The bar guide to Miami requires a specific disclaimer: the Miami that most visitors experience, the South Beach corridor from Ocean Drive to Collins Avenue, is not the Miami that residents drink in. It is an outdoor entertainment complex that happens to serve alcohol, and the bars in it are priced and programmed accordingly. This guide covers that strip where the bars are genuinely worth it, and then spends the rest of its time in the Miami that matters: Wynwood, Brickell, Little Havana, and Design District.
Miami drinks late, even by American standards. The bars that are worth visiting on a Friday night do not reach their correct operating temperature until after midnight. Plan accordingly, sleep in on Saturday, and understand that Miami operates on a timezone that is technically Eastern but culturally closer to Havana.
South Beach: The Right Bars in the Wrong Neighbourhood
South Beach is not the disaster it was in the 1990s when every bar charged $18 for a well drink and the clientele was sorted by velvet rope. There are 6 to 8 bars in the South Beach area that are genuinely worth your time. The trick is knowing which ones, arriving at the right hour, and not confusing the good ones with the thousands of average options surrounding them.
01
Bar Margot at the Four Seasons Surf Club
Surfside$$$$Hotel Bar / Classic / Ocean View
The bar at the Four Seasons Surf Club is the best hotel bar in Miami and the most consistent argument that South Florida can do sophisticated. The cocktail list is classic and well-executed, the room is cool and quiet in the way that only hotel bars with the right budget can achieve, and the staff are trained to a level that most of the city's dedicated cocktail bars cannot match. The outdoor terrace view of the Atlantic at sunset justifies the price of everything on the menu.
Order: A Daiquiri with aged rum or a perfectly made Martini at sunset
02
Sweet Liberty
Mid-Beach$$$Cocktail / Award-winning / Casual
Named best bar in North America by Tales of the Cocktail in 2017 and still among the better cocktail bars in Florida. Sweet Liberty has the casual beach town atmosphere and the serious cocktail program, which is a combination that Miami does better than anywhere else. The frozen cocktails are excellent in summer, which is to say most of the year. The back patio is one of the better outdoor drinking spaces in South Beach. Arrive at 6pm for the happy hour and stay for the evening.
Order: The Falernum Punch or a frozen Negroni variation from the rotating frozen menu
The full Miami bar guide
All 8 bar categories across Miami: rooftops, cocktail bars, late-night, and the best waterfront bars. 70+ listings across all neighbourhoods.
Wynwood, Brickell, and Where Miami Actually Drinks
The bar scene that Miami residents actually use is concentrated in Wynwood for the creative and arts crowd, Brickell for the financial district after-work scene, and a scattering of neighbourhood bars in Little Haiti, Little Havana, and the Upper East Side that have not yet been discovered by the people who write about bars. All three zones are worth your time for different reasons.
03
Lagniappe
Edgewater$$Wine / Live Music / Hidden
The best hidden gem in Miami and the bar that locals give you in place of the South Beach recommendation you asked for. Lagniappe is a converted house in Edgewater, the neighbourhood north of downtown, with a back garden, regular live jazz, and an excellent natural wine list. No reservations, no dress code, no velvet rope. The charcuterie boards are serious. The wine is served in proper glasses. A completely different version of Miami from anything you will find in the guidebooks.
Order: A glass of natural orange wine with a charcuterie board while the jazz band sets up
04
Broken Shaker
Wynwood$$$Cocktail / Outdoor / Creative
The bar that put Miami's craft cocktail scene on the national map. Broken Shaker started as a pop-up at the Freehand Miami hostel and has since expanded to New York and Los Angeles while keeping its Miami location as the original. The outdoor garden setting is the point: tropical plants, string lights, Miami humidity at the right temperature for a cold drink. The cocktails are creative without being confusing, the staff are friendly, and the whole operation has a warmth that the more self-serious cocktail bars in the city lack.
Order: Whatever the current house special is, or a frozen cocktail from the bar menu
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Rooftop Bars and Miami After Dark
Miami has the best rooftop bar scene in the continental United States. The combination of year-round warm weather, a skyline that was purpose-built for the late 20th century, and hotel budgets that have consistently prioritised the rooftop experience has produced a collection of elevated drinking spaces that no other American city can match.
05
Sugar at EAST Miami
Brickell$$$Rooftop / Asian-inspired / Views
On the 40th floor of the EAST hotel in Brickell, Sugar has an Asian-inspired cocktail menu, a bamboo garden, and views across the entire Miami skyline from Coconut Grove to Downtown. The cocktails are built around Asian spirits and liqueurs, the food is light and genuinely good, and the crowd is the Brickell financial district set who have upgraded from the rooftop pool bar. Reservations are essential on weekends. The 40th floor sunset on a clear winter evening is among the better views in the state.
Order: A yuzu-based cocktail or one of their sake-forward Martini variations
06
Ball and Chain
Little Havana$$Cuban / Live Music / Historic
The most culturally important bar in Miami. Ball and Chain on Calle Ocho in Little Havana has been operating in some form since 1935, when it hosted Billie Holiday and Count Basie in the days when Little Havana was Miami's main entertainment district. The current incarnation brings back the live Cuban music, the rum cocktails, and the outdoor space in a way that feels like a genuine restoration rather than a nostalgia project. Go on a Friday night when the salsa dancers take over the courtyard.
Order: A Mojito or a Cuba Libre, made with proper Cuban rum, while the live band plays
07
The Anderson
Upper East Side$$Dive / Neighbourhood / Late
The best neighbourhood dive bar in Miami and the bar that the Upper East Side residents treat as their living room. The Anderson was one of the first bars to open in the neighbourhood when it started gentrifying in the early 2010s, and it has maintained its character through multiple cycles of Miami real estate activity. The cocktails are honest and priced fairly. The backyard is the right place to spend a hot Miami evening. Open until 3am every night of the week.
Order: A cold beer and a shot, or the house Collins variation served in a tall glass
Miami rooftop bars: the complete guide
Every notable rooftop bar in Miami, from the Brickell hotel towers to the South Beach art deco terraces. Ranked by view, cocktails, and access.
Miami is a better bar city than its reputation suggests, largely because the reputation is based on the 1% of the city that faces the ocean on South Beach. The Miami that actually drinks well operates in the neighbourhoods, on the rooftops of Brickell, in the back gardens of Edgewater, and in Little Havana on a Friday night when the music starts. This guide gives you 7 entry points to that Miami.
The Miami cocktail bars guide covers 25 more in detail. For the after-work drinking culture specifically, the Miami after-work bars guide focuses on the Brickell and Downtown bars that the financial district uses from 5pm onward. The complete Miami bar guide covers all 8 categories across every neighbourhood.
The best bars in Miami right now
Our current editors' picks across all Miami neighbourhoods, updated regularly with new openings and seasonal changes.
