10 best cocktail bars in Singapore: as Formula One’s Grand Prix arrives in the Lion City, drinking dens like Appetite, MO Bar, Raffles’ Writers Bar, and Smoke & Mirrors gear up to welcome travellers
- With F1 arriving in late September and early October, Singapore’s best bars Jigger & Pony, Manhattan, Flows of the Indus, Ritz-Carlton’s Republic and more are getting ready
- From Red Valentino-inspired cocktails to non-alcoholic spirits, these bars cater to all types of drinkers to enjoy all night long – or, of course, at weekend brunch
Here are the 10 best bars in Singapore, presented in no particular order, for indulging in your new – or old – favourite drink.
1. Appetite
This bar feeds multiple senses at the same time. Not only does it offer cocktails with spirits from unique places such as Goriška Brda, Slovenia and Jalisco, Mexico, it has art exhibitions that lend energy and excitement to the space and a listening room with hundreds of records mostly from the 1970s and 80s.
What to order: A plum Negroni riffs on its traditional counterpart by using a plum kernel-based distillate, for US$18 (S$26), while the Not a Bloody Mary upends the classic restorative with Widges gin, bittersweet tamarillo and spicy yuzu kosho for S$28.
2. MO Bar
What to order: The Full Moon (S$26) is a crowd-pleaser featuring three-year aged rum, wheatgrass juice, and pear – and a “full moon” with a rabbit design (evocative of the moon rabbit of some cultural myths) floating on top, with multicoloured hues made from edible ink around the rim. It’s a trip. For S$25, gin lovers should try the Daintree, with lemon myrtle and “paint” (a by-product of the redistillation of absinthe using MO’s Rotavap) or the Annona, with soursop and pandan.