From mythology-inspired nightcaps to nostalgic Japanese soda floats, the best Singapore bars are proving that a great cocktail menu can still surprise, delight and occasionally make you smile.
A new cocktail menu often reveals as much about a bar as the drinks themselves. This quarter, the best of Singapore’s bars are drawing inspiration from an eclectic mix of sources, transforming everything from personal memories and cultural identities to music, mythology and even emotional states into liquid form.
Whether you’re after a perfectly executed Martini variation, a cocktail inspired by duck à l’orange, an Indian twist on the Margarita or a whisky-based drink chosen according to your mood, there is plenty to discover.
Here are the latest cocktail menus worth seeking out across Singapore right now.
Jigger & Pony buds a new ‘BLOOM’ menu.
Singapore’s most awarded cocktail bar Jigger & Pony has unveiled ‘BLOOM’, a reworked 21-drink compendium that finds Jigger & Pony refining familiar flavours through thoughtful technique rather than chasing novelty for novelty’s sake. Structured around four chapters — Hope, Growth, Beauty and Just Be — the collection largely reinterprets well-known cocktail templates, resulting in a menu that’s creative yet remaining approachable.
Among the standouts is the Mango Margarita, which layers green and ripe mango with tequila and mezcal before replacing the traditional salt rim with Sichuan peppercorn tincture for an unexpected savoury lift. The Wasabi Highball offers a more restrained take on Japanese flavours, pairing Japanese whisky with housemade apricot soda and a gradual wasabi warmth, while the Peach Party is a playful floral, gin-based riff inspired by the classic Sex on the Beach — remember those? — that offers ripe peach, delicate florals and bright citrus notes that’s distinctly summer-ready.
Elsewhere, the Strawberry Matcha Cloud combines strawberry, vanilla milk punch and matcha cream over a structured base of gin, sherry and absinthe, delivering the sort of textural complexity that has become a Jigger & Pony signature.
The new menu is at its strongest when revisiting classics. The Bloom Martini employs carbonation, degassing and sub-zero resting techniques to subtly enhance texture while preserving the drink’s essential Martini character, while Always Autumn brings together Macallan Double Cask 12 Year Old, apple, sherry and baking spices in an elegant Old Fashioned-adjacent format.
Altogether, Jigger & Pony’s new ‘BLOOM’ is technically accomplished, flavour-focused, and absolutely comfortable letting the drinks do the talking. And we expect nothing less from Singapore’s best bar.
Jigger & Pony | 165 Tanjong Pagar Road, Amara Hotel, Singapore 088539 (Google Maps link) | 6pm to 2am Wednesdays to Saturdays; 6pm to 12am Sundays to Tuesdays | www.jiggerandpony.com | 9621 1074 | book here
ATLAS introduces its ‘Daughters of Atlas’.
Greek mythology tells of the seven Pleiades, daughters of the Titan Atlas who were transformed into stars and immortalised as a constellation in the night sky. ATLAS’s latest cocktail menu, ‘Daughters of ATLAS’, translates the personalities of these celestial sisters into 16 cocktails organised across seven chapters.
Among the highlights is Golden Hour, inspired by the romantic Merope, a velvety combination of oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherries with caramelised roasted butternut squash and fried sage that drinks like autumn in a glass. Wingbeat offers a refreshingly savoury interpretation of a Gimlet, pairing dill-infused gin with a housemade tzatziki cordial inspired by the classic Greek dish, while The Doe layers vodka, peach, jasmine and Italian Passito dessert wine into an elegant floral serve that feels totally at home in ATLAS’s Art Deco surroundings. Equally captivating is Apple Aria, where mezcal, green apple and elderflower create a deceptively simple cocktail that gradually reveals smoke, bitterness and fruit with each sip.
The most memorable drink, however, may be The Illusionist, a clever homage to duck à l’orange that combines duck fat-washed rye, cognac, orange gastrique and Champagne into a surprisingly harmonious nightcap.
We like that beneath the mythological references and elegant presentation lies a collection of thoughtfully constructed cocktails that’s pivoted away from its previous Art Deco-inspired collections to present one of the bar’s most narrative-driven menus to date.
Hot tip: Ask your friendly bartender to point out the celestial sisters painted into the magnificent artwork that grace the soaring ceiling of this grand lobby bar.
ATLAS | 600 North Bridge Rd, Parkview Square, Singapore 188778 (Google Maps link) | 3pm to 12am on Mondays; 12pm to 12am Tuesdays to Thursdays; 12pm to 2am on Fridays and Saturdays; closed Sundays | www.atlasbar.sg | 6396 4466 | online reservations
Stay Gold The Bartender’s Diary spins a whole new ‘Vol. II: The Mixtape’.
