Hong Kong has become one of the great drinking cities. In 2025 a small Italian-inspired bar on a Central back street was named the best in the world, the first time an Asian bar has taken the top spot, and it was not a fluke: the city now places multiple bars on the global and regional lists every year, across agave, zero-waste, hotel classics and jazz.
This guide runs from those world-ranked cocktail rooms to the rooftops with the harbour view, plus the craft beer, whisky, natural wine and dive bars that locals actually drink in week to week. Rankings are noted with their year, because they change annually. For somewhere to eat first, browse restaurants in Hong Kong.
The world-ranked cocktail bars
Hong Kong’s cocktail scene is concentrated in a few steep streets in Central and SoHo, which makes bar-hopping unusually easy. Several of these take no reservations at all.
Bar Leone
Named the best bar in the world at the 2025 World’s 50 Best Bars, and the first bar in Asia ever to take the title. The philosophy is cocktails for the people rather than for competitions: unfussy, generous drinks served fast, a Filthy Martini with smoked olive brine, and mortadella focaccia to go with it. Walk-ins only, and the queue has not got shorter since the award.
Address: 11 to 15 Bridges Street, Central | Nearest MTR: Sheung Wan, Exit A2 | Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, from 5pm until late; closed Monday | Typical spend: cocktails around HK$100 to 150
Good to know: No reservations. Go early evening or on a weeknight, and expect to wait at weekends.
COA
The agave bar that did more than any other to put Hong Kong on the world drinking map, with a mezcal and tequila list running to dozens of pages and a bartender who knows the producers personally. It placed 38th in the 2025 World’s 50 Best Bars and 17th in Asia, having been Asia’s number one three years running earlier in the decade.
Address: G/F, Wah Shin House, 6 to 10 Shin Hing Street, Central | Nearest MTR: Sheung Wan, Exit A2 | Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 6pm to 1am; closed Monday | Typical spend: cocktails around HK$130 to 180
Good to know: Ask for a flight if you want to understand mezcal rather than simply drink it.
Argo
The Four Seasons bar, built around ingredients threatened by climate change and served with proper hotel polish. Drinks tend towards the single-element and precise, and it placed 11th in Asia’s 50 Best Bars in 2025. Walk-ins only.
Address: Lobby level, Four Seasons Hotel, 8 Finance Street, Central | Nearest MTR: Hong Kong Station | Hours: from 5pm, closed Sunday | Typical spend: cocktails from around HK$180 plus service
Good to know: The most comfortable room on this list, and a good one for a conversation rather than a crush.
Penicillin
Hong Kong’s original closed-loop bar, built on zero-waste principles with house ferments, upcycled ingredients and tabletops made from typhoon-felled trees. It is a genuinely different drinking experience and placed 27th in Asia’s 50 Best Bars in 2025.
Address: L/G, Amber Lodge, 23 Hollywood Road, Central | Nearest MTR: Central, Exit C | Hours: Monday to Saturday, 5pm to 2am; Sunday hours vary | Typical spend: cocktails around HK$125 to 150
Good to know: Ask what they are fermenting; the staff are happy to explain the whole system.
Quinary
The bar that introduced Hong Kong to multi-sensory mixology more than a decade ago, and still working with foams, airs and textures that other bars have never attempted. The Earl Grey caviar martini is the signature. It appeared on the extended Asia’s 50 Best Bars list in 2025.
Address: 56 to 58 Hollywood Road, Central | Nearest MTR: Central, Exit D2 | Hours: daily from 5pm until late | Typical spend: cocktails around HK$140 to 180
Good to know: Order the Earl Grey caviar martini once, at least, for the theatre of it.
The Old Man
A Hemingway-themed bar down a steep stairwell in SoHo, built around a communal counter and a drinks list named for his novels. It spent years near the top of the regional rankings and remains one of the most consistently interesting menus in the city, though it does not appear on the current list.
Address: LG/F, 37 Aberdeen Street, SoHo, Central | Nearest MTR: Sheung Wan, Exit A2 | Hours: daily from 5pm; later Thursday to Saturday | Typical spend: cocktails around HK$120 to 150
Good to know: Sit at the counter and let the bartenders steer you through the list.
Darkside
The Rosewood’s jazz lounge is the grandest drinking room in Kowloon, with live music nightly, rare aged spirits and a serious cigar list. It has been recognised on the regional lists in past years and remains the best-dressed bar on that side of the harbour.
Address: Level 2, Rosewood Hong Kong, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui | Nearest MTR: Tsim Sha Tsui | Hours: daily from 5pm until late | Typical spend: cocktails around HK$180 plus service
Good to know: Go for the live music, which starts in the evening and runs late.
Rooftops and views
Ozone
On the 118th floor of the ICC, this is among the highest bars in the world and the view does most of the work. Drinks are expensive and the terrace carries a minimum spend, but on a clear night looking down on the whole harbour it is hard to argue with.
