To read the official guide to The World’s 50 Best Bars, read the Drinks International Global Bar Edition. 

Opened two years ago, bringing modernist, technique-driven cocktails to Barcelona, Sips is owned by Ex-El Bulli man Marc Alvarez and Simone Caporale, who is now the only bartender to have won The World’s 50 Best Bars five times, following wins at Artesian from 2012-2015.

It is now the second year running that The World’s 50 Best Bars Academy – a pool of 680 worldwide bar experts – has voted for a Barcelona bar as its number one, following Paradiso’s breakthrough triumph last year.

The results were unveiled this evening (October 17 2023) at the landmark Pasir Panjang Power Station in Singapore before a throng of 1,000 global bar industry onlookers.

Double Chicken Please – an ingredients-led cocktail bar in New York City’s Lower East Side opened by Taiwanese duo Faye Chen and GN Chan – jumped from sixth spot to second, cementing its reputation as The Best Bar in North America.

Handshake, the Mexican speakeasy fronted by Dutchman Eric van Beek, jumped eight places, leading a quartet of bars from Mexico City in this year’s list. It achieved the joint-best finish of any bar outside of London, New York and Barcelona.

Giacomo Gianniotti and Margarita Sader from Paradiso, a fantastical Dali-esque speakeasy entered through a pastrami shop in Barcelona, followed up last year’s win with another strong showing, finishing fourth.

While in fifth, and climbing three places, came the 2020-2021 champion Connaught Bar. The Mayfair hotel bar, helmed by Ago Perrone, Maura Milia and Giorgio Bargiani, is the highest placed of the five London bars on the list.

Maintaining their positions in the top ten are Paris’ Little Red Door in sixth, Mexico City’s Licorería Limantour in seventh, London’s Tayēr + Elementary in eighth and Cartagena’s Alquímico in ninth. Himkok from Oslo is the highest climber, moving 33 places to tenth.

This year’s list saw 11 new entries – Melbourne’s Caretaker’s Cottage, Rome’s Freni e Frizioni, New Orleans’ Jewel of the South, Bangkok’s Mahaniyom, Dubai’s Mimi Kakushi, Stockholm’s Röda Huset, Singapore’s Sago House, London’s Scarfes Bar, Paris’ The Cambridge, Berlin’s Wax On and Seoul’s Zest.

Singapore’s Atlas, Panda & Sons in Edinburgh and The SG Club from Tokyo re-entered the 50 having appeared in previous editions.

Among the 14 bars to have left the list are Attaboy, Dante and Employees Only from New York, Manhattan in Singapore and Two Schmucks in Barcelona.

The World’s 50 Best Bars 2023