
The 2024 World's 50 Best Bars: Complete Rankings & Analysis
An esteemed international list identifying the most outstanding bars globally, celebrated for innovation, craftsmanship, service excellence.
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Handshake Speakeasy
Mexico City, Mexico
Handshake Speakeasy places Mexico City's cocktail scene in the global conversation through technical drinks, theatrical rooms, major awards momentum. Its 2024 World's 50 Best Bars No. 1 ranking, North America's 50 Best Bars No. 1 placements in 2024 and 2025, Tales Spirited Awards 2026 Top 10 Nominee status make it a serious reference point for modern agave-led barcraft.

Jigger & Pony
Singapore, Singapore
Jigger & Pony sits in Singapore’s serious cocktail tier: a Tanjong Pagar bar with long-running Asia’s 50 Best Bars momentum, an editorial-style drinks programme built around annual “menuzines.” The draw is not speakeasy concealment; it is polished hotel-lobby confidence, classic cocktail grammar, a team comfortable turning technique into readable, social drinking.

Line
Athens, Greece
Line occupies a former art gallery in Athens' Kerameikos neighbourhood, where the team behind The Clumsies has built one of the world's most recognised bars around a circular economy model. In-house fruit wines, fermented beers, sourdough breads form the production backbone, with waste folded back into a cocktail list that ranked #6 in the World's 50 Best Bars in 2024.

Tres Monos
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tres Monos sits at #7 on the World's 50 Best Bars list (2024), yet its Palermo address, graffiti-covered walls, neon-lit interior read closer to a neighbourhood dive than a global cocktail destination. The bar's depth comes from serious local sourcing, including own-label spirits produced with Argentine grains and herbs, a social training programme that puts community at the centre of its operation.

Alquímico
Cartagena, Colombia
Ranked #8 on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2024, Alquímico occupies a 19th-century mansion in Cartagena's historic El Centro, operating across three floors with distinct atmospheres: a courtyard bar at street level, a more measured mid-floor, a full Reggaetón rooftop. Capacity reaches 1,200 people at peak, but the deeper story is the community infrastructure funded through every drink sold.

Himkok
Oslo, Norway
Behind an unassuming wooden door on Storgata, Himkok operates across several floors and formats: a draft cocktail bar, a terrace pouring local ciders, a barbershop, a ground-floor distillery bar where house-made aquavit, gin, vodka go directly from still to glass. Ranked #6 in Top 500 Bars (2025) and #11 in World's 50 Best Bars (2024), it is one of Scandinavia's most consistently recognised cocktail programmes.

The Connaught Bar
London, United Kingdom
The Connaught Bar has appeared in the World's 50 Best Bars rankings every year since 2010, reaching number one twice. Its David Collins-designed interior and technically precise cocktail programme, anchored by a signature tableside Dry Martini, set the standard by which other hotel bars in London and beyond are measured. Open Tuesday through Sunday in the heart of Mayfair.

Overstory
New York City, United States
Overstory brings New York’s high-altitude bar format into serious cocktail territory, pairing a 64th-floor perch with a spirits-led program recognized by World’s 50 Best Bars, North America’s 50 Best Bars, Top 500 Bars, the Tales Spirited Awards. The draw is not only the skyline; it is the way agave, whiskey, clarified builds, local ingredients, a deep back-bar sensibility turn a view bar into a technical drinking room.

Lady Bee
Lima, Peru
Ranked No.16 in the World's 50 Best Bars 2024 and winner of the Michter's Art of Hospitality Award 2025, Lady Bee in Barranco, Lima, is a product-driven bar programme built around Peruvian biodiversity, from Amazonian fruits to high-altitude Andean distillates. The husband-and-wife team of Alonso Palomino and Gabriela León has doubled capacity at a new venue while keeping the focus on provenance, seasonality, the farming communities behind every ingredient.

Coa
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Ranked #17 in Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025 and a three-time holder of the #1 Asia title, Coa occupies a lower-ground space on Shin Hing Street in Central with a forty-page agave spirits list and a cocktail programme that rotates a new drink every week. The food menu, developed with award-winning Mexican restaurant Chicano, grounds the experience in the culinary culture that produced the spirits on the shelf.

