Hong Kong bar trends in 2026: comfort, classics and mindful drinking

Hong Kong’s drinks scene is one of the world’s best – but also one of the world’s most diverse and volatile. Every year, the city has had to navigate – to varying degrees of success – trends and shifts in what bargoers enjoy, resulting in celebrated openings and sombre closures alike. Speakeasies (The Old Man, Please Don’t Tell, Room 309, Stockton) in the 2010s gave way to neighbourhood bars in the 2020s. Publications like Time magazine, Fortune and Drinks International all note that Gen Z drinks less overall than their predecessors, swapping evening bar crawls for daytime coffee raves.

“I think of neighbourhood bars as focusing on simplicity and character, with an interior design that isn’t too elaborate,” says Antonio Lai, co-owner of Tastings Group, whose bars include Quinary, The Opposites and Draft Land.

A significant portion of bars that opened in the last two to three years have embraced some blend of relaxed atmosphere, simple drinks and a focus on community – think Socio, which upcycles surplus and waste ingredients from other venues, or Sugar King with its standing-room-only approach to Cuban-inspired cocktails. Hong Kong’s biggest success on the world stage, 2025 World’s Best Bar, Bar Leone is founded on similar tenets: accessible drinks and a convivial, casual atmosphere.

“Neighbourhood bars, to me, are places to have a drink in comfort,” says Samuel Kwok, who co-founded The Opposites with Lai. “Some places, like hotels, give the impression that you have to dress up a bit, or act or sit in a certain way,” he adds. “Sugar King and Mius [founded by Shelley Tai] have an atmosphere where you can just go in and have a drink, and the staff won’t bother you too frequently.”