The Best Bars in Bugis & around

Burlap sacks on the walls, porcelain behind the bar, and a cocktail menu organized like a history syllabus: Trading Post, Crown Colony, Banana Republic, and on through to the present. Nutmeg & Clove is a cocktail bar that uses Singapore's past as its entire creative brief, so ordering feels less like choosing a drink and more like picking an era. It holds a spot on both Asia's and the World's 50 Best Bars lists.

1. The 50 #50 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #24 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

The three-storey back bar tower holds over 1,100 gins, which tells you everything about the ambition here before you've even sat down. Atlas is a cocktail bar inside Singapore's art deco "Gotham City" office building, all brass and velvet and soaring ceilings that make you feel like a minor character in a 1920s heist film. The kind of place where you order carefully and dress accordingly.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

There's no menu at this compact cocktail bar tucked into a Haji Lane shophouse, just a conversation with whoever's behind the bar. You describe a mood or a flavor and they build something around it, often with fresh fruit pounded to order, which is why the wait can stretch. The retro furniture downstairs drifts upstairs, giving the room a faded, unhurried charm that sits a little awkwardly with how in-demand the place clearly is.

1. Difford's Guide 3 stars · Difford's Guide