A tavernist, in the old sense, is the keeper of the house, the person who decides what the room pours and who it pours it for. The Tavernist takes the title literally, putting a serious bar twelve floors above Ren'ai Road and treating the cocktail list as the keeper's point of view.
The Tavernist occupies the top floor of the Kimpton Da An, at 25 Lane 27, Section 4, Ren'ai Road, in the Da'an District. The kitchen and bar have carried Michelin Guide recognition across several years, a run the design magazine Ala Champ has covered, and the venue's own site leads on the Michelin Plate listings from 2020 onward. The bar runs alongside the restaurant with its own terrace, so a cocktail here comes with a Da'an skyline rather than a back wall.
The room
The palette is deep blue with indigo seats, a quiet contrast to the brighter dining room next door, and the terrace opens the whole floor to the city. The bar is built for an after-work and pre-dinner crowd that wants a proper drink with a view, and the service runs at hotel-bar precision without the hotel-bar stiffness. It is a date room and a celebration room more than a late-night one.
The list leans on Taiwanese ingredients folded into classic structures, the approach that earns a cocktail bar its keep in a city full of them. The signatures carry the house humour, with a Bubble and Squeak Guava and a drink named the Cheeky Monkey among the names guests single out, each built to read as familiar and taste local. The trick with a Taiwanese-twist program is restraint, using guava, rice or local tea as a grace note inside a recognised template rather than a novelty that buries the spirit. Done well, the drink stays balanced and the place stays in the Michelin Guide, which is the line this bar has held for several years running.
What to order
Order a signature off the house list first, the Taiwanese-twist drinks that justify the trip up twelve floors, and ask the bar to steer a second by spirit once you know the room. Cocktails sit at the upper end for Taipei, in line with a Michelin-listed hotel bar, so this is a considered visit rather than a session. The honest move is one signature on the terrace at dusk and a spirit-forward second after the sun drops. The kitchen runs an innovative surf-and-turf menu behind an open pass, so a full dinner is on the table if the drink turns into an evening. Pairing one course with a cocktail rather than committing to a tasting menu is the way to use the room without the formality, and it keeps the bar in view. For more of the city's high rooms, see our Taipei rooftop bar guide.
Who it is for
Couples who want a view with the drink, travelers after a Michelin-listed bar without a tasting-menu commitment, and anyone marking an occasion. It rewards an early-evening arrival, when the terrace catches the last of the light over the district. For other elevated rooms, the Grand Hyatt bar works the hotel circuit and Draftland runs a very different cocktail-on-tap idea at street level.
Best time to go
Open evenings from 5pm, to midnight midweek and 1am on Friday and Saturday, so a sunset arrival catches the light over Da'an. Book the terrace ahead at the weekend. Plan the wider night with our Taipei guide or the global cocktail bar collection.
Sources
Reporting for this profile draws on the bar's official website, its Kimpton Da An listing, and the Ala Champ feature.
