Hong Kong’s Bar Leone is the world’s best bar again. Here’s every Asian venue on The World’s 50 Best Bars 2026 and why each deserves your bar tab.
There are bars in every city where innovation is like a second language and where heritage is as valued as integrity. While we might not be visiting such a bar more than most, we do reserve such shrines to the spirit for occasions when we want to make a mark, celebrate a milestone or simply need a drink made with the precision of a Japanese heart surgeon. And once agaion, Asia has more than
Hong Kong Keeps the Crown
For the second year running, the best drink on the planet is poured in Central — and odds are it’s a classic. Bar Leone was just named The World’s Best Bar at The 50 Best Bars 2026, building on its recent Best Bar in Asia title.
That’s a quietly radical result. Lorenzo Antinori’s bar doesn’t do smoke domes or centrifuged anything. Its creed is Cocktail Popolari — cocktails for the people — which in practice means immaculate classics, football memorabilia on the walls and a mortadella sandwich at your elbow. In an industry hooked on theatre, the world’s top vote went to hospitality.
Asia’s showing runs deep. Thirteen of the 50 bars sit in the region, with Hong Kong tying with old school hotspots Paris and New York as the most-represented city, with four bars each, with Bangkok, with three bars including No.4, closing fast. We take a closer look at where they are, what they pour, and how to get a seat.
The 2026 List in Numbers
Asia holds 13 of the 50 spots, behind Europe (18) and the Americas (17), but with three bars in the top ten: Bar Leone (No.1), Bar Us (No.4) and Zest (No.7). The top 50 bars can be found in 26 cities around the world, with the 2026 list including 14 new entries, with some exciting spots in Asia, including Dry Wave Cocktail Studio (No.27), Montana (No.36) and Gokan (No.41). It’s interesting to note that Lorenzo Antinori has a hand in three of Hong Kong’s four entries; he founded Bar Leone, co-founded Montana, and shaped the programme at Argo (above) before that.
Asia’s honours weren’t limited to the top spots. Bartender Shingo Gokan also took the Roku Industry Icon Award, the night’s lifetime nod.
Hong Kong’s Time to Shine
The Fragrant Harbour has long been a centre for cocktail innovation but a new series of bars has put the city on the international map like never before.
No.1 — Bar Leone, Central
A Roman neighbourhood bar, transplanted from Trastevere to Central and somehow improved by the journey, Bar Leone is a place of wood finishes, football memorabilia, and classics with an Italian accent — no gimmicks, just drinks made properly by people who remember your name. It debuted at No.1 in Asia in 2024, became the first Asian bar to top the world list in 2025, and has now done it twice. Order a drink, then the smoked olives.
No.25 — Argo, Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong
Back on the list, and a reminder that a hotel bar can drink like an independent, Argo is where Lorenzo Antinori made his Hong Kong name before Leone, and it opened with a menu built around ingredients threatened by climate change — a serious idea served without sanctimony. It’s the most polished room on this list, and the one you can most easily slip into after a harbour-view dinner.
No.36 — Montana, Soho (New Entry)
Antinori again, this time with Simone Caporale of Barcelona’s Sips (No.16). Montana (above) takes its name from a forgotten recipe in the manual of Cuba’s Club de Cantineros and its mood from 1970s Miami, so expect Latin funk, a street-level bar and a mezzanine over a roughly 50-cover room. Order the Rum & Coke Sour, which rebuilds the Cuba Libre with amaro, ginger falernum and cola syrup. Alternatively, try the El Presidente, which is aged in a bottle coated with dulce de leche and which is best enjoyed from the mezzanine, from where you have a bird’s eye view of the bartenders working their magic.
No.41 — Gokan, Ice House Street, Central (New Entry)
Shingo Gokan’s first Hong Kong bar, Gokan, sits on Ice House Street, in a building that once stored ice shipped from America. Gokan means “five senses”, and the menu runs across five flavour profiles — the Sichuan-spiced Mapo Mary is the best conversation starter. Bar bites by Zaiyu Hasegawa of Tokyo’s Den are the perfect match.
Bangkok: Closing the Gap
Thailand’s own City of Angels is also a leading force in Asia’s cocktail scene, one where a world-class dining scene is increasingly incorporated into the flavour profiles at the metropolis’s best watering holes.
No.4 — Bar Us, Sukhumvit Soi 26
Up from No.15 last year, and the most daring room in Asia’s top five, Bar Us’s founders Taln Rojanavanich and Aum Sawaengsupt came from design, and it shows in the venue’s almost all-black space, spotlights on every glass, and bartenders in white lab coats. The menu runs like a tasting menu — Starters, Mains, Afters — with savoury Mains built on flavours like pad Thai, satay and black rice.
