Pine and Co hides down a dark back alley in Apgujeong-dong, the kind of address that rewards a guest who already knows the door. Behind it sits one of Seoul's most decorated cocktail rooms, ranked No. 52 on Asia's 50 Best Bars in 2025 after holding No. 50 the year before.
The contrast is the whole idea. The drinks come out of what the Asia's 50 Best team calls a mad scientist's lab, built around sous vide machines, rotary evaporators, and vacuum packing tools, while the room itself stays warm and homey rather than clinical.
That tension between high tech extraction and a low key setting is what keeps the bar on critics' lists. The team treats flavor as a problem to engineer, then serves the result in a space that feels closer to a friend's apartment than a laboratory.
The drink to order is the Bada, a signature that blends a house made mezcal style spirit with seaweed syrup, super citrus, and egg white, named for the Korean word for sea. It is the clearest single example of the approach, because the science exists to chase a specific coastal flavor rather than to perform.
Close behind sits the Andong, a sweet, spicy, and sour build that leans on Andong ginger, fragrant Jeonnam pear, and the bar's own take on traditional Korean liquor. Together the two drinks map the house philosophy, which routes global technique through Korean produce and Korean spirits.
Sustainability runs underneath the menu rather than across the marketing. The bar partners with local cafes to upcycle spent coffee grounds into ingredients, part of a wider push to keep the lab's output out of the bin, a practice the international guides single out when they write up the room.
The crowd is a mix of Gangnam regulars, visiting bartenders, and cocktail travelers working the Seoul list, which means the bar stays serious about the craft without turning stiff. Service skews toward conversation, with the team happy to walk a guest through how a given drink was made.
The smart move is to arrive early in the evening before the room fills, take a seat near the bar, and order one signature and one off menu build chosen by the team. The kitchen here is the still and the rotovap, so the food question matters less than which extraction you want to taste.
The room itself stays small and warm rather than grand, which the international guides note as the surprise after all the talk of machines. A guest watches the extraction happen at close range, then drinks the result a few seats away, so the science never turns cold.
Best read as an early evening destination, the bar rewards a guest who books ahead and arrives before the Gangnam rush. The list rotates as the lab finds new ingredients, so a return visit rarely repeats the first, and the team steers a curious drinker toward whatever build is newest.
Reservations are the safer route here, given the size and the reputation, and they let the team plan a short progression rather than a single pour.
It suits a cocktail traveler ticking off the Seoul awards list, a Gangnam night that wants depth over volume, and anyone curious how Korean ingredients read through modern technique. Pair it with the sustainability minded Zest in Seoul and the speakeasy styled Alice Cheongdam in Seoul, see the jazz era Charles H in Seoul, and browse the full guide to the best cocktail bars in Seoul.
Sources: The World's 50 Best Bars discovery profile (2025); The Korea Herald awards coverage (July 2025); Barstalker bar feature; Tatler Asia bar guide.