The Cambridge Public House
Paris, France
Founded in 2019, The Cambridge Public House in Paris's 3rd arrondissement sits at #14 in Top 500 Bars (2025) and #19 in World's 50 Best Bars (2024). It holds the world's first B Corp certification for a bar, runs a hybrid model: Guinness on tap, natural wines, precisely crafted cocktails, all within a deliberate Anglo-French framework on Rue de Poitou.

Tlecān
Mexico City, Mexico
Ranked #3 among North America's Best Bars in 2025 and #20 globally the year prior, Tlecān on Avenida Álvaro Obregón is Roma Norte's most serious agave bar. Head bartender and co-owner Eli Martínez Bello sources bacanora, sotol, pox, raicilla, mezcal directly from craft producers across Mexico, building a programme that functions as both a bar menu and an education in indigenous distillation traditions.

Caretaker's Cottage
Melbourne, Australia
Ranked #21 on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2024 and #47 in Top 500 Bars for 2025, Caretaker's Cottage occupies a converted 19th-century caretaker's residence on Little Lonsdale Street. The bar's reputation rests on two anchors: a freezer-cold signature martini made with custom-commissioned gin, what many consider Australia's definitive boilermaker pairing. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 4pm.

CoChinChina
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Ranked #22 on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2024, CoChinChina occupies a converted Palermo space where Franco-Vietnamese aesthetics meet Argentine cocktail craft. The menu moves between inventive mixed drinks and kitchen dishes rooted in the same dual cultural logic, across several distinct room formats — from pavement deckchairs to an upstairs dining room. confirms the consistency.

Martiny’s
New York City, United States
Ranked #15 in North America and #75 globally by the World's 50 Best Bars in 2025, Martiny's on East 17th Street has established itself as one of New York City's most consistently decorated bar programs. Its trajectory, from #68 globally in 2023 to #24 in 2024, signals a bar operating with real upward momentum in a competitive Manhattan field.

Bar Benfiddich
Tokyo, Japan
Bar Benfiddich belongs to Tokyo’s serious cocktail tier: a 17-seat Nishishinjuku room where farm botanicals, old bottles and historical technique shape the programme. Its repeated Asia’s Best Bars and World’s 50 Best Bars placements make it a reference point for drinkers comparing Tokyo’s precision-led bars with more improvisational, ingredient-driven counters.

Maybe Sammy
Sydney, Australia
Maybe Sammy gives Sydney's cocktail scene a rare thing: grand-hotel polish without grand-hotel stiffness. Its theatre-led drinks programme, pink-jacketed service style, repeated World's 50 Best Bars recognition place it in the city's international cocktail bracket rather than the casual bar lane.

Superbueno
New York City, United States
Superbueno on First Avenue in the East Village holds North America's #2 bar ranking from World's 50 Best (2025) and a 2025 James Beard Award for Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service. The bar runs a technically driven Mexican-American drinks program alongside a food menu built around refined cantina classics, all delivered through a hospitality approach that has made it one of New York's most-visited bars.

Nutmeg & Clove
Singapore, Singapore
Nutmeg & Clove has spent eleven years building one of Asia-Pacific's most recognised bar programs from an eight-table saloon on Purvis Street. Named in Asia's Best Bars Top 10 multiple times and ranked #24 in the 2025 edition, it turns Singapore's neighbourhood memory, kopitiam counters, mama shop shelves, itinerant ice cream carts, into formally structured cocktails that read as cultural argument as much as drink.

Satan's Whiskers
London, United Kingdom
Twelve years into its run on Cambridge Heath Road, Satan's Whiskers has settled into something East London rarely produces: a cocktail bar with no concept beyond the cocktails themselves. Ranked #22 in the Top 500 Bars (2025) and #29 in the World's 50 Best Bars (2024), it draws on a 900-strong list of classics and a live-to-order approach that keeps the drinks sharp and personal.

