Editorial
The best arcade bars in the world have figured out something most venues miss entirely: nostalgia is a cocktail ingredient. We have spent time in over forty cities tracking down the rooms that get this balance right — where the drinks are genuinely good and the machines are properly maintained, not dusty props pushed into a corner. These are the ones that made the final cut.
The arcade bar format has matured considerably since its early 2010s novelty phase. The best operators now treat the games as seriously as the bar programme — with regular maintenance contracts, competitive pricing, and a genuine curatorial eye for which machines earn floor space. What follows is our global shortlist.
The strongest arcade bars are those where the cocktail programme would hold up on its own in any serious bar environment. The machines are a draw, not a crutch. These rooms attract a slightly older crowd who want both the nostalgia hit and a genuinely well-made drink.
The US and Canada have the deepest arcade bar scene globally, partly because the machines are easier to source domestically and partly because the format resonates strongly with the thirty-to-forty demographic that has the most spending power for nights out. These rooms have earned their reputations over years, not months.
The best arcade bars share three qualities: machines that actually work, drinks that stand on their own merits, and a crowd that came to stay rather than tick a box. Pixel & Pour in London and Ground Kontrol in Portland represent the format at its most refined — both have been operating long enough to have worked out every operational kink, and both take the curation of their machine libraries as seriously as their bar programmes. If you are planning a trip to either city, our dedicated guides to the best arcade bars in London and the best arcade bars in New York go deeper on the full scene in each city.
If you are visiting Tokyo, Konbini Arcade is the single most interesting room on this list — the juxtaposition of rare Western hardware in a Japanese bar context is genuinely unlike anything else we have encountered. For cities not covered here, the single best indicator of a quality arcade bar is machine maintenance: if the cabinets are dark or posting error messages, walk out.
Priya covers global bar culture with a focus on Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. She has documented bar scenes in over thirty countries and has strong opinions about which Tokyo neighbourhood has the world's highest concentration of excellent drinking rooms.