LatestBarsPeopleCocktailsAwardsBrandsEventsBar DirectoryList Your Bar

The 5 Best Bars in Cape Town

Cape Town's cocktail season arrives with winter, when its bartenders work behind low-lit doors and in speakeasy rooms, and most of its best bars sit in the city center. The best bars in Cape Town start on Shortmarket Street, where The House of Machines is a coffee spot for remote workers by day and a noisy cocktail joint by night that locals point to for the city's best negroni. Up the street, The Drinkery, opened in 2020, is a modern speakeasy hidden upstairs in Heritage Square, overlooking the oldest fruit-bearing vine in the Southern Hemisphere. On Buitenkant Street, The Art of Duplicity channels a 1920s speakeasy in a restored Victorian-era warehouse and placed on the 51-100 list of The World's 50 Best Bars 2020, 2021 and 2022. On Long Street, Nkula Cocktail & Wine Boutique blends classic cocktails with South African wines and puts Black and Brown winemakers in the spotlight. The Art of Duplicity needs a booking and a password. These are the five we would start with.

Browse every Cape Town barBest cocktail bars in Cape Town
  1. Cause Effect Cocktail Kitchen & Cape Brandy Bar
    50 BESTCocktail Bar

    Cause Effect Cocktail Kitchen & Cape Brandy Bar

    A proudly South African cocktail bar and cocktail kitchen in the V&A Waterfront's Pierhead district, serving inventive terroir-driven cocktails inspired by Cape Town's oceans, mountains and fynbos. It doubles as the Cape Brandy Bar, holding an impressive collection of Cape potstill brandies and local spirits, and is a popular sundowner spot.

    Rocket Store, 280 Dock Road, Pierhead District, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town 8001Daily 10:00–00:00
    Full profile
  2. The Art of Duplicity
    50 BESTSpeakeasy

    The Art of Duplicity

    The Art of Duplicity keeps its own description to five words, luxurious, glamorous, decadent, hush-hush, tempted, and runs its bookings through a waitlist on its site. Its Instagram gives the rest: 36 Buitenkant Street in the city center, open from ten in the morning until late, seven days.

    36 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town 8001Mon-Sun 10:00-late
    Full profile
  3. The House of Machines
    50 BESTCocktail Bar

    The House of Machines

    A multifaceted venue combining a working motorcycle shop with a coffee shop, cocktail bar, craft beer selection, restaurant, menswear boutique and live-music space, set among exposed brick and wooden beams. It is the original Cape Town outpost of a brand with sister venues abroad.

    84 Shortmarket Street, Cape Town City Centre, 8000
    Full profile
  4. Nkula Cocktail & Wine Boutique
    Wine Bar

    Nkula Cocktail & Wine Boutique

    Nkula describes itself as Black-owned, wine-led and cocktail-rebellious, a cocktail and wine boutique on Long Street rooted in what it calls a Biko Black philosophy: in an industry where Black and Brown winemakers are often overlooked, it puts their craft, brands and legacy on the list, and calls the result African luxury told by us, for everyone. On First Thursdays winemakers pour their latest releases with DJs in the room. Open every day from one in the afternoon until two.

    188A Long Street, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town 8001Mon-Sun 13:00-02:00
    Full profile
  5. The Drinkery
    Cocktail Bar

    The Drinkery

    The Drinkery calls itself a classic cocktail bar, and on its own site Cape Town's classic and lavish bar: a vintage-inspired lounge on the mezzanine level of 100 Shortmarket Street in the City Centre, with a Club Classics section on the drinks list, cocktails and snacks, and a wine list alongside. The site runs in English and Italian. Open Monday to Saturday from five until late.

    100 Shortmarket Street, Mezzanine Level, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town 8001Mon-Sat 17:00-late
    Full profile
Flavour Blaster

Best bars in nearby cities

Explore the whole Cape Town scene

These 5 are the starting point. The full BarMagazine directory covers every listed bar in Cape Town, with a map, filters by bar type, and new openings as we verify them.

Best cocktail barsAll 10 bars in Cape Town

Best bars in other cities

2,400+ bars285 cities
Bar Directory