Our main event: the Shanghai bars where the cocktails are the reason to go.
Last checked 14 November 2026. No bar paid to be included.
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Speakeasy
No. 10, The World's 50 Best Bars 2017
Shanghai's original speakeasy, hidden behind a bar tools shop since 2014 and led by Shingo Gokan's SG Group. Classics downstairs, rare spirits and refined cocktails upstairs, plus private rooms. It has been No. 2 in Asia and No. 10 in the world.
📍 579 Middle Fuxing Road, Huangpu, Shanghai
🕒 Daily 6pm to 1.30am (OpenStreetMap; check before you go)
Cocktail bar
No. 19, Asia's 50 Best Bars 2026
A small, community-minded bar founded by Dre Yang, with smart twists on the classics, a baijiu Piña Colada, a Sichuan peppercorn G&T and a patty melt. It rose to No. 19 in Asia's 50 Best Bars 2026.
📍 925 Huangjincheng Avenue, Changning, Shanghai
Italian cocktail bar
From the team behind Hong Kong's Bar Leone, The World's Best Bar in 2025 and 2026. A polished Italian sports bar downstairs and a 1970s Italian living room upstairs, in Sinan Mansions. The queue starts at 5pm.
📍 Sinan Mansions, Huangpu, Shanghai
American cocktail bar
Founded by champion bartender Yao Lu, an unpretentious bar honouring the golden age of American cocktails, with seasonal specials and the signature Shanghai Breakfast. A regular on Asia's 50 Best Bars lists. It has moved from Fenyang Road to Hengshan Road.
📍 306 Hengshan Road, Xuhui, Shanghai
🕒 Daily 6pm to 2am (OpenStreetMap; check before you go)
Cocktail bar
Sam Kuan's bar with marble counters, a lofted second floor and two house rules, the first being that the bartender is always right. Custom cocktails from more than 100 ingredients, plus tributes to Dick Bradsell.
📍 51 Fenyang Road, Xuhui, Shanghai
Sustainable cocktail bar
Brings the Hong Kong bar's sustainable approach to Nanchang Road, with fermentation, zero-waste methods and a lab upstairs pouring cocktails, fermented drinks and alcohol-free options.
📍 Nanchang Road, Huangpu, Shanghai
Speakeasy
By day a shop called Tiger's Bite. At night you enter the bar through a hidden trapdoor for classic cocktails.
📍 108 North Xiangyang Road, Xuhui, Shanghai
Hidden cocktail bar
A discreet hideaway behind a hidden door, founded by Joseph Boroski, with a mahogany bar. It was known for having no menu, though one is now there if you want it. Pricey.
📍 Jing'an, Shanghai
Experimental cocktail bar
From the Flask Group: a futuristic bar with a menu styled like a lab notebook and experimental drinks with fresh seasonal ingredients, served in unusual vessels.
📍 17-2 North Xiangyang Road, Shanghai
Speakeasy
A speakeasy hidden inside an old barber shop, with a retro American feel, creative cocktails, single malts, a small garden and Cuban cigars.
📍 615 Yongjia Road, Xuhui, Shanghai
Cocktail and whisky bar
Opened in 2015 by award-winning bartender Naoji Oji, with no fixed menu: drinks are made to suit you, alongside rare Japanese and Scotch whiskies.
📍 3F, Building A, 99 Taixing Road, Jing'an, Shanghai
Cocktail bar
An intimate bar opposite Wukang Mansion with about a dozen seats, all about classics and gentle twists.
📍 Opposite Wukang Mansion, Xuhui, Shanghai
🕒 Daily 11am to 2am (OpenStreetMap; check before you go)
Cocktail bar
A bomb-shelter themed bar inside Green and Safe in Xintiandi, using sustainable local ingredients. The best-selling Pear Tekken comes in a magnifying-glass vessel.
📍 2F, 22 Beili, Xintiandi, Lane 181 Taicang Road, Huangpu, Shanghai
Tap a pin for the bar. Numbers match the list.
Start with Speak Low, Pony Up, Bar Leone Shanghai, The Union Trading Company and Barules. Our full list has 13 bars.
This guide is written by the team at M.AD Agency. We run Cocktail Week, the ten-day cocktail festival held town by town across the UK and Ireland. Since 2022 we have taken it to more than 20 towns and cities and worked with hundreds of bars. We put this guide together from our own research, Asia's 50 Best Bars results and trusted local guides.
No bar paid to be included and nobody can buy a place. We check the guide regularly as bars open, change and close.
Run a bar in Shanghai that should be here? Get in touch at hello@cocktail-week.com and tell us about it.
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