Licoreria Limantour
Mexico City, Mexico
Licorería Limantour helped define Mexico City’s modern cocktail culture from its Roma Norte address, with recognition across World’s 50 Best Bars, North America’s 50 Best Bars, Top 500 Bars, Pearl Recommended Bar in 2025. Expect a high-volume room with serious technical control, Mexican-rooted drinks, a playful approach to back-bar nostalgia.

Drink Kong
Rome, Italy
Drink Kong has held a position on the World's 50 Best Bars list every year since 2020, placing it in the top tier of Rome's bar scene and among Italy's most globally recognized cocktail programs. Set across multiple rooms in Celio, the bar runs nightly from 18:30 with a menu format that guides guests by sensation rather than category. A serious destination for those who treat cocktails as a discipline.

Byrdi
Melbourne, Australia
Byrdi occupies a ground-floor tenancy on La Trobe Street with a drinks programme built around Australian native ingredients and a track record that puts it among the world's most recognised bars. Ranked #35 on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2024, For Melbourne's bar scene, it represents the cleaner, more produce-led end of the spectrum.

Locale Firenze
Florence, Italy
Inside a 13th-century palace once home to a Medici-era diplomat, Locale Firenze operates at the serious end of Italian bar culture. Ranked #15 in the Top 500 Bars (2025) and #36 in the World's 50 Best Bars (2024), the programme pairs modernist technique with low-waste discipline and a kitchen-bar dialogue that sets it apart from Florence's broader cocktail scene.

Moebius Milano
Milan, Italy
A former textile warehouse in central Milan reimagined as a cocktail bar, bistro, fine-dining space, Moebius Milano ranked 38th at the World's 50 Best Bars in 2024 and 9th in the Top 500 Bars list in 2025. The drinks programme draws on culinary technique, the ground floor runs globally influenced small plates, the first-floor Moebius Sperimentale operates as a glass-enclosed Michelin-starred restaurant. It resists easy categorisation, which is precisely the point.

Bar Nouveau
Paris, France
Ranked #18 on Top 500 Bars and #39 on the World's 50 Best Bars 2024, Bar Nouveau brings the Art Nouveau movement to life across two floors at 5 Rue des Haudriettes in the Marais. A six-cocktail menu split between pre-industrial and modern techniques mirrors the bar's two-level design philosophy. No reservations are taken, so arriving at the 3pm opening is the practical strategy for securing a seat.

Mimi Kakushi
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
At the Four Seasons Dubai Jumeirah Beach, Mimi Kakushi draws its references from 1920s Osaka, pairing an era of Japanese cultural flourishing with a contemporary kitchen that applies global technique to quality-sourced ingredients. Ranked 37th at the World's 50 Best Restaurants MENA 2024, it sits at the sharper end of Dubai's Japanese dining tier, where atmosphere and culinary craft are expected to operate at the same level.

Bar Us
Bangkok, Thailand
Bar Us Bangkok belongs to the city’s newer technical cocktail tier, where menu structure, back-bar intent, Thai flavour references matter more than speakeasy theatre. Recognition includes Asia’s 50 Best Bars No.4 in 2025, World’s 50 Best Bars No.41 in 2024, Top 500 Bars rank 30, multiple Tales Spirited Awards 2026 nominations.

Virtù
Tokyo, Japan
Perched on the upper floors of the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Otemachi, Virtù has accumulated a consistent run of World's 50 Best recognition, including Asia's Best Bars positions in 2023, 2024, 2025, alongside the 2024 Michter's Art of Hospitality Award. The bar pairs skyline views across eastern Tokyo with a drinks program that maps Japanese produce onto a French spirits framework, served by a multilingual team with evident warmth.

Florería Atlantico
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Florería Atlantico is Buenos Aires drinking culture at its internationally recognised end: a cocktail bar whose programme draws on migration, Indigenous influence, Argentina’s Atlantic-facing history. Its long run on the World’s 50 Best Bars list, including #46 in 2024 and #90 in 2025, makes it a reference point for visitors comparing the city’s serious cocktail rooms.

Analogue
Singapore, Singapore
Ranked #47 on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2024 and #15 in Asia the previous year, Analogue at CHIJMES in Singapore has moved steadily up the global cocktail rankings since 2022. Set within a 19th-century Gothic chapel complex in the civic district, the bar operates in a tier of serious program bars that compete on technical depth and concept clarity rather than volume or spectacle.