There are many reasons to visit cocktail watering hole Stay Gold — such as its rocking playlist and playful Asian bar bites — but primarily the reason we go are its music-inspired cocktails that combine nostalgia and edgy innovation. For the second instalment of The Bartender’s Diary, ‘Vol. II: The Mixtape’ organises the new menu like a well-loved record collection, divided into Anthems, B-Sides and Remastered chapters that celebrate returning favourites, experimental creations and reimagined classics respectively. Inspired by the scribbled notebooks bartenders accumulate through years of service, training and late-night experimentation, it captures a bar that remains refreshingly unpretentious despite its growing reputation.
You have the Michelada, a wildly ambitious gastronomic reinterpretation of the Mexican classic built around tequila, a housemade beef-fat and beef-stock tomato soup, egg yolk and Asahi lager that somehow manages to remain dangerously drinkable, but we’re bigger fans of Spicy Mango Margarita, which delivers exactly the tropical heat promised by its name through mezcal, Alphonso mango and chilli tincture.
Beautiful Monster from the B-Sides section disguises a full-blown tropical tiki cocktail beneath crystal-clear elegance through milk washing, blending banana rum, pineapple, ginger and orgeat into a drink that is both familiar and surprising. Meanwhile, Dirty Bananas reimagines the Espresso Martini through bourbon, cold brew coffee and overripe banana, creating something richer, softer and altogether more playful.
We like that the menu balances nostalgia with discovery, proving that Stay Gold remains one of Singapore’s most serious bars precisely because it knows when to balance experimentation and popular favourites. You know, like a good ol’ school mixtape.
Stay Gold | 69 Amoy St, Singapore 069888 (Google Maps link) | 5pm to 12am Mondays to Saturdays; closed on Sundays | www.staygoldflamingo.com | 8876 7364 | book here
The Elephant Room unveils Menu Edition 3.0.
We’ve always known The Elephant Room to be a champion of Indian flavours, and its latest menu — the not so very imaginatively named ‘Menu Edition 3.0’ — doubles down on that philosophy by transforming everyday dishes, snacks and cultural touchstones from across the Indian subcontinent into drinks that are equal parts cheeky and technically accomplished.
A number of its popular signatures remain on the menu, such as the floral jasmine-forward Jothi’s Flower Shop and the guava-inflected Buffalo Road that’s been on the menu since day one but gently tweaked over the years. But it’s really the new drinks that push the culture-driven cocktail bar into gastronomic territory, with each drink drawing inspiration from flavours that many guests will recognise from the dining table rather than the back bar.
India’s Fav Child is a tequila-based liquid love letter to the subcontinent’s king of fruits, the mango, while Mr Samy’s Curry reimagines the iconic institution’s fish head curry into a cocktail. Then there’s Monkey King, a gin creation based around the banana — in Hindu culture a symbol of purity, fertility and prosperity. Oh, and be sure to order the off-menu Picante, their take on essentially a spicy Margarita that has recently become the unofficial national cocktail in India.
As with The Elephant Room’s previous menus, not every drink bas been designed to be universally appealing — and that is precisely the point. This is a continued drinks exploration of contemporary Indian identity, resulting is one of Singapore’s most distinctive cocktail programmes.
The Elephant Room | 33 Tanjong Pagar Road, #01-02, Singapore 088456 (Google Maps link) | 6pm to 12am Tuesdays to Thursdays; 6pm to 2am Fridays and Saturdays; closed on Sundays and Mondays | www.theelephantroom.sg | 9111 5131 | book here
Bar Kakure stirs up memories with From Yokohama.
It’s not often that Bar Kakure drops a new menu, but when our favourite Japanese speakeasy does it’s full of intent and meaning. Inspired by head bartender Kazuhiro Chii’s childhood memories growing up in Yokohama, his new small yet tightly five-cocktail collection is a nostalgic liquid recollection of everyday moments from summer festivals and family shopping trips to quiet afternoons spent with parents and grandparents.
The drinks themselves are full of whimsy, and if you’ve ever grown up in the ’80s and ’90s around Japanese Showa-era cafes you’ll also recognise many of these flavours. There’s Blue Marble, reimagines the iconic Ramune soda through mugi shochu, peach liqueur, Cointreau and tonic water, complete with a house-made agar marble dropped into the glass by the guest. After School elevates the familiar flavours of Calpis into a silky cocktail of gin, lychee liqueur, coconut syrup and cream, finished with rose water and an edible flower.
Most playful is That Green, a luxurious interpretation of melon cream soda where Midori, gin, Italicus bergamot and Champagne are crowned with vanilla ice cream, gradually evolving from refreshing aperitif to decadent dessert as the float slowly melts into the drink. But the menu’s emotional core emerges most clearly in Three O’Clock and Anmitsu. The former channels childhood coffee shop visits through peated Scotch, coffee liqueur, PX sherry and house-made coffee jelly for a smoky, bittersweet sipper, while the latter draws inspiration from afternoons spent with Chii’s grandmother, combining azuki bean- and kuromitsu-washed rum with apricot liqueur and yuzu in an Old Fashioned.
