Best Cocktail Bars in Manhattan
The 10 best cocktail bars in Manhattan, from the East Village room that started the craft renaissance to a 64th-floor skyline perch.
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- 1East Village · $$$ · 2 Av (F) · 433 E 6th St
The East Village room that opened in 2006 and is widely credited with sparking America's modern craft-cocktail movement. It still runs nightly with a menu deep enough to intimidate and a bar team that treats every order like a test they intend to pass.
No bar in New York has shaped how the rest of the country drinks quite like this one, and two decades in it still earns that reputation nightly.
Order Oaxaca Old Fashioned
There is no weekend shortcut; put your name in early, or aim for a weeknight right at the 6pm open to walk straight in.
Photo: Jim.henderson, CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo: Jim.henderson, CC BY-SA 4.0 - 2
Dante▲ buzzing
Greenwich Village · $$$ · Houston St (1) · 79-81 MacDougal StA century-old MacDougal Street cafe reborn as one of the most awarded bars on earth, named World's Best Bar in 2019. It works as an all-day Italian cafe with an aperitivo and Negroni program that runs circles around most cocktail dens.
The Garibaldi here, fluffy orange juice and Campari, is proof that a two-ingredient drink can be world-class when someone actually cares.
Order Garibaldi
Come for the late-afternoon aperitivo hours when the room is calm and the Negroni program is at its sharpest.
@dantenewyorkcity ↗Dante
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- 3Lower East Side · $$$ · Grand St (B D) · 134 Eldridge St
Also No. 2 on Best Speakeasies in NYC →
The no-menu, no-sign successor to the legendary Milk & Honey, where you name a spirit and a mood and the bartender builds you something on the spot. It sits behind an unmarked door on Eldridge Street and takes walk-ins only.
Handing over control and watching a bartender nail a drink you didn't know you wanted is the whole point, and here they almost never miss.
Order Bartender's choice (built to your taste on the spot)
There is no phone and no reservations; go before 7pm or expect to wait for one of the few seats.
Photo: Transpoman, CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo: Transpoman, CC BY-SA 4.0 - 4West Village · $$$ · Christopher St-Stonewall (1) · 531 Hudson St
Masahiro Urushido's Japanese-American cocktail bar on Hudson Street, a James Beard nominee that has ranked among the World's 50 Best. It blends izakaya warmth with serious technique and a knockout highball program.
The Katana Highball, sharp and clean and endlessly drinkable, is one of the best twenty-dollar drinks in the city.
Order Katana Highball
Sit at the bar and pair a highball with a bar snack; the combination is the house at its best.
Photo: Transpoman, CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo: Transpoman, CC BY-SA 4.0 - 5Financial District · $$$ · Whitehall St-South Ferry (1 R W) · 30 Water St
A multiple-time World's Best Bar winner on Water Street built around 19th-century Irish-American drinking history. The ground floor is a raucous taproom; the upstairs parlor is where the encyclopedic cocktail and punch menu lives.
Their Irish Coffee is the benchmark that every other bar in the country is quietly measured against.
Order Irish Coffee
Skip the crowded downstairs and head to the Parlor upstairs for the full cocktail menu and an actual seat.
Photo: Lou Stejskal (loustejskal.com), CC BY 2.0 Photo: Lou Stejskal (loustejskal.com), CC BY 2.0 - 6West Village · $$$ · Christopher St-Stonewall (1) · 510 Hudson St
Also No. 3 on Best Speakeasies in NYC → · No. 3 on Best Late-Night Eats in NYC →
The palm-reader-fronted Hudson Street speakeasy that opened in 2004 and helped define the modern New York cocktail bar. A decade-plus fixture on the 50 Best lists, it still runs late with a fortune teller stationed at the door.
Late night at EO, a Ginger Smash in hand and the kitchen still firing, is one of the last great after-midnight rituals downtown.
Order Ginger Smash
Stay past midnight for the staff's nightly family-meal ritual and the bar's best energy of the evening.
@employeesonlyny ↗Employees Only
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- 7Financial District · $$$$ · Wall St (2 3) · 70 Pine St
Also No. 1 on Best Rooftop Bars in Manhattan →
Map ↗verified 12w agoA 64th-floor Art Deco bar atop 70 Pine with 360-degree skyline views and a cocktail program that earns its altitude. It landed No. 33 on North America's 50 Best Bars in 2026 and No. 46 on the World's list in 2025.
Plenty of bars sell a view; this is the rare one where the drink in your hand is as considered as the skyline outside it.
Order Overstory Sour
Reservations are effectively required and go fast; book a sunset slot to watch the city light up.
Photo: Transpoman, CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo: Transpoman, CC BY-SA 4.0 - 8East Village · $$$ · 1 Av (L) · 113 St Marks Pl
Also No. 1 on Best Speakeasies in NYC →
You enter through a vintage phone booth inside Crif Dogs on St. Marks Place, one of the original speakeasy-revival bars and a longtime world's-best-list fixture. Inside is a tight, taxidermy-lined room built for serious drinks and hot dogs.
The Benton's Old Fashioned, washed with bacon fat, is a genuine modern classic that was invented right here.
Order Benton's Old Fashioned (bacon-fat-washed bourbon)
Reservations open by phone at 3pm daily and vanish within minutes; call right on the hour.
Photo: Jan Mark Holzer (Flickr: jmh's random shots), CC BY 2.0 Photo: Jan Mark Holzer (Flickr: jmh's random shots), CC BY 2.0 - 9West Village · $$$ · Christopher St-Stonewall (1) · 45 Grove St
Also No. 5 on Best Speakeasies in NYC →
A revered Japanese-style speakeasy known for precise technique and quiet elegance, now on Grove Street under Erina Yoshida after nearly three decades in the East Village. It is walk-ins only, with strict rules that keep the room hushed.
Few bars in the city treat a simple whiskey sour with this much reverence, and you feel it in every stirred, understated glass.
Order Whiskey Sour (Japanese-style)
The rules are enforced: no groups larger than four, no standing, and you give up your table once the drink is done.
@angelssharenyc ↗Angel's Share
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- 10
Amor y Amargo▲ buzzing
East Village · $$$ · 2 Av (F) · 443 E 6th StA tiny East Village bar dedicated to bitters and Italian amari, with no vodka and no gin in sight. Billed as America's first bitters-focused bar, it is the place for stirred, spirit-forward, low-fuss classics.
If you like your drinks bracing, herbal and boozy, this closet-sized room is the most opinionated bar in New York, in the best way.
Order Trinidad Sour
Tell the bartender you want something stirred and bitter and let them lead; it is exactly that kind of place.
@amoryamargo ↗Amor y Amargo
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