El Gallo Altanero
Guadalajara, Mexico
El Gallo Altanero has ranked on the World's 50 Best Bars list every year since 2022, reaching #48 globally in 2024 and placing eighth in North America in 2025. Located in Guadalajara's Colonia Americana, it represents the leading edge of Mexico's agave-driven cocktail movement and draws serious bar travellers well beyond the city's own circuit.

Danico
Paris, France
Inside Galerie Vivienne, one of Paris's 19th-century glass-roofed arcades, Danico operates as a bar that has earned a #49 ranking on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2024. Accessed through the Italian restaurant Daroco, it runs a rotating cocktail programme drawing on global ingredients and advanced technique. The Xplorer series, now complete after five country-themed menus, has been replaced by a France-focused special edition.

1930
Milan, Italy
1930 puts Milan's cocktail culture in its high-concept, low-capacity lane: a speakeasy-format bar known for food-leaning drinks and sustained placement on major bar lists. Its programme is built around gastronomic references rather than simple retro theatre, with recent recognition including World's 50 Best Bars positions and a Top 500 Bars 2026 ranking.

The Bar in Front of the Bar
Athens, Greece
The Bar in Front of the Bar revolutionizes Athens' cocktail scene through its zero-waste philosophy and daily-changing menu, where award-winning mixologists craft innovative drinks using housemade ingredients like palo santo smoke and black garlic. This street-side luxury destination combines theatrical outdoor seating with a hidden jungle-themed speakeasy, creating an unforgettable dual experience.

Kwant
London, United Kingdom
Kwant occupies a Mayfair address dressed in hand-painted Polynesian tapa art and retro furnishings, built around a serious collection of vintage spirits and seasonal cocktails. It has held a place in the World's 50 Best Bars since 2019, peaking at number six globally in 2020. For London's vintage spirits tier, it remains one of the most credentialed addresses in the city.

Freni e Frizioni
Rome, Italy
Ranked #37 in Top 500 Bars and #58 in the World's 50 Best Bars for 2025, Freni e Frizioni has become one of Rome's most consistently recognised drinking destinations. Set in Trastevere, it draws a loyal nightly crowd from aperitivo hour through to the early morning. Its trajectory across three consecutive years in the 50 Best rankings signals a bar that has moved well past cult-local status.

The SG Club
Tokyo, Japan
Ranked #65 in the World's 50 Best Bars 2025 and a fixture on the Asia's Best Bars list since 2019, The SG Club in Shibuya operates across two distinct floors with a program rooted in Japanese ingredient logic and international technique. Located in Jinnan, a quieter pocket above the Shibuya crossing noise, it draws a consistent crowd of serious drinkers and has held a place in the global top 25 as recently as 2021.

Cat Bite Club
Singapore, Singapore
Tatler's 2025 Bar of the Year for Singapore and ranked No. 44 in Asia's 50 Best Bars, Cat Bite Club on Duxton Road operates at the intersection of agave spirits and rice-based liquors, with a programme serious enough to place it among the region's leading cocktail bars. The format is deliberately intimate, the hospitality easy, the margarita reportedly the finest in the city.

Mahaniyom Cocktail Bar
Bangkok, Thailand
Mahaniyom Cocktail Bar occupied Bangkok's top tier of cocktail recognition through 2023 and 2024, reaching #19 and #57 respectively in the World's 50 Best Bars global ranking. Positioned on the second floor of a Bang Rak address, it represents the precision-led, concept-driven school of Thai bartending that has placed Bangkok alongside Singapore and Tokyo as a credible force in Asian cocktail culture.

Argo
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Located on the ground floor of the Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong in Central, Argo has placed on the World's 50 Best Bars list every year since 2022, reaching as high as #34 globally and #3 in Asia. Named to Tatler's Best Bars Asia-Pacific 2025 list, it operates at the upper tier of Hong Kong's hotel bar circuit, where programme depth and regional recognition matter as much as the address.

