Bars

The best bars in Keong Saik & Tanjong Pagar

Edited by Jamie 15 October 2026

You could drink your way round the world's bar lists without leaving these few streets.

Keong Saik Road, Bukit Pasoh, Duxton and the stretch of Tanjong Pagar Road around them are the best few blocks in Singapore for a night of bar-hopping, because nothing is more than ten minutes on foot from Outram Park or Tanjong Pagar MRT. The shophouses that once held clan associations and coffee shops now hold some of the bars that keep the city on Asia's 50 Best list year after year.

Order the night by appetite. Start with a sommelier on Duxton Hill, move to a Japanese-style lounge on Bukit Pasoh, slip through a curtain on Duxton Road and finish with somaek on Tras Street. That route puts the quiet rooms first and the fried chicken last, which is the right way round.

Book the big names for a weekend or go early. Midweek is when bartenders have time to talk, and in this neighbourhood that is half the point. Pace yourself, drink water between rounds and take a cab home.

From Sunday 11 October 2026 · Refreshed each season

The collection

1. Jigger & Pony
Tanjong Pagar
Ninth on Asia's 50 Best Bars in 2026, its eighth straight year in the regional top ten, and Best Bar in Singapore again. If you book one table on this crawl, make it this one. It lives in the Amara Hotel on Tanjong Pagar Road and writes its menus like magazines, which are worth reading properly rather than skimming for the cheapest line. Order the yuzu whisky sour that made its name, and book ahead for a weekend.
2. BOP (Bartenders of Pony)
Tanjong Pagar
Jigger & Pony's creative director Uno Jang, unplugged: Korean cocktails, somaek, fried chicken and a room lined with his vinyl. It came in at No. 52 on Asia's 51–100 list in 2026, the highest new entry. This is the stop for a group that wants the street's pedigree without the hushed reverence. Make it the last one: somaek and fried chicken are a finish, not a warm-up, and Tras Street is a short walk from everything else here.
3. Cat Bite Club
Tanjong Pagar
Through the curtain at Monument Coffee on Duxton Road, with more than 200 agave bottles and a deliberately unfinished room. It is the stop for tequila and mezcal drinkers, and the entrance does half the work for anyone who hasn't been. Open with the Cat Bite Margarita, then ask for something from the shelves you can't pronounce. Bring the friend who thinks tequila only comes with salt and lime.

4. Side Door
Tanjong Pagar
A 40-seat bar run by Tryson Quek and Bannie Kang, Asia's Bartenders' Bartender of 2021, and No. 57 on Asia's 51–100 for 2026. Choose it when you want to watch the people making the drinks: sit at the counter rather than a table, and start with the Easy Peasy. Forty seats is not many on a Saturday, so make this a midweek stop or an early one.
5. Live Twice
Bukit Pasoh
A 1960s Tokyo cocktail lounge on Bukit Pasoh, with original Falcon chairs, washi-lined walls and around 40 seats. Drinks follow a four-ingredient rule, which makes them look simple and taste anything but. Put it in the middle of the night, when conversation matters more than volume, and book if you are more than two; a room that size doesn't stretch.
6. Gibson
Bukit Pasoh
The Bukit Pasoh martini bar marked its tenth year with a new menu, Timeless, and a martini made for fries, which settles the bar-snack question for good. It is upstairs in a restored 1930s shophouse with the original stained glass. Of all the stops on this crawl, it is the one for a classic drinker: order the namesake Gibson or that martini-and-fries pairing, and don't rush either.
7. Your Mother's House
Tanjong Pagar
Two Employees Only alumni took over the old No Sleep Club unit at 20 Keong Saik Road in late August 2026. It is the late stop: less ceremony than the award-list bars, and an upsized Indomie goreng as the bar snack, which is what the end of a long night calls for. It is still new, so check the current list and prices before you settle in.
8. Praelum Wine Bistro
Tanjong Pagar
For the wine drinker in the group, and the right place to start the night. On Duxton Hill since 2011, with a walk-in cellar of around 350 labels and owner Gerald Lu, president of the Sommelier Association of Singapore. Walk in and pick your own bottle; ask for a steer if 350 labels is more choice than you came for.