The 50 Best Cocktail Bars in the World 2026

Still the reference point for the modern American cocktail bar. The bartending pedigree that came out of this room — Phil Ward, Brian Miller, Joaquín Simó — reshaped the city's drinking culture. Sit at the back bar if you want the show.

Order: Oaxaca Old Fashioned

Sasha Petraske's last great room. There's no menu — you tell the bartender what you like and what spirit you're in the mood for, and they build it from there. Knock on the metal door at 134 Eldridge.

Order: Penicillin (a Sam Ross original)

Voted World's Best Bar in 2019, Dante is the rare drinking room that works equally well at noon and at midnight. The negroni programme alone earns the visit. Outdoor seating on MacDougal is the move on any decent evening.

Order: Garibaldi (the world's most famous one)

Masahiro Urushido brought Tokyo bar-craft to Hudson Street and won World's Best Bar in 2020 doing it. The highballs are flawless; the snack menu (Yakitori, miso-cured eggs) is genuinely worth the trip on its own.

Order: Toki Highball, served properly

Don Lee and Dave Arnold's tech-forward cocktail bar — clarified milk punches, rotovap-distilled spirits, force-carbonated drinks. If you care about the science of liquid, this is the room you visit in New York.

Order: Tropicál (clarified piña colada, frozen)

Kenta Goto's intimate Japanese-inflected bar a few doors from Attaboy. The Sakura Martini is the calling card; the okonomiyaki is the food sleeper hit.

Order: Sakura Martini

Below street level on Seventh South, with live jazz most nights. Sasha Petraske's other room. Order off the cocktail style ('something stirred, gin-forward') rather than the menu.

Order: Bartender's choice — gin, stirred

Agostino Perrone's room at the Connaught Hotel. The trolley martini service is theatre, but the drinks justify it. Worth dressing for; worth saving for.

Order: Connaught Martini (the famous trolley pour)

Open since 1893. The oldest cocktail bar in Britain, and still in the conversation for the world's best. The annual menu is its own publication event.

Order: Hanky Panky (Ada Coleman invented it here)

Below a burger restaurant on Hoxton Square. Tiny, unfussy, exceptional drinks. Reservations land in seconds; walk-ins are luck.

Order: Perfect Storm (rum, ginger, mint)

Original Hoxton location. Live jazz nightly. The drinks are Prohibition-era theatre — flaming garnishes, century-old recipes — but executed with the seriousness of a fine-dining restaurant.

Order: Old Cuban

Ryan Chetiyawardana's Sea Containers room. The menu reformulates each year around novel ingredients (faux-turtle soup syrup, isoamyl honey). A working laboratory dressed as a bar.

Order: Whatever's on this year's menu — they all work

Each annual menu is built around a different theme — recently 'Origin', a journey through the source ingredients. The black door looks unmarked; the room behind it is one of Europe's best.

Order: Order the menu's signature, whatever year you arrive

Walk past the taqueria and through the white door at the back. Mezcal-forward, Latin American spirits, smoky concise drinks. The original of its concept in Paris and still the best.

Order: Guêpe Verte (mezcal, agave, cucumber, chilli)

The bar that internationalised the modern Paris cocktail scene. Tiny, loud at night, dressed up. Get there early or accept standing.

Order: Old Cuban or whatever the bartender suggests stirred

Hidetsugu Ueno's altar to the stirred drink. No menu. You sit, you drink water from a hand-blown glass while he cuts the ice, you tell him what spirit you're in the mood for. He builds it from there.

Order: Whatever Ueno-san makes for you

A cocktail bar in the form of an old European apothecary. Bottles run floor to ceiling. The list rewards spirits geeks; the bartenders speak it fluently.

Order: Last Word (gin, Chartreuse, maraschino, lime)

Hisashi Kishi has been behind this counter since the early 1990s. Every motion is deliberate. The Gimlet here is, by consensus, the best in the world.

Order: Gimlet (gin, lime cordial)

Indra Kantono's Singapore flagship — every menu is designed as a magazine. World's Best Bar in 2023. Exceptional service standards.

Order: Whatever's on the magazine cover

Vijay Mudaliar's room is built around Southeast Asian agriculture — palm sugar, betel leaf, pandan, regional rices. Nothing like it anywhere else.

Order: Rice (named for what's in it)

The Parkview Square lobby bar. The world's most encyclopaedic gin collection. The room itself looks like a Bond villain's penthouse.

Order: Atlas Martini (their house gin, 50/50)

The Old Man and the Sea is the brief; the execution is detailed and serious. Won World's Best Bar in 2019. Tasting menus pair drinks to a literary sequence.

Order: Anything from the For Whom the Bell Tolls riff section

Jay Khan's mezcal and tequila bar. The agave list is one of the world's deepest outside of Mexico. The food (tacos, tostadas) is non-trivially good.