Little Red Door
Paris, France
Little Red Door has held a place in the World's 50 Best Bars rankings every year since 2013, reaching as high as sixth globally. Tucked into Rue Charlot in the Haut-Marais, it functions as a serious cocktail address that has shaped how Paris thinks about bar culture, drawing a neighbourhood crowd as readily as international visitors.

The Clumsies
Athens, Greece
The Clumsies has placed in the World's 50 Best Bars every year since 2015, reaching as high as third globally in 2020. Operating from a Praxitelous Street townhouse in central Athens, it applies Greek ingredients and fermentation techniques to high-volume bar service without sacrificing precision., it functions as the clearest reference point for serious cocktail drinking in the Greek capital.

A Bar with Shapes For a Name
London, United Kingdom
Ranked #73 in the World's 50 Best Bars 2025 and sitting on Kingsland Road in the heart of east London's Dalston-to-Haggerston corridor, A Bar with Shapes For a Name has carved a distinct position in the city's cocktail conversation. Its trajectory through the global rankings since 2023 points to a program that rewards repeat attention. Bookings fill quickly; plan several weeks ahead.

Mirror Bar
Bratislava, Slovakia
Inside Bratislava's Radisson Blu Carlton Hotel, Mirror Bar has climbed from local curiosity to a fixture on the global bar circuit, ranking 46th in the Top 500 Bars (2025) and 62nd in the World's 50 Best Bars (2024). The programme, led by bar ambassadors Stanislav Harcinik and Peter Marcina, fuses classical cocktail structure with theatrical presentation and locally-made glassware, set inside a room designed around forest greens, botanical installations, a full-size handcrafted tree.

Hope & Sesame
Guangzhou, China
Ranked #7 in Asia's Best Bars 2025 and making its World's 50 Best Bars debut that same year, Hope & Sesame has operated from Guangzhou's Dongshankou district since 2016. Entry is through a concealed refrigerator door; the programme inside runs on ultrasonic infusion, rotary distillation, seasonal menus built around regional flavour and cultural narrative.

Thunderbolt
Los Angeles, United States
A technique-driven cocktail bar on West Temple Street, Thunderbolt has held a place in the World's 50 Best Bars global list four consecutive years running, most recently ranking #64 globally in 2024. The format is deliberately low-key: a neighbourhood-bar atmosphere that sits in sharp contrast to the precision of what arrives in the glass. R&D is the engine here, with original ingredients driving a program that consistently earns global recognition.

Angelita
Madrid, Spain
Angelita operates on two levels in every sense: a street-level wine bar off Gran Vía and a basement cocktail lounge that ranked #51 on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2025. The combination of serious wine programming upstairs and technically precise cocktails below has made it one of Madrid's most referenced drinking addresses, drawing.

Café La Trova
Miami, United States
Café La Trova puts Miami’s Cuban cocktail tradition at the center of the room, with cantinero technique, live Son Cubano, a bar program tied to Julio Cabrera’s long public role in rum culture. Its awards record, including a 2025 James Beard Award semifinalist nod for Outstanding Bar and repeated World’s 50 Best Bars recognition, places it in Miami’s serious cocktail conversation rather than the city’s generic nightlife lane.

Native
Singapore, Singapore
Native sits in Singapore’s serious cocktail tier, with repeat appearances on World’s 50 Best Bars, Asia’s 50 Best Bars, Top 500 Bars. Its value is not spectacle; it is a drink programme that helped make regional ingredients, technical prep, local reference points part of the city’s premium bar conversation.

Bar Pompette
Toronto, Canada
Bar Pompette gives Toronto's Little Italy a French-accented cocktail room with serious technical range beneath the café ease. Recognition from World's 50 Best Bars, North America's 50 Best Bars, Top 500 Bars and the 2026 Tales Spirited Awards places it in the city's higher cocktail tier, but the appeal is less trophy-case polish than sharp drinks, local-seasonal thinking and a room built for lingering.

Bar Cham
Seoul, South Korea
Bar Cham has climbed from #50 in Asia's Best Bars in 2020 to #6 in 2025, placing it among the most consistently recognised cocktail bars on the continent. Situated in the Jongno District neighbourhood of Bukchon, the bar frames Korean aesthetics through classically grounded technique. It opens Wednesday through Monday from 18:00 to 01:00.

