The Best Cocktail Bars in South Africa

The private Dali Room, with its animal-print banquettes and wall-to-wall Surrealist imagery, tells you exactly what kind of place this is before you've ordered a thing. Obscura is a cocktail bar in Rosebank with bold, maximalist design throughout and a drinks list built around complex, visually arresting cocktails. George Hunter is behind the bar program, and the menu reads like it was written to be stared at before you drink it.

The building was a slave prison before it became a cocktail bar, which gives Heritage Square's best-kept secret a weight that no amount of exposed brick could manufacture on its own. The Drinkery leans into the history with contemporary art on the walls, a chessboard for lingering, and a living-room vibe that makes ordering a third drink feel perfectly reasonable. The cocktail list skews adventurous, with port and absinthe sharing a glass without apology.

A gin bar tucked inside a Mediterranean-style courtyard, reached through a cafe that gives nothing away. Once inside, the theme is South African gin, with over 70 local bottles on the shelves and a signature G&T list drawn from the building's former life as a morgue, which is either a gimmick or a perfectly reasonable way to name a cocktail, depending on your disposition. No speakeasy cosplay, just a lot of very specific botanical choices.