The best bars with outdoor seating are not the ones with the biggest terrace or the highest rooftop — they are the ones where the outdoor space was designed with the same care as the room inside. A corner of a Barcelona square at 7pm, a heated London courtyard on a cold October evening, a Miami rooftop where the cocktails are cold enough to justify the heat. We have sat in all of them. These are the outdoor spaces worth prioritising.
Best Outdoor Bars in New York and Miami
American cities that take outdoor drinking seriously tend to do it either at altitude or with serious design investment. New York's best outdoor bars are the ones that have solved the city's space problem creatively — rooftops, gardens carved out of impossible gaps, and terraces that feel private despite being twenty feet from the street.
01
The Rooftop at The Standard, High Line
Meatpacking, NYC$$$Rooftop / Hudson River views
The High Line rooftop bar that has been one of the best outdoor drinking spots in New York since the neighbourhood rebuilt itself around the park below. The Hudson River views to the west are the reason to go, but the cocktail list is strong enough to justify a second round without needing the view as an excuse. It fills fast on warm evenings — arrive before 5pm or accept a wait. Worth the wait on a clear afternoon.
Order: The house Aperol Spritz variation with prosecco and grapefruit bitters
02
The Patio at Freemans
Lower East Side, NYC$$$Garden / Hidden courtyard
A secret courtyard at the end of a Lower East Side alley that has been one of New York's best outdoor dining and drinking spaces for nearly two decades. The garden is canopied with fairy lights and mature trees that give it a privacy that no Manhattan terrace has any right to. The full bar menu is available outside. On warm summer evenings the wait for garden seats can exceed an hour — which tells you everything about how much people want to be there.
Order: The Freemans Old Fashioned — bourbon, maple, bitters
03
Deck Sixteen at The Edition Miami
South Beach, Miami$$$$Pool deck / Hotel rooftop
Miami's best hotel rooftop bar, on the sixteenth floor of The Edition, where the pool deck faces west over the city and the cocktails are made with the seriousness the room deserves. The Miami skyline at sunset from Deck Sixteen is one of the better views available in any city on earth, and the fact that the drinks are excellent makes it something more than a scenic destination. Book well in advance for weekend evenings.
Order: Frozen Daiquiri with Bacardi 8-year, fresh lime, house hibiscus syrup
The complete rooftop bar guide
For the bars where the view is part of the drink — our rooftop bar category covers the best elevated outdoor spaces worldwide.
European outdoor bar culture is built on the terrace — the pavement table, the canal-side chair, the square with aperitivo at 6pm and dinner at 9. Barcelona's Sant Antoni neighbourhood, Amsterdam's canal rings, and London's hidden pub gardens are three of the best expressions of this culture in the world.
04
Bar Calders Terrace
Sant Antoni, Barcelona$$Square terrace / Vermouth
The corner terrace in Sant Antoni's best square, where the Sunday vermouth crowd arrives at noon and the evening aperitivo crowd arrives at 7pm without any awkward gap in between. The chairs face the square directly, and the combination of house red vermouth, a plate of patatas bravas, and the particular quality of afternoon light in this part of Barcelona makes this one of the more reliably excellent outdoor drinking experiences in Europe.
Order: House red vermouth on ice with an orange slice
05
Brouwerij 't IJ
Funenkade, Amsterdam$$Brewery terrace / Windmill
A working brewery inside an eighteenth-century windmill with a terrace on the canal bank that accommodates several hundred people on warm days without ever losing the feeling of a local spot. The beer is brewed on-site — the IPA and the seasonal specials are the best things to order — and the terrace overlooks the water with the windmill as backdrop. It is a genuinely unique outdoor drinking location that happens to serve excellent beer.
Order: Columbus IPA direct from the brewery, served in proper glassware
06
The Grapes
Limehouse, London$$Thames deck / Historic pub
A narrow Victorian riverside pub in Limehouse with a small deck that overhangs the Thames directly. At high tide the water comes up to within a few feet of the decking. Dickens wrote about this pub. The interior has barely changed since his time. The deck seats twelve people and requires determination to claim on a warm afternoon — which is why it remains one of the best-kept outdoor drinking spots in London despite being entirely public knowledge.
Order: Young's Special bitter on cask and a plate of whitebait
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Outdoor Bars in Austin, Washington DC, and Edinburgh
Three cities with significantly different climates that have each developed outdoor bar culture suited to their conditions — Austin's year-round heat supports genuinely expansive outdoor spaces, Washington DC has invested in exceptional terrace gardens, and Edinburgh has produced outdoor bars that operate defiantly against a climate that does not encourage it.
07
The Patio at Lazarus Brewing
East Austin$Beer garden / Dog-friendly
East Austin's most expansive outdoor beer garden, attached to one of the neighbourhood's best craft breweries. The shaded patio covers several thousand square feet, the taps serve eighteen house-brewed beers, and the food truck parked at the entrance produces tacos that are better than most restaurants in the city. Dogs are not only welcome but expected. On Friday evenings it becomes the social centre of the neighbourhood, which is recommendation enough.
Order: The Lemon Gose or the seasonal hazy IPA, whichever is freshest
08
Café du Parc
Penn Quarter, Washington DC$$Terrace / French-style
A French-inflected café-bar in the Penn Quarter with a pavement terrace that runs the full width of the building and faces one of the neighbourhood's more pleasant streets. The wine list is French and priced fairly, the cocktails are classical, and the bar operates with a formality that is unusual for DC and rather welcome as a result. One of the few outdoor spaces in the city where the service matches the setting rather than lagging behind it.
Order: A glass of Sancerre and whatever the kitchen's patio menu includes that day
09
The BrewDog Garden
Cowgate, Edinburgh$$Heated garden / Year-round
Edinburgh's outdoor bar scene is complicated by the fact that it rains for most of the year, which is why the BrewDog Cowgate garden with its industrial overhead heaters and wind-blocking walls has become one of the most popular outdoor drinking spots in the city. The twenty craft beer taps rotate constantly, the food is reliable, and the heaters are powerful enough that a November evening in the garden is genuinely comfortable. Which is about as good as Edinburgh outdoor drinking gets.
Order: Punk IPA on draft or whatever single-hop seasonal is available
Best bars for Sunday sessions
Outdoor seating and Sunday afternoon go together better than almost any combination in bar culture. Our Sunday guide has you covered.
The quality of an outdoor bar space comes down to three things: the quality of the drinks (which should not decline because you are outside), the design of the space (which should work harder than a few chairs on a pavement), and the attitude of the staff (who should treat the outdoor tables as equal to the indoor ones). Every bar on this list meets all three criteria.
Our practical note: the best outdoor spaces in every city fill quickly on good weather days. Go early, bring a jacket even in summer for the evening temperature drop, and always order from the bar rather than waiting for service — the tables closest to the bar will always get the best attention.
Explore the full rooftop bar category
For bars where the view is part of the proposition — the best rooftop drinking spots across 60 cities.
