The World’s 50 Best Bars 2026 has named Hong Kong’s Bar Leone the WORLD’S BEST BAR for a second consecutive year.
The results, announced last night in Milan (7 October), also revealed that Moebius Milano finished second, followed by Cartagena’s Alquímico, Bangkok’s Bar Us and Athens’ Line. Connaught Bar was the highest-placed UK venue at number eight.
There will be celebrations and new bookings made. There will be arguments about who should have finished where. But what is there to take from this year’s winner? Let’s stroke our chins for a moment.
Bar Leone: Cocktails for the people
Bar Leone takes its inspiration from Rome’s neighbourhood bars. Co-founded by Lorenzo Antinori, its Cocktail Popolari philosophy (cocktails for the people) centres on well-made drinks and welcoming hospitality, with classic cocktails, smoked olives and a mortadella sandwich among the attractions. Football memorabilia and vintage Italian touches complete the setting.
It’s not a hard sell. Guests understand what they’re walking into and see things they want to order. Imagine. The staff can explain the drinks in a sentence. The food speaks for itself. It feels fun and comfortable even when it’s busy. It’s open late, there’s no reservations. It has vintage posters and an olive oil whiskey sour. This is a real person’s idea of a bar, not a high concept.
Simplicity is rarely simple, of course. An informal atmosphere does not give a bar permission to be ordinary. A familiar cocktail leaves very little room to hide. And an approachable bar doesn’t mean easy living behind the scenes. They will have worked very hard for this. I hope they celebrated long into the night.
The winners are Bar Leone!
Start here, but find your own path
My most local hot-spots are London’s top-50 representatives, with famed former winner Connaught Bar at eight, Satan’s Whiskers at 29 and new entrant Waltz at 32. In the extended list, Panda & Sons placed 72nd, Three Sheets in Soho 73rd and Scarfes Bar 77th. Edinburgh’s Panda & Sons also won the Siete Misterios Best Cocktail Menu Award.
Paris, Hong Kong and New York each secured four places in the top 50, ahead of London’s three, which is interesting for anyone who keeps up with 50 Best rankings. London usually fares very well. Has the world caught up, or are we simply more motivated to look beyond the familiar to the new? Look at some of the discourse online in the r/cocktails thread on Reddit and there are commenters arguing that excellent bars in smaller US cities struggle for recognition.
The list is decided by more than 800 drinks experts across 29 regions. Each casts eight votes based on their best bar experiences during the preceding 18 months, with voting independently adjudicated by Deloitte. Those judgements necessarily depend on where people have been. It’s like those old pizza joints that claim to serve The Best Pizza in the World. Of course there’s no way to verify that. And 50 Best cannot function as an inspection of every excellent bar in every town.
For venues outside the familiar international cocktail destinations, absence from the list tells you very little on its own. For suppliers, it is also a reason to keep looking beyond the celebrated accounts. An unlisted bar with a clear identity, engaged staff and loyal customers will always be a compelling business to work with.
The Reddit thread’s original poster says to use the awards as a starting point, then ask bartenders and locals where else to go. That’s a good bit of advice. The best bar in the world might just be the next one you walk into.
The full 50-1 List