Wax On
Berlin, Germany
Wax On sits on Weserstrasse in Neukölln, one of Berlin's most competitive bar corridors, has climbed to #57 on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2025 after reaching #29 in 2023. The bar pairs a technical cocktail programme with a food offer calibrated to extend the session rather than just fill the gap between drinks.

Night Hawk
Singapore, Singapore
Night Hawk on Tanjong Pagar Road draws its entire identity from Edward Hopper's 1942 painting Nighthawks, translating the original's late-night diner atmosphere into a Singapore cocktail bar that ranked #74 on the World's 50 Best Bars 2024 list and #16 in Asia. The result is one of the Tanjong Pagar strip's more conceptually coherent bar programs, built around a clear visual and thematic premise rather than trend-chasing.

Hero Bar
Nairobi, Kenya
Hero Bar sits on the ninth floor of Trademark Hotel in Nairobi's Village Market district, holding a position inside the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2023, 2024, 2025. It represents the sharpest edge of East Africa's evolving cocktail scene, placing African-sourced ingredients and technical bartending within a rooftop setting that looks out over the Kenyan capital.

SUSHISAMBA Dubai
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Occupying Level 51 of the St. Regis on The Palm Jumeirah, SUSHISAMBA Dubai merges Japanese, Brazilian, Peruvian culinary traditions at height, with sweeping views across the Arabian Gulf. Recognised by Star Wine List as a White Star venue in 2025, it sits within Dubai's high-altitude dining tier alongside a handful of restaurants that treat the view as context rather than the main event.

Bird
Copenhagen, Denmark
Bird sits on Frederiksberg's Gl. It occupies a tier of Copenhagen bars that competes internationally rather than locally, placing it alongside the city's most credentialed drinking rooms. For visitors tracking the Danish cocktail scene's rise on the global stage, it is a reference point.

L'Antiquario
Naples, Italy
L'Antiquario operates from the Chiaia district of Naples, serving as one of Italy's most decorated cocktail bars with a World's 50 Best Bars ranking of #63 in 2025 and. Open daily from 18:00 to 03:00, the bar occupies a space that blurs antique-cabinet atmosphere with serious drink-making credentials, positioning it at the upper tier of Southern Italy's bar scene.

Dante NYC
New York City, United States
Dante NYC is a West Village aperitivo address with serious bar-world credentials: The World's Best Bar in 2019 and a long run across World's 50 Best Bars and North America's Best Bars lists. Its pull is not secrecy or spectacle, but the modern New York version of an Italian café-bar, built around negronis, garibaldis, vermouths, spritzes, classic cocktails and all-day food.

Katana Kitten
New York City, United States
Katana Kitten on Hudson Street has held a place in the World's 50 Best Bars global rankings every year since 2019, reaching #10 in 2021 and maintaining a North America top-15 position through 2024. The West Village bar occupies a specific niche in New York's cocktail scene: Japanese-American technique applied with enough precision to attract a loyal repeat clientele alongside the global bar crowd. Reservations are advised, particularly on weekends.

Sin + Tax
Johannesburg, South Africa
Sin + Tax has appeared on the World's 50 Best Bars list in both 2023 and 2024, ranks #195 on the Top 500 Bars global index for 2025, placing it firmly among Johannesburg's most recognised drinking destinations. Located at the corner of Bolton and Jan Smuts Avenue, the bar draws a crowd that takes its drinks seriously without taking itself too seriously. The food programme runs alongside the cocktail list with enough intention to make the pairing worth your attention.

The Savory Project
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
On Staunton Street in Soho, The Savory Project has built one of Hong Kong's most award-laden bar programs around umami-forward cocktails that treat savoury flavour as a serious architectural principle. Named to the World's 50 Best Bars at #86 globally and #32 across Asia in 2025, a Tatler Best 20 Bars Hong Kong selection, it holds a service award that signals floor discipline matching its technical ambition.