No.27 — Dry Wave Cocktail Studio, Thonglor (New Entry)
Supawit “Palm” Muttarattana spent two decades behind Bangkok’s best bars, including Vesper, before opening Dry Wave (below), a wood-toned studio with his wife, Niwarin “Ae” Phlainoi, in 2024. The Super Classic menu fuses two classics into one drink: a Paper Plane meets an Aviation in Fly, Fly Away. but our pick is the Morning Tijuana, a mezcal Martini and a Breakfast Martini fused into one glass.
No.30 — BKK Social Club, Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok
The riverside heavyweight. BKK Social Club sits inside the Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok at Chao Phraya River and was named Hotel Bar of the Year at Thailand’s own bar awards this year. It’s the city’s grown-up option: polished service, a room built for lingering, and the right place to end a night that started somewhere louder in Sukhumvit.
Seoul, Guangzhou, Singapore & Tokyo
Not to be left behind with their cocktail glass in their hand, many other Asian cities have made their mark on the top 50 list. Here’s the ones to take note of.
No.7 — Zest, Seoul
The name is “zero” plus “waste”, and the four founders mean it. Zest (above) sits in Cheongdam with a big street-level window — rare in a city of speakeasies — and the only bottles on show are its own gins, distilled from Korean produce. Soju, makgeolli and far more obscure Korean brews find their way into drinks. At Zest, order the Jeju Garibaldi, then ask where the rest of the hallabong orange went — the peel is infused into the house gin, and the pulp turns up fermented in the bar’s Pulp Sauerkraut.
No.12 — Hope & Sesame, Guangzhou
Mainland China’s sole entry this year, and a strong one at No.12, Hope & Sesame has long been the bar that put Guangzhou on the international drinks map, and its place just outside the top ten proves the city deserves a detour, not merely a layover.
No.18 — Jigger & Pony, Singapore
Singapore’s most consistent high-ranker, set in the Amara Hotel on Tanjong Pagar Road, Jigger & Pony is classics-first and service-obsessed, a bar that makes a perfectly built Martini feel like an event without ever saying so.
No.38 — Nutmeg & Clove, Singapore
The more local of Singapore’s two entries, Nutmeg & Clove (above) looks to the island’s spice-trade history and Southeast Asian larder for its menus. It’s the bar to take a visitor who thinks Singapore begins and ends with the Sling.
No.44 — Bar Benfiddich, Tokyo
Hiroyasu Kayama’s small Nishi-Shinjuku room, Bar Benfiddich is the closest thing the list has to an apothecary. Many botanicals come from his family’s farm in Chichibu and get ground by mortar and pestle at the bar. There’s often no menu — tell him what you like and trust what arrives.
No.48 — Virtù, Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Otemachi
High above Tokyo’s business district, Virtù (above) is the Art Deco-inflected answer to the city’s hushed hotel-bar tradition. It’s the place to celebrate the signed deal — polished, precise and built for a long second round.
Beyond Asia: The Rest of the 50
Paris is the story outside Asia, with four bars making the cut, overtaking London as Europe’s most-represented city for the first time. Milan’s Moebius Milano (No.2) is The Best Bar in Europe, Cartagena’s Alquímico (No.3) leads South America, and Mexico City’s Handshake Speakeasy (No.6) tops North America. New York’s Schmuck (No.11) is the Best New Opening.
Other awards include Mexico City’s Bar Mauro, the Highest New Entry at No.10; The Bar in Front of the Bar in Athens taking the Highest Climber accolade, up 28 to No.19; Paradiso in Barcelona, the Legend of the List; Line, another Athens hotspot, which earned the Sustainable Bar award; Panda & Sons in Edinburgh, whcih took Best Cocktail Menu; and Saikindō in Abu Dhabi, which was named Best Bar Design.
Know Before You Go
Here are the fast answers to what you’re asking as you plan a night around the list, from cost and queues to how the ranking really works.
Can I do Hong Kong’s four in one night?
Yes, if you pace yourself. Bar Leone, Gokan and Argo are all in Central, and Montana is a short uphill walk into Soho. Start at Argo, finish at Montana for the right vibes.
What will a drink cost?
Using 50 Best’s own average-price figures, expect to pay about US$10 at Zest, US$14 at Bar Us and Dry Wave, and US$19 at Gokan. Hotel bars sit at the top of that range so it’s best you bring that expense card.
Do I need to book?
Book wherever a bar takes reservations, and check its Instagram for walk-in policy. After a No.1 result, assume Bar Leone’s queue will be long for months.
Who decides the ranking?
An international voting academy of bartenders, writers and drinks experts, organised by region under Academy Chairs. Votes cover bars visited during the voting period, which is why new openings like Montana can climb fast.
How is this different from Asia’s 50 Best Bars?
Asia’s 50 Best Bars is a separate regional list, announced earlier each year. It runs deeper on the region — the place to look for Asian bars ranked below this global top 50.
