The Odd

· Reservations The Odd Couple is the French Concession's quietest serious counter, hidden behind an unmarked door on a residential lane and run at a volume that is genuinely rare for Shanghai. The room is small, the seating is reservation-locked, and the menu is built around stirred classics and a small stable of seasonal signatures rather than the dramatic builds that define much of the city's cocktail conversation.

The team's calling card is its amaro programme — a serious depth of small Italian importers backed by a handful of house infusions — which makes the Negroni list here the most considered in mainland China. The technical floor is consistently high, and the room functions as a useful counter-argument to the speakeasy-as-theatre tradition: this is a speakeasy in the original sense, a hidden room where the drinks are the point.

For the full ranking, see our editorial round-up of the 10 best cocktail bars in Shanghai, the broader Shanghai cocktail bars guide, and our category index of cocktail bars worldwide.