Bar Leone Keeps First Place in Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2025

Bar Leone, in Hong Kong, was named the best bar in Asia for the second consecutive year on 15 July 2025. The tenth edition of Asia’s 50 Best Bars was announced at a ceremony hosted by Wynn in Macau, the first time the awards had been held in the city. The list drew on bars in 20 cities.

The top five

Zest, in Seoul, was second, and Jigger & Pony, in Singapore, third. Two Bangkok bars followed: Bar Us in fourth place and Dry Wave Cocktail Studio in fifth, the highest new entry of the year.

Bar Leone opened in June 2023 on Bridges Street, in the Central district of Hong Kong. Its owner, Lorenzo Antinori, a Roman who had run the bars of the Four Seasons hotels in Seoul and Hong Kong, modelled it on the neighbourhood bars of his own city: football scarves and old posters on the walls, mortadella sandwiches and smoked olives on the counter, and a short list of classic drinks made with great care. It entered the Asian list at No.1 in 2024, which no bar had done before.

Cities

Bangkok had seven bars on the list, the most of any city, and Hong Kong six. Japan, Indonesia and Singapore had five or more each. Twenty of the fifty bars were new entries, the largest turnover in several years and a sign of how quickly the region’s bar scene is spreading beyond its established capitals. Alice, in Seoul, was the highest climber, rising 33 places to No.13.

Awards

Jay Khan, the founder of Coa in Hong Kong, received the Industry Icon award. Coa led the list for three years from 2021 to 2023 and did much to establish the city’s reputation. The Sustainable Bar award went to Sora in Phnom Penh for its work on waste.

What followed

Three months later, at a ceremony in Hong Kong, Bar Leone was also named No.1 in The World’s 50 Best Bars, the first bar in Asia to lead the global ranking. In 2026 the Asian title passed to Hope & Sesame of Guangzhou.

The ceremony was one of several that Macau has attracted as it works to add food and drink to its appeal, among them the 2018 restaurant awards, held at Wynn Palace.