The 10 Best Bars in the World: 2022

9. Katana Kitten

New York City
51 Hudson St.

Guests at Katana Kitten descend from New York City streets into Masahiro Urushido’s underground Japanese dive bar, where they are immersed in an ’80s party. Asian-influenced highballs, such as the Slowpitch Paloma (tequila, Pocari Sweat, Thai chili and lime zest), headline the menu. They co-star with Japanese riffs on classics, such as the signature Hinoki Martini (vodka, gin, fino sherry, junmai daiginjo and hinoki tree essence).

The culinary side also adheres to izakaya roots.

(Photo: 50 Best/William Reed/Katana Kitten)

8. Connaught Bar

London
16 Carlos Place

The Cloud Nine is a highlight of this hotel bar, with bourbon, orange vermouth, pistachio, raspberry and foaming bitters. But the must-order first drink is the signature martini, served from a bespoke trolley.

(Photo: 50 Best/William Reed/Connaught Bar/Haselblad H4D)

7. Two Schmucks

Barcelona, Spain
Carrer de Joaquín Costa, 52

The five-star dive bar Two Schmucks fits right into Barcelona’s scruffy, historic El Raval district, but the cocktails elevate the experience away from dive, according to the ranking. Many drinks on the latest list have a savory lilt, but customers still call for the old crowd-pleasers, such as the Clean Cut Mojito.

(Photo: 50 Best/William Reed/Two Schmucks)

6. Double Chicken Please

New York City
115 Allen St.

Double Chicken Please offers — what else? — a double concept. The front room beckons back to the bar’s Lower East Side neighborhood’s soda shops, serving the titular chicken sandwich and cocktails, such as No. 1 (tequila, white cranberry, lavender, cacao and amaro). In the elegant back room, the concept is to represent solid foods as drinks, such as Mango Sticky Rice (mango rum, sticky rice pu’erh tea wakame, cold brew coconut). There are more conventional bites as well, like chicken liver mousse with caramelized shallots, ruby port and coffee butter.

(Photo: 50 Best/William Reed/Double Chicken Please)

5. Little Red Door

Paris
60 Rue Charlot

You enter this decade-old cosmopolitan nightspot through a red door in the Marais district. Little Red Door’s farm-to-glass model places produce at the heart of the bar experience, resulting in drinks with such names as Carrot.

(Photo: 50 Best/William Reed/Little Red Door)

4. Licorería Limantour

Mexico City
Av. Álvaro Obregón 106, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc

Eight-year-old Licorería Limantour features a host of crazy menus and many drinks that have the test of time, such as the Margarita al Pastor. Early in 2022, the bar brought in six international bartenders to expand its drinks list. At the same time, it is working on a new menu with special ingredients from Oaxaca, provided by its local partner Suculenta.

(Photo: 50 Best/William Reed/Licorería Limantour)

3. Sips

Barcelona, Spain
Carrer de Muntaner, 108

During the day, Sips is a mellow, approachable bar with pastel pink and green décor. Come night, lights dim and the atmosphere becomes sultry. Many of the cocktails are reimagined classics, such as the Caipirinha, made with a masticator to round off bitterness.

Patrons can also order a Daiquri Heliodora, which is made with a vintage Mexican hand-turned machine that delivers grapefruit “shaved ice” as a base, before a huge pipette drips sherry into the glass; the drink is completed with rum and lime.

(Photo: 50 Best/William Reed/Sips)

2. Tayēr + Elementary

London
152 Old St.

Tayēr + Elementary, opened in 2019, is a venue of two parts. Elementary is the industrially styled street-side space patrons pop into for a quick drink, with a long communal table and seasonal cocktails, such as the signature One Sip Martini, and own-label wine and beer. At Tayēr, through the partition, the approach is culinary, with lesser-known ingredients wrought by high-tech equipment delivering new flavor experiences in recipes that change daily.

(Photo: 50 Best/William Reed/Tayēr + Elementary)

1. Paradiso

Barcelona, Spain
Carrer de Rera Palau, 4

Paradiso features a grand Dali-esque curved wooden bar. There, patrons can order the Supercool Martini, which uses a “supercooled” gin mix to build an iceberg in the glass. There’s also a new menu. As in past years, the bar has a theme; this year, the inspiration is the Evolution of Humankind.

Among the 15 new cocktails is Fleming, named for the discoverer of penicillin, which explores fermentation with a mushroom spore rim. On Fire provides more aesthetic drama, a sharing milk punch cocktail, with bourbon, oloroso sherry, tahini, sweet potato and smoked milk. Served in a clear, round dish, with garnishes created in the Paradiso lab to represent humankind’s ancestors sitting around a fire, the cocktail uses a laser to create a flame, which smokes the Jerez wine.

(Photo: 50 Best/William Reed/Paradiso)