Coa continued its reign as the best bar in Asia as the Hong Kong watering hole was number one once again on the Asia’s 50 Best Bars list.
Jigger & Pony in Singapore was No 2 in the awards announced Tuesday night at a live event in Hong Kong.
It’s the first time since 2019 that the ceremony has been held with all borders in the region re-opened after the COVID-19 pandemic. For the past two years, organizers tweaked the voting rules to acknowledge that people couldn’t travel as widely.
Photo: AFP
Coa has taken the top spot for three years running. The lounge highlights Mexican cocktails and agave spirits. Earlier this year the team behind it opened The Savory Project, where drinks steer away from the sweet side of the spectrum, and have names like Teriyaki and Thai Beef Salad.
“Every single drink has a little bit of Asia in it — like our Bitter Melon Collins,” said Coa co-founder Jay Khan.
The bar focuses on consistency and constantly bringing in new things, he said, as well as “making sure everybody has a good time.”
Singapore bars took the most spots on the list with 11, followed by Hong Kong with eight. Seven bars in Japan made the list, including five in Tokyo.
“Asia’s bars continue to push the envelope when it comes to fabulous drinking experiences,” said Mark Sansom, director of content for Asia’s 50 Best Bars. “That is evident from the talent and creativity on display at the bars on this year’s list from cities across the continent.”
Special awards announced prior to the event included the Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award, which went to Singapore’s Sago House. The Altos Bartenders’ Bartender crown, the only peer-voted award in Asia’s 50 Best Bars, went to Beckaly Franks, whose The Pontiac in Hong Kong operates with an all-female team.
“We’re just a bar that hopefully owns our space,” Franks said. “It’s whatever you want it to be. It focuses on amazing spirits, inclusivity and the female.”
The list of bars ranked 51 through 100 was announced last week, featuring establishments in 22 cities. Names there include Charles H from Seoul at No 51, Taipei’s To Infinity and Beyond at No 52 and Franks’s The Pontiac at 53. Singapore’s entries in that list include Ryan Clift’s Tippling Club at No 63 and The Elephant Room at No 64, while Kuala Lumpur’s Jungle Bird came in at No 55 and Tokyo’s Gold Bar took No 56.
This is the eighth edition of Asia’s 50 Best Bars. The platform is owned and operated by the UK-based William Reed Business Media, which also produces the World’s 50 Best Bars and Restaurants lists. The rankings are based on the votes of about 260 people that have been identified as experts on Asia’s bar scene.
Here are the top 10 winners, including all of the bars from Taiwan that made it on the list. Last year’s place is in parentheses, while a new appearance on the list is marked by an asterisk.
1. Coa, Hong Kong (1)
2. Jigger & Pony, Singapore (2)
3. BKK Social Club, Bangkok, Thailand (10)
4. Bar Benfiddich, Tokyo, Japan (5)
5. Zest, Seoul, Korea (48)
6. Tropic City, Bangkok, Thailand (17)
7. Nutmeg & Clove, Singapore (36)
8. Argo, Hong Kong (3)
9. Darkside, Hong Kong (13)
10. Sago House, Singapore (31)
11. Indulge Experimental Bistro, Taipei, Taiwan (6)
41. Vender, Taichung, Taiwan (*)
43. The Public House, Taipei, Taiwan (*)
May 18 to May 24 Gathered on Yangtou Mountain (羊頭山) on Dec. 5, 1972, Taiwan’s hiking enthusiasts formally declared the formation of the “100 Peaks Club” (百岳俱樂部) and unveiled the final list of mountains. Famed mountaineer Lin Wen-an (林文安) led this effort for the Chinese Alpine Association (中華山岳協會). Working with other experienced climbers, he chose 100 peaks above 10,000 feet (3,048m) that featured triangulation points and varied in difficulty and character. The list sparked an alpine hiking craze, inspiring many to take up mountaineering and competing to “conquer” the summits. A common misconception is that the 100 Peaks represent Taiwan’s 100 tallest
Yesterday, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nominated legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) as their Taipei mayoral candidate, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) put their stamp of approval on Wei Ping-cheng (魏平政) as their candidate for Changhua County commissioner and former legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has begun the process to also run in Changhua, though she has not yet been formally nominated. All three news items are bizarre. The DPP has struggled with settling on a Taipei nominee. The only candidate who declared interest was Enoch Wu (吳怡農), but the party seemed determined to nominate anyone
In a sudden move last week, opposition lawmakers of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) passed a NT$780 billion special defense budget as a preemptive measure to stop either Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) or US President Donald Trump from blocking US arms sales to Taiwan at their summit in Beijing, said KMT heavyweight Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), speaking to the Taipei Foreign Correspondents Club on Wednesday night in Taipei. The 76-year-old Jaw, a political talk show host who ran as the KMT’s vice presidential candidate in 2024, says that he personally brokered the deal to resolve
“China wants to unify with Taiwan at the lowest possible cost, and it currently believes that unification will become easier and less costly as time passes,” wrote Amanda Hsiao (蕭嫣然) and Bonnie Glaser in Foreign Affairs (“Why China Waits”) this month, describing how the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is playing the long game in its quest to seize Taiwan. This has been a favorite claim of many writers over the years, easy to argue because it is so trite. Very obviously, if the PRC isn’t attacking Taiwan, it is waiting. But for what? Hsiao and Glaser’s main point is trivial,
RSS