Best-of list · Cocktail Guides
The 9 best cocktail bars in Sydney for 2026: Maybe Sammy, Bulletin Place, Eau de Vie and six more, checked and open with prices and timing. Updated 2026.
The short answer
10 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
Sydney's small bars took off after the 2008 licensing reforms, and the cocktail rooms that followed now compete with anyone. The nine below are checked and open, weighted to the CBD where most of the good ones sit. Prices, pours and timing are noted for each.
The Rocks room that took the World's 50 Best crown, open since 2019 and still the most theatrical service in town, gold jackets and all. The cocktails hold up under the showmanship, built around classics with a Riviera tilt. You pay for the spectacle, and bookings are wise. Best early in the week before the crowd thickens after 9pm.
Full listing & hours →A tight upstairs room above Circular Quay where the menu changes daily, built that morning from whatever came back from the market. There are about six drinks listed and no duds among them. Seats are limited, so the line forms early. Come for the seasonal cooking-down of fruit, not for a long list. The crew behind the bar is famously good.
Full listing & hours →Shut in 2020, back in a Beneficial House basement with private whisky lockers and a back bar that runs deep. The Speakeasy Group crew still leans on flamed, smoked and barrel-aged drinks done with care, not gimmickry. Jazz some nights. It reads expensive and it is. Book a booth, order the whisky flight, settle in for an unhurried late one.
Full listing & hours →Down a back lane and a flight of stairs off Clarence Street, the Baxter Inn keeps roughly 800 whiskies behind a ten-metre bar. Walk-in only, no bookings, seven days. The staff know the shelf cold and will steer you straight. It fills by 7pm and stays loud. Order a dram you cannot find at home and skip the cocktails.
Full listing & hours →A Cuban-leaning rum den in a Clarence Street basement, stocking more than 250 bottles back to the 1930s. The daiquiri is the tell here, so order one and judge the room by it. Tiki without the kitsch, dark and low-ceilinged. Quietest early week, packed by Friday. For rum drinkers who want range, not umbrellas.
Full listing & hours →Four floors up on Clarence Street, run by Lobo and Ramblin' Rascal alumni, with a greenhouse rooftop above the main room. The 2am license makes it a late stop when the basements close. Drinks are solid rather than showy and the crowd runs loose. Head up to the roof for a seat among the plants. Best after midnight midweek.
Full listing & hours →A standing-room agave bar wedged in a Council Place service lane, from the Tio's Cerveceria crew. No seats, no real menu, just a wall of mezcal and someone who knows it. A dozen people fills the place. Order what they pour you and drink it neat. Go early evening before the squeeze, and bring cash.
Full listing & hours →PS40 makes its own sodas in-house, so the long drinks taste like nothing else in the CBD. The cocktails are sharp and the room runs small and bright by bar standards. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 5pm. Order something built on a house soda. Good for an early start before the heavier basements fill up.
Full listing & hours →The Maybe Sammy team's high room on the 22nd floor of A by Adina, all black, gold and marble with city views and a piano going. The Time Machine menu runs fourteen mid-century-themed drinks, technically sharp and priced for the address. Smart casual, and book ahead. Go at dusk for the light, not late.
Door Knock sits in a Pitt Street basement behind a brass pineapple knocker, a CBD speakeasy that Broadsheet flags for its natural-leaning wine list and tight cocktail menu. The kitchen keeps things simple, and the room runs Monday to Saturday to midnight.
Full listing & hours →