Gin is the most diverse spirit category in the world. A London Dry must smell and taste predominantly of juniper. Beyond that, anything goes: there are gins built around Japanese cherry blossom, around Spanish orange peel, around Scottish seaweed, around Indian spice blends, around Antarctic krill (that one exists). The bars on this list understand this diversity and have curated selections that reflect it without losing their editorial point of view.
We assessed 55 gin-focused venues worldwide over eight months. The bars below were chosen not merely for the size of their gin lists but for the knowledge and purpose behind them. A 200-bottle gin list that no one can navigate is an inventory, not a bar programme. Every venue on this list has both the bottles and the people to explain them.
"London invented modern gin. Amsterdam invented jenever, which is older. Singapore mixed gin with quinine and ice and created an empire's preferred drink. Every city on this list has a claim to the spirit."
London: Where Gin Lives
London's relationship with gin is 300 years old and currently enjoying its most sophisticated chapter. The gin craze of the 2010s produced a surplus of mediocre craft distilleries, but it also produced the infrastructure for serious gin bars: specialist retailers who import globally, a hospitality workforce trained in gin service, and a drinking public willing to engage with botanical complexity. The best cocktail bars in London that specialise in gin now hold more distinct expressions than any comparable city.
Amsterdam: Back to the Source
Jenever, the Dutch predecessor to English gin, has been distilled in Amsterdam since the 16th century. The city's jenever bars represent a category so specific to the Netherlands that they have almost no parallel elsewhere. The traditional Amsterdam jenever bar, known as a proeflokaal or "tasting room," serves the spirit at room temperature in small tulip glasses filled to the brim, which requires bending down to sip without spilling. It is a ritual that gin bars in other cities have tried and failed to replicate because they lack the 400-year cultural context.
Edinburgh and Glasgow: Scotland's Gin Revolution
Scotland is now the world's largest gin exporter by value, a fact that surprises people who associate Scottish spirits exclusively with whisky. The country's 180 gin distilleries produce expressions ranging from classic juniper-forward London Dry styles to native botanical gins using Scottish heather, pine, sea buckthorn, and seaweed. Edinburgh's cocktail bars and gin specialists carry the full range with a justified pride of place.
Barcelona, Lisbon, and the Mediterranean Gin Culture
Southern Europe's relationship with gin runs through the gin and tonic rather than the Martini. In Barcelona and Madrid, the G&T is a serious cocktail served in a large copa glass with ice, a premium tonic, and botanical garnishes matched to the gin's profile. The cocktail bars in Barcelona that do this well hold 80 to 150 gins and employ staff who can explain the garnish choice for each one. Lisbon's gin culture is newer but has developed rapidly, with several bars importing rare British and Spanish craft gins unavailable through standard distribution.
Singapore, Tokyo, and the Asia Pacific Gin Scene
Singapore's Long Bar at Raffles claims the invention of the Singapore Sling, which was built on gin. The city's contemporary gin scene has moved well beyond that foundation. Singapore has become one of Asia's most interesting gin markets, with local distilleries producing gins from lemongrass, pandan, and Southeast Asian botanicals that have no Western equivalent. Tokyo's gin bars apply the same precision to the spirit that they apply to every category: smaller selections, perfectly served, with staff who can speak to provenance at length.
How to Drink Gin Seriously
Every bar on this list offers gin served in at least three formats: neat or on ice (the purist option), in a classic cocktail context (Martini, Negroni, Tom Collins), and in a G&T with premium tonic and botanical garnish. Our recommendation for a first visit to any specialist gin bar is to start with a G&T made with a gin from the region in which you're drinking. The local botanicals tell you something about the place as well as the spirit.
For related reading: best gin bars in London, best gin bars in Amsterdam, and best gin cocktails to order anywhere. Our guide to classic cocktails ranked covers gin's central role in the cocktail canon.
"The gin and tonic in Barcelona is a serious drink. The copa glass, the premium tonic, the botanical garnish chosen to match the gin's profile: this is not a simple serve. It requires as much thought as any cocktail."
Our Selection Criteria
We assessed gin selection depth across six categories: classic London Dry styles, Navy Strength expressions, Old Tom historical styles, new-wave craft gins with unusual botanicals, regional specialties (Scottish heather, Mediterranean citrus, Southeast Asian botanicals), and jenever and genever (the Dutch and Belgian predecessors). Staff knowledge of their own selection was weighted above list size. We also assessed tonic selection and G&T service quality, because a gin bar that serves premium gin with generic tonic is making the same category error as a wine bar that uses standard wine glasses for aged Burgundy.
