480 hand-picked cocktail bars across 60 cities. Ranked by our editors, updated every week.
A great cocktail bar masters the fundamentals of balance, technique, and hospitality. The best bartenders understand spirits, ingredients, and flavor theory at a molecular level. They remember your name, your preferences, and what you ordered last time.
Our editors visit bars globally, tasting hundreds of cocktails and evaluating every aspect from sourcing to service. We look for bartenders who respect classics, innovate responsibly, and create experiences that linger long after the last sip. Austin has emerged as one of America's strongest cocktail cities over the past decade — the Austin cocktail bar guide covers 14 bars from Midnight Cowboy's speakeasy on Sixth Street to the mezcal programme at Whisler's on East 6th.
Nashville surprises even seasoned drinkers. The city has moved far beyond Broadway honky-tonks. The Nashville cocktail bar guide includes The Patterson House, one of the most technically rigorous no-menu bars in the American South, alongside 13 other venues where whiskey flights and botanical cocktails have quietly replaced the boot-scootin stereotype.
Portland has built one of America's most credible cocktail cultures in the past decade. Deadshot, Pepe le Moko, and Clyde Common routinely appear on national best-of lists, but the city rewards deeper exploration. Our Portland cocktail bar guide covers 15 venues, from the subterranean glamour of basement bars to the 1,500-bottle whiskey selection at Multnomah Whiskey Library.
San Diego has been quietly building one of the West Coast's strongest cocktail identities. The city's best bars draw on Baja California's agave culture, Pacific Rim citrus ingredients, and a craft spirits scene that has expanded rapidly since 2018. Raised by Wolves in UTC La Jolla is the flagship — a subterranean concept hidden behind a bookcase, serving technically precise drinks in a space that feels like a set designer's love letter to the 1970s. The full San Diego cocktail bar guide covers 12 venues across Little Italy, North Park, the Gaslamp Quarter, and beyond.
Vienna has one of Europe's most historically significant cocktail bar cultures. The Loos American Bar, designed by Adolf Loos in 1908, is one of the great small rooms in the world — 35 square meters of onyx and mahogany where a Dry Martini costs what it should and takes as long as it takes. Around it, a generation of Viennese bartenders has built an exceptional modern cocktail scene in the city's Innere Stadt and Neubau districts. The Vienna cocktail bar guide covers 13 venues, from the Loos Bar to inventive Neubau cocktail rooms that operate without a printed menu.
Stockholm has quietly become Scandinavia's cocktail capital. Tjoget in Södermalm is the city's flagship and earns a place on any serious European best-of list, operating a fully seasonal menu from a converted building on Hornsbruksgatan. Pharmarium in Gamla Stan brings apothecary-era theatrics to its Nordic botanical cocktails without sacrificing technique. The city's bar community is tight-knit, serious, and underrated compared to London and New York. Our Stockholm cocktail bar guide covers 14 venues across Södermalm, Gamla Stan, and Östermalm.
Milan is the cocktail capital of Italy and one of Europe's most underrated bar cities. The Campari story starts here — the aperitivo is not a trend in Milan, it is infrastructure. Bar Basso in Porta Venezia invented the Negroni Sbagliato in 1968 and the original formula has not changed. Nottingham Forest in Brera is the benchmark for inventive technique, running a full molecular programme alongside the classics. The Milan cocktail bar guide covers 14 venues from the design-district terraces of Tortona to the canal-side aperitivo bars of Navigli.
480 cocktail bars across 60 cities worldwide
The best cocktail bars we've found, ranked globally by our editors
No menu, all improvised cocktails tailored to what you feel like. The bartenders here work entirely off conversation. Tell them your spirit preference, flavor mood, and intensity level, and they build something perfect for that moment. It feels like magic every single time.
Three floors of Irish American bar history with award-winning drinks. The ground floor is a working saloon with casual energy. Head upstairs to a formal cocktail parlor where every classic receives the respect it deserves. The menu reads like a living textbook.
Italian aperitivo perfected in a tiny Soho gem. The focus here is speed and precision. Drinks arrive in minutes without cutting any corners. The formula is simple: one person at the bar, Italian spirits, and bartenders who know exactly what they are doing.
Seasonal ingredient-led menus that change with what the market offers. They work directly with producers. Every drink uses the best of what is in season right now. Consistency meets creativity in a way few bars achieve.
World's best bar 2022, concealed behind a paella restaurant. Enter through an unmarked door and descend into a bar unlike anywhere else. The drinks are brilliant. The hospitality is flawless. The atmosphere rewards the effort it takes to find it.
A 1920s speakeasy vibe with psychic readings and precise classics. Hidden behind an unmarked storefront with just the letters EO and a light. The interior feels authentically old. The cocktails are textbook perfect versions of the drinks that made history.
Where Australia's bartending craft came of age. This place elevated the bar literally and figuratively. The cocktails are technically excellent. The staff treats bartending as an art form. It remains the standard that others measure themselves against.
Rooftop classic cocktails with a Prohibition-era design sensibility. The views are stunning. The cocktails are classics executed flawlessly. The pace feels both relaxed and professional. This is rooftop drinking done right.
The most famous literary hotel bar in the world, still serving perfectly. The Ritz Hotel location carries history. The bartenders have trained for decades. They make classics with the kind of precision that makes every drink feel important.
Old-school European cocktail bar doing it right since 1982. Charles Schumann pioneered the modern cocktail movement. His bar remains a temple to precision and tradition. The cocktails taste like they always have: perfect.
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