Best-of list · Cocktail Guides
The best cocktail bars in Hong Kong for 2026, from Coa and The Old Man to Quinary, DarkSide and Penicillin. Central and Soho's technical references.
The short answer
10 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
Hong Kong has held a place on Asia's 50 Best Bars list for over a decade. The Old Man took World's Best Bar in 2019, and Coa has since carried agave knowledge across the region. The nine below are the technical references, nearly all within a short walk of each other in Central, Soho and Sheung Wan.
The Old Man, named for Hemingway and long near the top of Asia's 50 Best, hides up a Soho side street with a menu of literary-themed drinks. The room is small and booking is essential most nights. The cocktails are inventive and built around clever spirit blends. Around 140 Hong Kong dollars each. Go early in the week for a hope of walking in, and trust the menu.
Full listing & hours →Coa is Jay Khan's agave temple in Central, repeatedly ranked the best bar in Asia, with one of the region's deepest tequila and mezcal lists. The room is tiny and the queue is real, so come at opening or be ready to wait. The drinks are precise and built to show off agave. Around 150 Hong Kong dollars. Go for the mezcal and let Khan's team guide the order.
Full listing & hours →Quinary is Antonio Lai's Hollywood Road flagship, the bar that put multisensory cocktails on the Hong Kong map with its Earl Grey Caviar Martini. That signature is still the order. The room is slick and busy and the drinks lean theatrical without losing the plot. Around 150 Hong Kong dollars. Go midweek for a seat at the bar, and start with the Martini that made the name.
Full listing & hours →Angel's Share, up on Hollywood Road since 2010, is the whisky drinker's pick in Central, with over 120 bottles weighted toward Scotch and Japanese single malts. The room is small, wood-lined and calm, more library than party. Pours range widely with the rarity. Go for a dram and a conversation, ask the staff to steer you by region, and skip it if you came to be loud.
Full listing & hours →Foxglove plays the speakeasy game behind a fake umbrella-shop front in Central, opening into a 1950s-styled room with live jazz most nights. The drinks are classic and competent and the band is half the reason to go. Around 140 Hong Kong dollars. It suits a smarter night out. Go for the music and a Manhattan, book if you want a booth, and dress like you mean it.
Full listing & hours →Dr. Fern's hides behind a doctor's-office door in the Landmark basement, a gin specialist with the bottles to back the gag. The list is long, the staff prescribe by your taste and the tonics are taken seriously. Around 140 Hong Kong dollars. It is a fun, polished spot rather than a dive. Go for a proper gin and tonic done right, and let them pick the botanicals.
Full listing & hours →The Pontiac is Central's loud, unapologetic dive, ten years deep and run by an all-female bar team with rock on the speakers and strong drinks on the counter. It is the antidote to Hong Kong's polished cocktail rooms. Around 120 Hong Kong dollars. Expect it packed and rowdy late. Go when you want shots and sing-alongs and no pretense, not a quiet, contemplative martini.
Full listing & hours →DarkSide sits on the second floor of Rosewood in Tsim Sha Tsui, a plush, dark-spirits room with live jazz and harbour views. It leans into whisky, rum and aged cognac, with a 2026 menu built on a yin-and-yang theme. Hotel prices apply, north of 160 Hong Kong dollars. Go for a smart night with a view, take a window seat early and let the band carry the evening.
Full listing & hours →Penicillin in Central built its name on sustainability, a closed-loop bar that ferments, distills and reuses in-house, and it ranks high on Asia's 50 Best for it. The drinks are inventive and properly low-waste, not just badged that way. Around 150 Hong Kong dollars. Go for the clever end of the menu and ask how each drink is built. The thinking bar in a city full of them.
Full listing & hours →Bar de Luxe carries the Ginza tradition to Central, opened by Bar High Five founder Hidetsugu Ueno. The bar moved to a roomier seventh-floor space at H Code on Pottinger Street, and the precision over the ice and the stirred classics is the point. Take a counter seat early in the night.
Full listing & hours →Beyond the 10
Madame Fù fills a floor of the old police HQ at Tai Kwun, where the Fù Bar pours signature cocktails and global gin and tonics in a grand Cantonese room.
Mostaccioli Brothers hides a rustic Italian-American bar down a Soho staircase, where the Mos Bros Bar pours casual drinks beside an open Italian kitchen.
Zuma's lounge and bar sits above its Landmark dining room in Central Hong Kong, a spiral-staircase room of cocktails on tap, live DJs and a sake-led list.