full Reykjavik price is a splurge, and the same drink in the four-to-six window is one of the better cocktail deals downtown. See where it sits in our guide to the best cocktail bars in Reykjavik, browse the full Reykjavik bar guide, or set it against our global cocktail bars roundup. For a harborside cocktail room, see Slippbarinn.