Baltra Bar
Mexico City, Mexico
Ranked #20 in North America and #78 globally by World's 50 Best Bars in 2025, Baltra Bar in Condesa has built a consistent presence at the top of Mexico City's cocktail scene over five consecutive years of recognition. Positioned on a quiet residential street in one of the city's most walkable neighbourhoods, it draws a crowd that takes its drinking seriously without the theatrics that define some of its peers.

Attaboy NYC
New York City, United States
Attaboy NYC is a New York City cocktail bar with no printed menu, a bespoke drinking format, a long awards trail that runs through World's 50 Best Bars and Top 500 Bars. Its lineage from the former Milk & Honey space gives it rare historical weight, while the 2025 expansion changed access without abandoning the bar's tightly controlled style.

Vesper
Bangkok, Thailand
Vesper has held a place on Asia's 50 Best Bars list every year since 2016, making it one of Bangkok's most consistently recognised cocktail programmes. Located on Soi Convent in Silom, it operates in the upper tier of a city that has built a serious regional reputation for bar culture., the consensus among repeat visitors is clear.

Smoke & Bitters
Hiriketiya, Sri Lanka
Ranked #14 in Asia's Best Bars 2025 and #67 globally by World's 50 Best, Smoke & Bitters operates from an unlikely address on Sri Lanka's south coast, turning Hiriketiya's surf-village setting into one of the region's most credentialed cocktail programs. confirms the bar's hold on visitors who rarely expect to find this level of craft this far from a major city.

Rayo
Mexico City, Mexico
Rayo sits inside a Roma Norte mansion and operates at the top tier of Mexico City's bar scene, ranking #5 in North America and #87 globally on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2024. The programme draws on the Aztec mythology of Mayáhuel, channelling it into technically precise cocktails built entirely from Mexican-made spirits and ingredients. A rooftop laboratory format and confirm its position among CDMX's most consistently recognised bars.

Pacific Cocktail Haven
San Francisco, United States
Pacific Cocktail Haven sits in San Francisco’s serious cocktail tier, with Kevin Diedrich’s 2026 James Beard win for Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service giving the bar national weight. The room near Union Square pairs a long wooden bar, red banquettes, palm-frond accents and a front-facing courtyard with a multi-page cocktail list shaped by Asian Pacific ingredients, highballs, tropical drinks and large-format punches.

Zapote Bar
Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Ranked #11 in North America's Best Bars for three consecutive years (2022 to 2024) and holding, Zapote Bar is one of the most consistently recognised cocktail programs on the Riviera Maya. The bar draws on Mexican botanical and agricultural traditions to build a drinks program that sits well outside the resort-corridor norm, making it a reference point for serious bar culture in the Yucatán Peninsula.

Camparino in Galleria
Milan, Italy
Positioned at the base of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II since 1867, Camparino in Galleria occupies a category of its own in Milan's aperitivo culture. Ranked 27th on the World's 50 Best Bars in 2021 and holding a place in the top 100 through 2024, it earns that recognition not through novelty but through institutional authority. This is where Campari-based drinking tradition lives in its original setting.

Hanky Panky
Mexico City, Mexico
Hanky Panky belongs to Mexico City's serious cocktail tier: a speakeasy-format bar with repeated 50 Best recognition, including No. 35 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2025 and No. 62 on Top 500 Bars 2026. Its identity sits between international cocktail technique and Mexican ingredient culture, making it useful for travelers comparing the city's bar scene beyond restaurant-led nightlife.

Red Frog
Lisbon, Portugal
Red Frog has held a place in the World's 50 Best Bars rankings three years running, placing it among Lisbon's most internationally recognised cocktail destinations. Located on Praça da Alegria, the bar operates in the technical, programme-led tier of the city's drinking scene.

Nouvelle Vague
Tirana, Albania
Ranked #39 in the Top 500 Bars (2025) and #86 in the World's 50 Best Bars (2023), Nouvelle Vague has placed Tirana on the global cocktail map through a programme built around native Albanian ingredients and local spirits, particularly raki. The current menu, Origin'al, draws on forgotten culinary traditions and collaborations with small producers across Albania, translating heritage into technically precise, story-driven serves.