These are deeply personal memories, yet Chii’s craftsmanship makes them feel surprisingly universal — a reminder that some of the most heartwarming cocktail stories begin not with grand vision but with the small moments we carry with us long after childhood ends.
The Bar Kakure | 29 Scotts Rd, Singapore 228224 (Google Maps link) | 6pm to 1am Mondays to Saturdays; closed on Sundays | thebarkakure.com | 9061 6109 | book here
Origin Bar marks its cocktail intentions with ‘X’.
We’ve always known Origin Bar to be on the cutting-edge of mixology, but then its latest cocktail menu ‘X’ comes along and pushes things even further. Built around the idea of intersection, the bar’s latest collection of 16 cocktails explore the point where cultures, memories, ingredients and traditions collide to create something entirely new.
If that sounds abstract, that’s because it is. The menu attempts to connect the dots between seemingly unrelated ideas, resulting in drinks that bizarrely feel at once nostalgic and inventive. Take for example Respect the Martini, which marries Korean Shine Muscat grapes with Japanese sake, wakamomo and Ford’s Gin for a heady Martini variation, while DJ Pepper cleverly reimagines Dr Pepper as a cocktail, blending vodka, sour cherry spirit and a housemade cola hydrosol into a lively, effervescent highball that captures the soft drink’s familiar flavour profile without simply replicating it. Equally memorable is Affogato Colada, which combines single malt Scotch, baked pineapple, coconut and yuan yang — the beloved Southeast Asian mix of coffee and tea — into a rich yet balanced tropical dessert cocktail.
The menu becomes even more obtuse with drinks such as Pain Au Chocolat, a meeting of Parisian pastry culture and New Orleans’ Sazerac tradition through rye whiskey, burnt butter, granola, chocolate and absinthe, while Burnt Ramos channels burnt cheesecake into a dairy-free Ramos Gin Fizz riff built around black lime and coconut yoghurt.
Throughout the menu, Origin Bar demonstrates a knack for taking flavours we already recognise yet presenting them through an entirely different lens to shock and awe.
Confusing? Yes. Delicious? Also yes.
Origin Bar| Lobby Level, Tower Wing, Shangri-La Singapore, 22 Orange Grove Rd, Singapore 258350 (Google Maps link) | 5.30pm to 1am daily | www.shangri-la.com/singapore/shangrila/dining/bars-lounges/origin-bar | 6213 4595 | book here
Quaich Bar Wanderlust offers up some welcome ‘Mood Therapy’.
We know Quaich Bar Wanderlust more for its fantastic range of whiskies, but cocktail aficionados also know they serve up some interesting cocktails. Especially their latest menu ‘Mood Therapy’, which takes a refreshingly fun approach to cocktail discovery by encouraging guests to choose according to how they feel as opposed to picking drinks by spirit, style or flavour profile. Indeed, the new cocktail collection is presented as a tarot-inspired series of mood cards that invites you to match your emotional state — or desired one — with a cocktail designed to either amplify or transform the evening.
The drinks themselves offer plenty of personality beneath the mood-based framework. The Sunset is an easy-drinking highball that combines hibiscus-infused Tomatin whisky with tequila-spiked orange nectar and carbonation, resulting in a bright, citrus-forward serve with floral undertones and a refreshing finish. For something richer, The Sweet Ember layers peated Tomintoul whisky and Cognac with chamomile, rye and lavender bitters before finishing with aromatic anise smoke, creating a cocktail that balances gentle sweetness with warming spice and smoke. Meanwhile, Ocean & Maple showcases Quaich’s whisky credentials through the maritime salinity of Currach Atlantic Kombu whiskey, complemented by maple syrup and chocolate bitters for a savoury-sweet profile that unfolds with surprising depth.
Also interesting are different six whisky-based aperitifs bottled for sharing. Sitting at a relatively approachable 10.7% to 13.3% ABV, these still and sparkling wine-inspired serves offer a lighter alternative to traditional whisky drinking while retaining enough character to satisfy enthusiasts.
Altogether Wanderlust’s choose-your-own-adventure drinking experience removes much of the intimidation that can sometimes come with navigating a serious whisky-focused bar. So how are you feeling today?
Quaich Bar Wanderlust| 80 Middle Road, Frasers House, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Singapore 188966 (Google Maps link) | 5pm to 1am Mondays to Thursdays; 5pm to 2am Fridays and Saturdays; closed on Sundays | https://quaichbar.com.sg/quaich-bar-wanderlust | 9818 0885 | book here
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