The Best Places to Drink and Stay in City Centre

Counter seating runs the full length of the room, and that's a design choice, not an accident: at this cocktail bar on Jalan Petaling, the format pulls you into a conversation with whoever's shaking. The team builds drinks around five fundamentals, alcohol and dilution among them, which sounds like a manifesto but lands quietly on the palate. Penrose ranked tenth on Asia's 50 Best Bars, and the room stays low-key enough that you'd never guess.

1. The 50 #10 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

A 1930s Art Deco rubber-trade building in the middle of Chinatown turns out to be a surprisingly good place to hide a minimalist boutique hotel. Else leans into the urban-resort idea: rooms named Mantra and Sanctuary, an outdoor pool ringed by cabanas and sensory-deprivation pods, and a boutique gym. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key. Step outside and you're in one of KL's liveliest neighborhoods; inside, the whole point is that you don't feel it.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

Floors 100-and-something inside Merdeka 118, the tallest tower in Southeast Asia, is where you'll find this Park Hyatt, which commits fully to the altitude. The 252 rooms come with soaking tubs, personal dining spaces, and windows that make Kuala Lumpur look like a scale model. There's a spa on the 99th floor offering salt therapy and steam, which is either very calming or very on-the-nose, depending on your mood.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A sign for "Neighbour Club" marks the door, which does nothing to prepare you for the dim, grown-up cocktail bar inside. Sleek wood, low brass light, and booth seating give it the feel of somewhere you linger. Tea runs through the drink menu in earnest, with oolong, pu'er, and lapsang souchong distillates worked into classics. It sits just off Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown strip and holds a 50 Discovery nod.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery