Best-of list · Deep Dive
When money is no object: the world's best expensive bars where the price matches the experience. Our editors pick the bars worth the splurge across.
The short answer
8 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
There are expensive bars that charge you for the postcode and deliver nothing worth remembering. Then there are the best expensive bars in the world — places where the price is high because every element, from the ice programme to the glassware to the bartender's knowledge of obscure amari, has been taken seriously. We have spent years separating the two. These are the bars that passed the test: the ones where the bill arrived and we didn't wince.
New York has more than its share of overpriced hotel bars where you're paying for square footage. The bars below are different. Each justifies its prices with craft, product quality and service that holds up against anything in the world.
How we picked
The bars on this list share a common trait: they have all made a choice to invest in something specific — a bartender's technical development, a rare spirits programme, a concept that genuinely guides the menu — rather than investing primarily in interior design and ambient lighting. The result is that every drink justifies its price in a way that hotel bar cocktails in high-traffic tourist zones rarely do.
If you're going to spend serious money on a bar, spend it at a place that has earned the right to charge serious money. Every bar on this list has. Book ahead for Connaught, Attaboy and Bar High Five. Walk in for Little Red Door and Jigger and Pony on a Tuesday.
Sofia covers the European and global bar scene for barsforKings. She has visited over 200 bars on three continents in the past eighteen months and has strong opinions about which cities are doing the most interesting work right now.
Last reviewed 2025-12-21 · The editors recheck hours and closures against current local coverage.