Address: Level 118, The Ritz-Carlton, 1 Austin Road West, West Kowloon | Nearest MTR: Kowloon Station | Hours: daily, from afternoon until late | Typical spend: cocktails around HK$150 to 220; terrace minimum spend applies
Good to know: Book ahead for a terrace table, and check the minimum spend before you sit outside.
Aqua Spirit
A terrace bar high above Tsim Sha Tsui with an unobstructed view straight across the water to the island skyline, which makes it the best-placed spot on the Kowloon side for the nightly light show. More relaxed and less expensive than Ozone.
Address: 17/F, H Zentre, 15 Middle Road, Tsim Sha Tsui | Nearest MTR: Tsim Sha Tsui, Exit K | Hours: daily from 4pm until late | Typical spend: cocktails around HK$100 to 150
Good to know: Arrive before 8pm and you can watch the harbour light show from your table.
Beer, whisky, wine and a dive bar
Not every night calls for a twenty-ingredient cocktail. These are the specialists locals return to.
Second Draft
The gastropub from Young Master Brewery, with more than twenty taps covering their own beers, other Hong Kong brewers and international imports, plus food designed to go with it. The best introduction to Hong Kong’s craft beer scene in one sitting.
Address: Shop H01, G/F, 9 Kingston Street, Fashion Walk, Causeway Bay | Nearest MTR: Causeway Bay, Exit E | Hours: daily from midday or mid-afternoon until midnight | Typical spend: pints around HK$65 to 100
Good to know: Order a flight to work through the local brewers before committing to a pint.
Whisky & Words
A book-lined whisky den off a Central side street with a collection running past four hundred bottles, from approachable everyday pours to rare closed-distillery releases. Knowledgeable, unstuffy and happy to guide you.
Address: G/F, 7 Shin Hing Street, Central | Nearest MTR: Sheung Wan, Exit A2 | Hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 5pm; closed Monday | Typical spend: pours from around HK$80 upwards
Good to know: There is a happy hour earlier in the evening that makes the good bottles considerably cheaper.
La Cabane
Hong Kong’s best-known natural wine address, a rustic bistro-bar with several hundred low-intervention, organic and biodynamic bottles and proper French charcuterie to go with them. Warm, informal and genuinely expert.
Address: G/F, 62 Hollywood Road, Central | Nearest MTR: Central, via the Mid-Levels Escalator | Hours: Monday to Saturday from afternoon until late; closed Sunday | Typical spend: glasses from around HK$60 at happy hour
Good to know: Ask them to pour you something you have never heard of; that is the point of the place.
Tai Lung Fung
A nostalgic neon-lit dive just off the Wan Chai strip, decorated like a 1960s Hong Kong film set with vintage posters and warm light. Cheap, unpretentious and a complete change of pace from the cocktail rooms across the harbour.
Address: G/F, 5 Hing Wan Street, Wan Chai | Nearest MTR: Wan Chai, Exit A3 | Hours: daily, from late afternoon until late | Typical spend: drinks around HK$80 to 120
Good to know: The most photogenic bar interior in Wan Chai, and far cheaper than it looks.
The nightlife districts
Two areas are worth knowing as districts rather than single addresses. Lan Kwai Fong, the tight grid of streets around D’Aguilar Street in Central, is the original nightlife cluster: mainstream bars, clubs and pavement drinking, loudest from Thursday to Saturday and completely overrun at Halloween. It is not where the serious drinks are, but it is an experience, and it sits a few minutes downhill from most of the bars on this list.
Wan Chai, centred on Lockhart Road, is grittier and more mixed, running from old dive bars through to smart cocktail rooms and live music pubs. Both are best treated as starting points: have one drink there, then walk to somewhere better.
Good to know
A few practical notes for a night out:
- Several of the best take no bookings. Bar Leone, Argo and Penicillin are walk-in only, so go early or expect to queue.
- Service charge: most bars add ten per cent on top of the menu price.
- Happy hour is generous and often runs to eight or nine in the evening, particularly for wine and whisky.
- It is all walkable. Most of the ranked bars sit within fifteen minutes of each other in Central and SoHo, largely along the Mid-Levels Escalator.
- Rankings change every year, with the Asia list announced in July and the world list in October.
- Last trains run around midnight, so plan a taxi if you are staying out.
Hong Kong’s drinking scene rewards walking a few streets uphill from the obvious places. For somewhere to eat before or after, browse the best restaurants in Hong Kong, or plan the rest of the day with our guide to things to do in Hong Kong.
The city also has excellent independent coffee shops for the morning after. If you run a bar, list it on advertise.hk so drinkers can find you. Opening hours and rankings change, so check the latest before a special trip.
