Cricket sits in a quiet alley near Apgujeong Rodeo Station, the second venue from the team behind Pine and Co, the Apgujeong cocktail room on Asia's 50 Best Bars. Where the original leans hard into lab science and precise extraction, Cricket takes a looser, more playful angle on the same Korean ingredient idea.
The signature move here is tap cocktails. Batched and poured from the tap rather than built one by one, these drinks lean on Korean traditional liquor as the base, blended with various fruits and herbs to land a fresh and lively profile.
That format changes the pace of the room. Tap service means a drink arrives fast and consistent, which suits a bar that wants the night to feel relaxed and social rather than ceremonial, a deliberate contrast with the more measured sibling.
The thread to follow is the traditional liquor itself. Cricket reinterprets Korean spirits in a modern way, treating soju, makgeolli style bases, and regional liquors as raw material for a contemporary cocktail rather than a heritage curiosity.
The fruit and herb blends are where the bar shows its hand. Each tap pour folds seasonal produce into the base spirit, so the list shifts with what is good rather than holding a fixed roster, and the team rotates builds as ingredients come and go.
The setting matches the drinks. Guides describe a relaxed room with a touch of adventure, the kind of space that pairs thoughtful drinks with low pressure service, set just off the busier Apgujeong Rodeo shopping streets.
The crowd pulls from Apgujeong locals, cocktail travelers working the Gangnam list, and Pine and Co regulars curious to see the second act. Because the drinks come from the tap, this is an easier first round than a reservation only tasting bar, which makes it a natural early stop on a Gangnam night.
The smart plan is to start with a tap cocktail built on whichever traditional liquor the team is featuring, then ask what is rotating before a second pour. Cricket works best as the opening or connecting stop on a night that may well end at its more formal sibling.
The tap format is the quiet argument the bar makes, that a batched drink can carry as much thought as one shaken to order. Because each pour is consistent, the team can chase balance across a whole keg rather than a single glass, and the result lands fast without losing the idea.
The fruit and herb blends shift with the season, so the list reads as a moving target rather than a fixed card. A guest who returns a month later often finds a new base spirit on tap, which keeps the bar closer to a kitchen than a cocktail museum.
Best used as an opener, Cricket sets up a Gangnam night without the weight of a reservation only room. Start with whatever traditional liquor is featured, ask what is rotating, and let the lighter format carry the early hours before the night turns more formal.
It suits a drinker curious about Korean spirits in a modern frame, a group that wants quality without ceremony, and anyone pairing it with the nearby Pine and Co. Start here, then carry the night to the lab driven Pine and Co in Seoul, the sustainability minded Zest in Seoul, or the speakeasy styled Alice Cheongdam in Seoul, and browse the full guide to the best cocktail bars in Seoul.
Sources: Barstalker feature on Cricket and Pine and Co (2025); Leebommat restaurant guide; The Soul of Seoul Apgujeong bar guide; Discover Seoul cocktail bar list (2026).