Order: Mezcal flight + the Smoke & Mirrors

Through the giant fridge door at Pastrami Bar. Giacomo Gianotti has won every award. The menus are illustrated novels. The drinks live up to the packaging.

Order: Supercool Martini (smoked, frozen)

Marc Álvarez and Simone Caporale's tasting-menu cocktail bar. World's Best Bar 2023. You sit, you drink what they pour, you trust the pacing.

Order: The full pairing — that's the point

Diego Cabrera's headquarters. Tropical, modern, deeply unserious in tone but rigorous in execution. The drinks come in increasingly absurd vessels.

Order: Chipotle Chillón (mezcal, chipotle, pineapple)

Gonçalo de Sousa Monteiro's intimate counter bar. Twelve seats. Reservations essential. The only bar in Berlin with a serious dress code, and it's earned.

Order: Buck and Breck (cognac, sugar, absinthe, champagne)

Behind an unmarked door. The room that put modern Dutch cocktailing on the map. Reservations are mandatory and worth setting an alarm for.

Order: Whichever seasonal house spec the bartender suggests

Press the brass bell labelled 'Press For Cocktails' next to a nondescript door. The room behind is dim, focused, and produces drinks that justify the gimmick.

Order: What they're pouring most often that month

You email for the password, you find the unmarked door near Campo de' Fiori. Old-school cocktail historians; the menu rewards classics geeks.

Order: Their Sazerac

Vassilis Kyritsis and Nikos Bakoulis's Athens flagship. Every annual list is in their favour. Café-bar by day, serious cocktail room by night.

Order: Charcoal Sour

Below street level. The room that birthed the Bramble cocktail (sort of — Dick Bradsell's original was at Fred's in London). Long-running, never gimmicky.

Order: A Bramble, obviously

Below The Vintage Cocktail Club's restaurant. Ireland's best-stocked spirits collection and a menu that respects classic technique without being precious.

Order: Their old fashioned variant

The bar that taught Chicago how to drink properly. Long blue curtain. House rules taken seriously. Toby Maloney's legacy.

Order: The Violet Fizz

Grant Achatz's cocktail kitchen. Edible balloons, drinks served on rocks chiselled from glaciers, science as showmanship. Reservations required.

Order: The Bond — frozen, dressed up, delivered with a flourish

Mia Sarazen and Mathew Biancaniello's neighbourhood bar that punches at international weight. Patio drinking, sharable food, deceptively simple drinks built on excellent foundations.

Order: Negroni Sbagliato variant of the season

John Lermayer's enduring Miami room (carried forward by his team). Daiquiris are the calling card; the cheeseburger is the sleeper.

Order: Daiquiri No. 3

Each menu is built around a concept (Pantone swatches, conspiracy theories, Mister Rogers). Bon Vivants' flagship. Drinks that survive the gimmick.

Order: What's on the current menu — they're never bad

The bar that made Mexico City's cocktail scene legible to the world. World's Best Bar 2014. Reservations essential at peak.

Order: Margarita al Pastor (tequila, pineapple, coriander)

Through the taquería, behind the curtain. The most theatrical entry in Mexico City and consistently top of the Latin America 50 list.

Order: Bartender's choice; tell them your favourite spirit

Renato 'Tato' Giovannoni's flower-shop-fronted bar. Argentine immigration history as menu structure. Long-time top-five in Latin America.

Order: Negroni Balestrini (their riff)

São Paulo's most consistent serious cocktail bar. The cachaça program alone is worth the night. Latin America 50 fixture.

Order: Caipirinha with their selected aged cachaça

Below Bar Astor. The classical cocktail room of São Paulo. Long bar, serious bartenders, no gimmicks.

Order: Manhattan, made properly

Stefano Catino and Andrea Gualdi's Vegas-meets-Sydney room. The choreography is the show, but the drinks are technically excellent.

Order: Sammy Special (vodka, lime, prosecco)

The menu changes every day based on whatever produce arrives. Tim Philips's room is a model of seasonal cocktailing.

Order: Whatever's on today — they pour confidently

The Melbourne bar that taught Australia how to drink seriously. No reservations. The Attic upstairs is bookable for a tasting-format experience.

Order: Bartender's choice if it's busy; the Attic if you want intent

The bar at Zuma — the cocktails are as good as the sushi, which is saying something. Rashed Al-Aali's program at the bar is one of the region's best.

Order: Sake-based concoction off the seasonal menu

Sister venue to Nightjar, but with the menu organised by Old World, New World and Orient. Theatrical drinks that take their fundamentals seriously.

Order: Ortolan Sour

Nico de Soto's room inside the Galerie Vivienne. Tropical leans, technically rigorous. The mezcal-honey-coriander spec is on every visit.

Order: The London Calling (mezcal)

The cocktail bar attached to the small-plates restaurant of the same name. Old-school cocktail bartending in a room that doesn't want you to know it's serious.

Order: The 'cure for tomorrow' espresso variant