The 12 Best Cocktail Bars in India

A long teak-and-granite bar runs the room, and the bartenders here work it the way a Japanese omakase kitchen works a counter, reading you before they pour. This is a cocktail bar inside Hotel Southern Star on Lavelle Road, polished enough to mean business without making you feel like a guest in someone else's house. It landed at number 37 on Asia's 50 Best Bars, which tells you the serious drinkers have already found it.

The sidecar on the menu combines cognac, bourbon, roasted corn, and lime acid, which tells you most of what you need to know about how this cocktail bar in Greater Kailash approaches a classic. The wood-panelled second floor is airy and unhurried, with a stage for live music when the mood calls for it. It has landed on Asia's 50 Best Bars list, which for a Delhi bar is no small thing to say flat.

The cocktails here are numbered rather than named, which turns out to suit the vibe perfectly. Hoots' is a small, dimly lit cocktail bar tucked below wine bar Perch in Vasant Vihar, cosy enough to feel like someone's well-stocked living room. The drinks are carefully constructed, an Old Fashioned riffing on miso, a Whisky Sour finished with chamomile foam. The 50 Discovery listing has begun to spread the word, so the secret is getting out.

On the 34th floor of the Four Seasons, this open-air rooftop bar splits into two moods: Yacht Club faces the ocean and runs loud, while The Gimlet Garden turns quieter, greener, and botanical. The cocktail list in the garden leans into herbs and medicinal plants, which sounds like a wellness class but drinks considerably better. On a clear Mumbai night, the city skyline does most of the work.

Geometric tiles and rattan chairs give this fifth-floor bar the feel of a colonial-era club that somehow kept its membership current. Coffee runs through the daytime, then the bar team takes over with cocktails that fold in local flavors, and a stage fills up with whoever's on the Instagram lineup that week, drag acts one night, a salsa ensemble the next. You can eat by the stage or just drink; both are reasonable choices.