Best-of list · After Work Bars
The 8 best after work bars in Milan, from the Negroni Sbagliato at Bar Basso to a rooftop pool bar. Where to take aperitivo and what to order in each.
The short answer
8 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
The 8 best after work bars in Milan are the rooms that invented the aperitivo and the ones that pushed it forward. We read each for the early evening: the house drink, the snack that lands with it and the seat to claim before the office crowd arrives. From the bar that built the Negroni Sbagliato to a rooftop pool above Porta Garibaldi, these are the Milan aperitivo stops our editors send you to first.
Four rooms set the standard for the Milan after work hour, from a 1915 Campari bar to a designer rooftop.
How we picked
For the definitive Milan after work drink, Bar Basso pairs the city's most important cocktail with a room that has not changed in decades. Camparino carries the history, Nottingham Forest pushes the form, and Ceresio 7 wins the rooftop. Start at Bar Basso with a Sbagliato and let the evening drift toward the canals.
Priya Nair is barsforKings' senior cocktail editor and a former Punch contributor. She reads a bar by its menu first: how the list is built, the house spirits, and the one drink worth ordering.
Last reviewed 2026-02-25 · The editors recheck hours and closures against current local coverage.