The category
95 bars across 8 categories and 7 districts. Reviewed by our local correspondents.
The French Concession quartet — Sober Company, Speak Low, The Odd Couple, Sanlibang — is enough to fill a four-day drinking trip on its own. The Bund has the skyline rooms: Bar Rouge, Flair, the Peninsula's Compass. Jing'an has the next wave of speakeasies, including a few unmarked-door rooms that take five minutes to find. Xintiandi and Xuhui hold the newer rooms, where the younger bartenders are doing more with Chinese ingredients — Sichuan pepper, baijiu, jasmine, tea.
Bars usually run 6pm to 2am, peaking around midnight. Cocktail prices are roughly Hong Kong levels but the quality gap is widening in Shanghai's favour. Our correspondents work out of the French Concession. The 95 best are ranked below.
Independent editorial — 3,600+ bars across 72 cities, rigorously tested.