Best-of list · City Guide
The best bars in South Beach Miami — rooftop terraces, Art Deco cocktail lounges, and late-night spots that go until dawn. Our editors' complete SoBe.
The short answer
9 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
The best bars in South Beach Miami are not on Ocean Drive. That is the first and most useful thing to understand about drinking well here. The best bars south beach miami are on Collins Avenue between 14th and 20th, on Washington Avenue, and inside the hotel lobbies that have become genuine drinking destinations rather than places to wait for dinner. We have logged enough hours here to know the difference.
South Beach's bar scene divides cleanly into spots that cater to visitors on a limited schedule and spots that locals have made into genuine institutions. The second category is smaller but consistently more interesting. These are the ones in both columns we consider worth your time.
How we picked
South Beach rewards the people who look past Ocean Drive and find the bars that exist for reasons beyond footfall. The Broken Shaker and Regent Cocktail Club represent the serious end of the spectrum. Ball and Chain is the historical anchor. Nikki Beach and Do Not Sit on the Furniture are experiences only South Beach can offer. If you are dividing time between neighbourhoods, our Miami cocktail bar guide covers the full city with the same level of detail we have applied here to South Beach.
Marcus covers the West Coast and Latin America for barsforKings. He has been drinking in Miami since 2012 and knows South Beach well enough to tell you which nights are worth the effort and which ones to avoid.
Last reviewed 2026-05-25 · The editors recheck hours and closures against current local coverage.