With its growing craft cocktail scene, you can bet on getting a great drink in the ‘Las Vegas of Asia’.
Clocking in at just under 33 square kilometres, this former Portuguese colony packs a cocktail punch, condensing a roster of incredible bars into one of the most densely populated regions in the world – you’ll find them nestled between casino resorts, within luxury hotels, and also down quiet cobblestone streets. Discover where to drink when this year’s Asia’s 50 Best Bars, sponsored by Perrier, ranking is revealed at Wynn Palace on 15 July.
Wing Lei Bar, Wynn Palace
@wingleibar
This jewel box of a cocktail bar is going gangbusters thanks to its recent transformation by head mixologist Mark Lloyd, who brings his 15-plus years of bartending experience in Asia to the luxury casino-hotel’s signature drinking den. The evolved menu debuted earlier this year in March, with Lloyd drawing on his background in chemistry and distilling to produce a concise, reimagined cocktail offering based on four classic styles: sours, stirred, classics and ‘alternatini’, which is dedicated to martini-style drinks.
From the alternatini section, try the Yuenyeung – an espresso martini with a Cantonese cha chaan teng (diner) twist and a touch of the tropical. It’s made with dark roast coffee mellowed with house-made black tea pineapple syrup, pineapple rum and a generous pour of cold brew coffee liqueur, making it the perfect pre-long-nigh-night-out sip.
The St. Regis Bar
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It’s all class at The St Regis Bar, with its distinctive turn-of-the-century sumptuousness – think low lighting, plush furnishings, lashings of burnished gold and marble – and tightly curated menu. Here, drinks and details hark back to the heyday and glamour of New York, a hat tip to the hotel chain’s founding in the Big Apple. Drinks are referential and reverent, like the Modern Art, which is inspired by the city’s iconic MOMA, while the Garnet Sour is a twist on the New York Sour.
Anyone from first-timers to regulars gravitate towards one thing here however: the St Regis signature Bloody Mary. Each hotel has its own take on the savoury sip, and the Macau version – the Maria Do Leste – encapsulates the essence of the former Portuguese colony with its mix of chorizo, pink peppercorn, piri piri, black Chinese vinegar and, of course, the mini egg tart served on the side.
Mesa Bar, The Karl Lagerfeld Hotel
@thekarllagerfeld
Ensconced within The Karl Lagerfeld Hotel is this showstopper of a bar – a gilded tribute to fine mixology that’s bettered by resort mixologist Frederick Ma’s commitment to making sustainably-minded cocktails. That means house-made ingredients and herbs grown on site, plus zero waste principles like repurposing excess fruit trimmings from the hotel’s commissary kitchen, and using booze from low carbon, low waste packaging system ecoSPIRITS. The drinks are also a tribute to the city’s Sino-Portuguese heritage
The Farm It Yourself cocktail spotlights that ethos to a tee with its refreshing mix of apple peel pisco, dry curacao, verjuice, green apple liqueur, and homemade clarified fig apple pear soda that makes use of excess apples grown on Oscar Farm’s orchard in Coloane's Estrada de Cheoc Van. Ma explains that the peels are packed with flavour and ideal for infusing with pisco.
Two Moons
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As one of Macau’s few independently-owned bars, Matthew Ng and Frankie Leong’s Two Moons has its own gravitational pull. Located on a quiet side street across from the Instituto Português do Oriente, the intimate venue, which operates as a coffee shop by day before transitioning to a cocktail and whisky bar by night, attracts the city’s creative set seeking something a little off-piste. Ng and Leong founded the Macau Whiskey Cultural Association, while Leong is also the man behind Yeast & Feast, a beverage importer, distributor and retailer based in the city.
Regulars know to leave their orders safe in Leong’s hands as he used to bartend at London stalwart Milroy’s of Soho in his past life, but it’s truly the whisky selections and special tastings that keep the connoisseurs coming back time and time again.
The Ritz-Carlton Bar & Lounge
@ritzcarltonmacau
Sipping a cocktail perched above the city on the 51st floor of this iconic hotel has a real sense of occasion, enhanced by the bar’s lofty ceilings and art deco elegance. By day, the space is a magnet for fans of afternoon tea and it transitions seamlessly into a place for drinkers come dusk. Expect live music performances and a fabulous gin trolley along with bar snacks spanning all tastes, from buffalo wings through to truffle and cheese toasties and caviar tartelettes.
Alongside one of the city’s most comprehensive collections of premium spirits you’ll find a compact cocktail menu that stays true to Asian ingredients and flavours. The Pearl of the Orient is a sweet-and-sour number blending jasmine milk tea-infused gin produced in Macau, along with tropical high notes from lychee and passionfruit foam and a dash of colour from butterfly blue pea flowers.
Long Bar, Raffles at Galaxy Macau
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Those who are familiar with the original Long Bar in Singapore’s Raffles Hotel – the home of the fruity Singapore Sling cocktail – may be in for a surprise at this Macau outpost. It’s billed as a speakeasy and appropriately cloaked with an air of mystery. To find it, look for a dimly lit corridor located somewhere off the main lobby and a well-hidden nautical porthole door. The maritime reference is inspired by the Madre de Deus, a Portuguese treasure ship that brought spices to Macau in the 16th century.
Appropriately, the menu centres around gin – the spirit that relies heavily on precious spices and botanicals from around the world. Here, Hong Kong’s father of mixology Antonio Lai of Quinary lends his expertise to the menu at Long Bar with signature gin cocktails.
Inspired by the Madre de Deus’ final voyage, the Kraken 1592 – dusted with gold and cordyceps fungus – comes in a suitably tentacled piece of glassware and combines pepper gin, oolong tea, falernum, soursop and activated charcoal.
The list of Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025, sponsored by Perrier, will be revealed at a live awards ceremony in Macau on Tuesday 15 July.
