The 36 Best Places to Drink in Tokyo

The shelves behind the bar are stacked floor to ceiling with jars of homegrown spices and homemade infusions, which sets the tone. This intimate eight-seat cocktail bar on the ninth floor of a Shinjuku building runs on ingredients Hiroyasu Kayama grows on his family's farm, yuzu, wormwood, fennel, all finding their way into farm-to-glass drinks built on amaro, whisky, gin, or house-made absinthe. It holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars list.

1. The 50 #18 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #9 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Tokyo

1. The 50 #45 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #18 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Hotel Bar

1. The 50 #48 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #79 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. The 50 #65 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #99 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. The 50 #36 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Hotel Bar – APAC

This is a cocktail bar on the ninth floor in Azabujuban, where the balcony frames Tokyo Tower like a postcard someone paid extra for. Inside, a disco ball spins over a Godzilla statue in a furry eye mask, and the menu arrives as a manga comic. The drinks are inventive, with sake and shochu in play, and hot dogs show up on the food side. It made Asia's 50 Best Bars at #70, so dress for a party that has opinions.

1. The 50 #70 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
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3. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. The 50 #93 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

A basement cocktail bar in Ikebukuro with over 300 single malts on the shelf and a kitchen that sends out venison jerky and chili con carne. The mood is easy, but the bar program is not: liquid nitrogen, smoking guns, and barrel-aged builds all show up on a seasonally rotating menu. There's also a cigar list, which makes the whisky collection feel less like an accident. It landed on Asia's 50 Best Bars.

1. The 50 #49 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars

1. The 50 #67 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

The onyx-black bar counter on the tenth floor looks down over the restaurant below, which gives the room a quietly theatrical feel. This is a cocktail bar running an Italian aperitivo angle, so Bellinis and Martinis anchor the menu alongside the house signature, a citrus gin blend with Aperol, pineapple, and lemon. The bartenders will also build something to order, so arriving with a vague idea is enough.

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

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

A basement cocktail bar in Ginza where the ice isn't just chipped but carved, by hand, to order. Hidetsugu Ueno's room runs on Japanese bartending precision applied to modified classics, the kind of place where the technique is the point without anyone making a speech about it. The crowd leans toward people who planned to be here. High Five holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars list and has done for years.

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

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

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A hushed cocktail bar tucked deep inside a hulking 1970s office complex in Shimbashi, the salaryman district that never really sleeps. Antique furnishings and a near-silent room sit in odd, pleasing contrast to the gritty corridors outside. The bar leans hard on the classics, though regulars tend to steer toward the Pantheon, the house original built on Scotch, Benedictine, and lemon. A 50 Discovery from The 50 list.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A cocktail bar perched on top of Ginza Six, seating exactly eight people around a minimal counter while the rest of Tokyo carries on below. The house obsession is tea, and the bartender Shuzo Nagumo has made a name threading gyokuro, hojicha, and oolong through classics you thought you knew. The room is delicate, the glassware is delicate, and somehow the whole thing stays relaxed anyway.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The Martini here has its own pilgrim trail, which tells you something about the reputation this Ginza cocktail bar carries. Takao Mori, a godfather of Japanese bartending, rarely works the room these days, but his longtime team keeps the recipes and the warmth intact. For a neighborhood defined by its stiffness, the mood runs notably loose. The 50 Discovery listed it, and regulars would tell you that undersells it.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Pronounced "teh-zeh," this Tokyo backstreet cocktail bar keeps nearly 3,000 books on every available surface, and regulars treat the shelves like a lending library while the bartenders riff on classics or invent something on the spot. Dark wood panelling, retro leather couches, and dim lighting make it feel like a very well-read living room. Curry dishes appear on the menu too, which somehow feels right. Been around since the late nineties, and the neighbourhood clearly never found a reason to leave.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Bar Orchard is a Ginza cocktail bar where the menu is a heap of fresh fruit and you point at one, like a very expensive farmers market. The bartender builds something tiki-ish around your pick, then serves it in a ceramic shark, a turkey leg, or a tiny bathtub with suds on top. A flock of rubber ducks in outfits watches from the bar. Seats vanish fast, so arrive when the doors open at 6.

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2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A sake bar up a flight of stairs in Nishiazabu, where the sign reads "strawberry meeting," a translation of ichigo ichie that sounds like a very polite jam session. The list runs past 200 bottles, from sparkling to cloudy doburoku, plus a few made with local breweries that you won't find elsewhere. The egg in black squid ink mayonnaise looks like a river rock until you crack it, which is the whole bit.

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Eight seats, one bartender, and a flower chosen to match each drink: Gen Yamamoto runs cocktails the way Kyoto runs kaiseki. You choose a flight of four, six, or seven courses, each one built around whatever ingredient the season hands over, each served in its own piece of glassware. It is a cocktail bar in the way a tea ceremony is a cup of tea. Yamamoto-san holds a spot on The 50 Discovery list.

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2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

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1. The Infatuation The Best Izakayas In Tokyo

1. The Infatuation The Best Izakayas In Tokyo

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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1. The Infatuation The Best Izakayas In Tokyo

1. The Infatuation The Best Izakayas In Tokyo

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

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