Cantina OK
Sydney, Australia
Cantina OK occupies a sliver of space on Council Place in Sydney's CBD, operating as one of the city's smallest bars with a program built around mezcal and Margaritas. Named to the Tatler Best Bars Asia-Pacific 2025 list, it draws a specific kind of drinker: one who cares about what's in the glass more than how many square metres surround them. The address is easy to miss; the drinks are not.

Employees Only NYC
New York City, United States
<strong>Employees Only NYC</strong> remains a defining West <strong>Village cocktail</strong> room because it treats classic drinking as theatre without letting the room swallow the drinks. Its long run on the World's <strong>50 Best Bars</strong> list, including #95 globally and #18 in <strong>North America</strong> for 2025, places it in a rare category: a 2004-era <strong>New York</strong> bar that continues to compete with younger technical programs.

Viajante87
London, United Kingdom
Beneath Notting Hill Gate, Viajante87 is one of London's most decorated agave-focused bars, ranked #99 on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2024 and #170 on the Top 500 Bars list in 2025. The subterranean room channels Latin American energy through its spirits programme and atmosphere in equal measure, making it a serious destination on the city's cocktail circuit.
Overview
The 2024 World's 50 Best Bars is an annual ranking that featured 100 venues across 45 cities and 31 countries. Mexico City's Handshake Speakeasy claimed the number one position, replacing Bangkok's Capella Bangkok. The list underwent a complete reset this edition, with all 100 entries being new additions and the entire previous top 50 dropping out.
This edition marked a notable shift in the ranking's methodology or scope, with zero venues retained from the previous year. Handshake Speakeasy led the top 10, followed by Bar Leone in Hong Kong and Sips in Barcelona. The geographic spread remained broad, covering 31 countries total. Barcelona and Hong Kong both placed multiple bars in the top 10, while Latin America showed strong representation with entries from Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Cartagena in the upper ranks. Seoul and Athens also cracked the top 10, demonstrating the list's continued global reach beyond traditional cocktail capitals.
The 2024 World's 50 Best Bars underwent a complete transformation, with all 100 ranked venues being new to the list. Handshake Speakeasy in Mexico City took the top spot, displacing Bangkok's Capella Bangkok from the previous edition. The list expanded its view across 45 cities and 31 countries, with notable concentrations in Barcelona (Sips at #3, Paradiso at #10), Hong Kong, and Latin American cities. The complete turnover of venues makes this edition particularly difficult to compare historically, but it signals either a major methodology change or a decisive break from previous years' selections.
Quick Facts
- Total Venues
- 100
- Countries Represented
- 31
- Cities Represented
- 45
- #1 Bar
- Handshake Speakeasy (Mexico City)
- New Entrants
- 100
- Retained from Previous Year
- 0
- Previous #1
- Capella Bangkok
About This Edition
This edition's complete roster replacement—100 new entrants, 50 dropouts from the previous top tier—represents the most dramatic year-over-year change in the ranking's visible history. Handshake Speakeasy's ascent to number one brought Mexico City back into the spotlight, while Bar Leone gave Hong Kong the #2 position. The top 10 spread across nine different cities on four continents, with only Barcelona managing multiple placements.
London's Tayēr + Elementary landed at #4, Singapore's Jigger & Pony at #5, and Athens' Line at #6, showing that established cocktail cities still command attention despite the wholesale list refresh. South America's presence in the upper ranks—Tres Monos in Buenos Aires (#7) and Alquímico in Cartagena (#8)—continued the region's growing influence in global bar culture. Seoul's Zest rounded out the top 10 at #9.
The 100-venue format (double the list's nominal "50 Best" designation) maintained the expanded scope from recent years, offering recognition across 31 countries. Whether the complete turnover reflects judging panel changes, shifted criteria, or genuine market disruption isn't clear from the rankings alone, but it makes historical comparisons nearly impossible and suggests travelers should treat this as essentially a new benchmark rather than an evolution of previous editions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What bar ranked #1 in the 2024 World's 50 Best Bars?
How many venues from the previous year's list were retained?
Which cities had multiple bars in the top 10?
How many countries are represented in the 2024 list?
How many of these have you visited?
Find out on Pearl and keep score across every place in 2024 World's 50 Best Bars.

