Unmarked doors, basements and back rooms: the Shanghai bars you have to know about to find.
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)
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
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
Craft beer bar
The Copenhagen beer brand's first bar in China, hidden down an alley, with over 20 taps.
📍 98 Yanping Road, Jing'an
Tap a pin for the bar. Numbers match the list.
Start with Speak Low, Flask, J. Boroski, Barber Shop and Mikkeller Shanghai. Our full list has 5 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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