Guangzhou’s Hope & Sesame has taken top honours in Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2026 in a ceremony held at Wynn Palace, Macau.

Seoul’s Zest took second place in the list for the third year while Bar Leone, winner of the past two editions and reigning World’s Best Bar, completed the podium.

Hope & Sesame’s win is the first for a bar from mainland China; elsewhere, Bangkok was the most represented city with eight entries, followed closely by Hong Kong with seven.

In all, the ceremony featured bars from 22 cities, with 14 making debuts in the ranking.

“There’s a lot of emotion tonight,” said co-founder Bastien Ciocca. “We started 10 years ago as a small place in Guangzhou and each year we tried to do a bit more and to be here now is amazing.”

Bangkok’s Dry Wave Cocktail Studio took fourth place in the list, and MO Bar Shenzhen rose to fifth.

“We don’t see ourselves as just a part of Guangzhou or Shenzhen; we see ourselves as part of the whole of China,” said co-founder Andrew Ho. “[This result] has been a long time coming.”

Lennon’s in seventh, also in Bangkok, was named Highest New Entry while Bar Sathorn rose 31 places to No.17 to take home the Highest Climber Award.

Alongside the ranking, a number of special awards were handed out on the night, including Best New Opening, awarded to Workshop14 in Hanoi; Hong Kong’s Mius for Best Bar Design; Smoke & Bitters in Hiriketiya, Sri Lanka, was awarded the Art of Hospitality Award; and Coa in Hong Kong, which twice topped the list, was named Legend of the List.

In the individual awards, Indra Kantono, co-founder of Jigger & Pony, received the Industry Icon Award and Shelley Tai of Mius won the Bartenders’ Bartender Award.