Ruby Mimi Bar holds the ground floor of the Ruby Mimi hotel on Beatenplatz 4, a minute from Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich's Old Town, and it occupies what was one of the city's first cinemas. The bar trades on that history, with vintage cameras, old film posters and stage lighting standing in for the usual hotel-lobby polish.
The room suits drinkers who want a central, late-opening bar with a sense of theatre, and a glass of something well made without the formality of Zurich's grand hotel bars. It works less well for anyone after a quiet corner, because the space doubles as the hotel's social hub and fills with guests and walk-in locals through the evening.
The design follows what the Ruby group calls its lean luxury format, which strips out the reception desk and pours the budget into the bar and the rooms. The official site describes the venue as bringing old Hollywood glamour to Zurich, and the cinema bones back that up, from the curved balcony seating to the projection-era detailing. It reads as a film set that happens to serve drinks.
The list runs to signature cocktails alongside an Italian-leaning snack menu, the kind of negronis, spritzes and short drinks that pair with small plates rather than a full dinner. Prices sit in the standard Zurich range for a central bar, which means cocktails in the high-teens to low-twenties in francs. The kitchen stays light on purpose, so anyone planning a full meal is better served elsewhere and back here for a nightcap.
The crowd is a mix of hotel guests, after-work groups and visitors drifting up from the main shopping street, and it shifts later than much of the Old Town. Zurich tourism lists the venue among the city's central cocktail bars, and the daily noon-to-1am hours make it one of the more reliable late options in a district that often closes early. The film-house setting tends to draw people who linger over a second round.
Best time to come is mid-evening on a weekday, before the room turns over to a louder crowd, when the lighting and the cinema fittings do their best work. Weekends run busier and later. The bar keeps the same hours every day, which is rare enough in Zurich to make it a dependable fallback when other rooms have called last orders.
Reviewers tend to single out the room over the menu, with Tripadvisor and OpenTable notes returning to the cinema fittings, the balcony seating and the late hours rather than to any one cocktail. That matches the Ruby format, which treats the bar as the social heart of the building and counts on the setting to carry the night. The staff lean friendly and quick rather than formal, which suits a room that wants walk-in locals as much as hotel guests. It is a bar people remember for where they sat as much as for what they drank.
What sets Ruby Mimi Bar apart is the building rather than the drinks list, which is solid without reaching for the city's top cocktail honours. The former cinema gives it a backdrop that no purpose-built hotel bar in Zurich can copy, and the lean-luxury approach keeps the focus on the room and the glass rather than on service ceremony. For a central, late, atmospheric drink near Bahnhofstrasse, it earns its place. Plan the rest of the night from the Zurich bar guide and see where it sits among the city's cocktail bars, or compare it against the best cocktail bars in Zurich.
Sources: Ruby Hotels official site; zuerich.com; OpenTable; Tripadvisor (updated 2026); SwissGlam.
