Opium
Opium is no stranger to the BAD Awards, nor the winner’s podium. The moody cocktail bar sitting about Michelin-starred Thai-Chinese fine-dining powerhouse Potong has won “Bar of the Year” twice (2023, 2024), and “Best Design” (2023). It was always one of the city’s best cocktail bars thanks to the work of Matteo Cadeddu and his seasonally evolving “liquid surreality” cocktail menu, which tries to blur the lines between fantasy and reality. The menu spreads its wings across seven easy-to-understand sections — apéritif, sparkle, acid, acid+, solo, duo, and bottle infusions — allowing guests to easily find their match without much knowledge of cocktail wizardry.
422, Vanich Soi 1, Samphanthawong, 082-979-3950. Open Mon 5pm-midnight; Thu-Sun 5pm-midnight.
Finalist: Tropic City
When a cocktail competition happens in Bangkok, chances are you’ll find more than a few of the visiting mixologists hanging out here. This tropical rum-focused cocktail den is the former winner of BK Magazine’s “Bar of the Year” in 2018 and 2019, just one year after it opened, and since then has remained at the very top of the city’s cocktail scene — slowly working its way up coveted lists like Asia’s 50 Best. The playful drinks list and neon-lit flamingos peppering the venue come from two of the city’s most well-known nightlife minds, Sebastian De La Cruz and Philip Stefanescu. Don’t get it twisted, “tropical” here isn’t limited to “tiki,” with drinks taking influence from the Caribbean, Bahamas and Southeast Asia as well.
672/65 Charoen Krung Soi 28, 083-838-2750. Open
Finalist: Dry Wave Cocktail Studio
At the time of writing, Supawit “Palm” Muttarattana and the team at Dry Wave Cocktail Studio just released “Super Classic Vol. 2”, the sequel to their incredibly loved original signature cocktail line that helped propel their bar into the hottest ticket in town in less than 12 months. The original menu is what earned the bar a spot here, though. The concept is simple: combine two classic cocktails into a single glass, often with a dash of pop culture blended in. It’s proven to be a smash hit among the city’s drink enthusiasts, a blend of familiar and foreign that’s unlike anything else you’ll find in the city at the moment.
2/F, Sodality, Thonglor Soi 13, 098-909-3962. Open Mon-Thu 7pm-1:30am; Fri-Sat 7pm-2am; Sun 7pm-1:30am
Finalist: Sundry
It’s always sunny in Bangkok at this multi-story Silom venue that’s part cocktail bar, part art gallery, part tapas restaurant. Sundry’s cocktail ambitions go well beyond the ever-growing lineup of drinks, which are segmented into two sections — BKK Itinerary and Heat Index — that aim to help guests explore the feelings, tastes, and sensations of Bangkok’s urban areas, with the occasional cheeky nod like “Elephant Pants” and “E-Katoey”. This April, the bar will release a hardcover copy of its 120-page cocktail “bible”, a refined, funny, and poignant bit of publishing that serves just as well as a guidebook for Thailand drinking culture as it does a legitimate drink menu. You can find a preview of the book online.
8, Rama IV Rd, Silom., 094-922-9562. Open daily 6pm-late.
Finalist: Mahaniyom Cocktail Bar
Mahaniyom’s head barkeep, Ronnaporn “Neung” Kanivichaporn, took top honors at last year’s BAD Awards as “Bartender of the Year” for his continued excellence at this cozy, no-frills cocktail bar sitting above Charoenkrung nose-to-tail restaurant 100 Mahaseth. Manhaniyom mirrors the concept, with most of the drinks spotlighting a single ingredient in particular, and pushes the boundaries of mixology creativity by scraping, squeezing, and distilling every last ounce of flavor out of it. Funky, edgy, and unapologetically Thai, it’s worked its become a permanent fixture on lists like this for a reason.
2/F, 100 Mahaseth, 100 Maha Set Rd., 061-664-6588. Open Tue-Sun 5pm-midnight.
