The 12 Best Cocktail Bars in Los Angeles
Los Angeles has 19 cocktail bars in the BarMagazine directory, and Mírate leads the pack. The 12 below are the ones we would send you to first. This guide covers the cocktail bars specifically; the full Los Angeles picture, all 19 bars of it, lives on the city page. Each listing is verified, with the address, opening hours and what to order.
★ TOP 10Cocktail BarMírate
Bar Director Max Reis and Chef Alan Sanz earned the Nikka Highest Climber Award after jumping thirty-four places to No. 12 on North America's 50 Best Bars, plus No. 93 globally, with a program built on ancestral Mexican spirits: mezcals made with pre-Hispanic methods, sotol, raicilla, and bebidas ancestrales that most bars outside Oaxaca cannot source. The force-carbonated Tu Compa paloma and the El Pulquero cocktail channel agave culture through a multi-level open-air Los Feliz space with a dedicated cocktail test kitchen. Mírate translates from Spanish as "look at yourself." The industry is looking. It was a Top 4 finalist for World's Best Spirits Selection at the 2026 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.
1712 N Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027Mon-Wed 5pm-11pm, Thu-Fri 5pm-12am, Sat 11am-12am, Sun 11am-11pmFull profile
★ TOP 10Cocktail BarDaisy Margarita Bar
Max Reis and Chef Alan Sanz, the Mírate team, opened this modern cantina on Ventura Boulevard in May 2025, and PUNCH named it among the five best new cocktail bars in America. Named after the Daisy cocktail family that predates the margarita, the program applies Mírate's ancestral-spirit sourcing and test-kitchen technique to a format built for accessibility: ceviches, tacos, and cocktails that deploy techniques unlike anything on the Valley's Ventura corridor. Daisy Margarita Bar brings Los Feliz-calibre ambition to Sherman Oaks without the queue. Los Angeles rewards the curious driver: Historic Filipinotown to Silver Lake to Koreatown to the Valley, each neighborhood pouring with a conviction shaped by the community around it. The city's bar culture mirrors its geography, vast, diverse, and impossible to reduce to a single identity. That is the point. Fill the tank and start drinking. The latest lists place it at No. 44 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026.
14633 Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403Mon-Tue 5pm-11pm, Wed-Thu 5pm-12am, Fri 5pm-1am, Sat 11am-1am, Sun 11am-11pmFull profile
★ TOP 10Cocktail BarVandell
Shawn Lickliter and Vay Su opened on Hillhurst Avenue in December 2025 with thirty cocktails organized into signatures, classics with vintage spirits, zero-proof options, and forgotten recipes, gimlets, Saratogas, built from a backbar stocking vintage 1970s Campari and rare bottles. Lines form nightly down the block. The retro, low-lit room with dimly lit alcoves and a Red Room alcove channels mid-century Los Feliz without the irony. Vandell arrived without rankings but with the kind of instant neighborhood loyalty that rankings eventually follow. The walk-in queue is the price of admission. It was a Top 4 finalist for Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar at the 2026 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.
1966 Hillhurst Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027Tue-Sun 5pm-1am, Mon closedFull profile
★ TOP 10Cocktail BarThunderbolt
Mike Capoferri built a laboratory-adjacent cocktail bar where most drinks require at least forty-eight hours of preparation, centrifuges, high-pressure nitrous, multi-day infusions, and the 2025 Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award confirmed that zero-waste ambition and world-class results coexist at No. 24 on North America's 50 Best Bars. The program leans Southern-inspired with an all-gluten-free food menu, and an extensive Madeira collection on the back bar adds an unexpected depth. Bright, light-pink highlights and dark-green walls frame a breezy SoCal atmosphere that disguises the intensity behind every glass. The latest lists place it at No. 92 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026.
1263 W Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026Mon 5pm-12am, Wed-Thu 5pm-12am, Fri-Sat 5pm-1am, Tue closedFull profile
★ TOP 10Cocktail BarApothéke
The Los Angeles outpost of New York's Apothéke, set in Chinatown on North Spring Street. The bar applies the group's apothecary-inspired "medicinal mixology" approach, building botanical craft cocktails in a design-led lounge recognized for its interiors.
1746 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012Thu & Sun 7:00pm-12:00pm Fri–Sat 6:00pm-1:00amFull profile
★ TOP 10Cocktail BarDante Beverly Hills
The first West Coast outpost of New York's beloved Dante occupies the ninth floor of the Maybourne Beverly Hills with indoor and outdoor seating, a wood-fired pizza oven, and a rolling Negroni cart for tableside customisation. Ten martini variations, including the Upside Down Dirty Gibson and the Tequila Martini with Lo-Fi sweet vermouth and crème de cacao, anchor a program managed by bartender Pride, widely considered among the best in the world. A ten-dollar happy hour martini from 3 to 5 p.m. daily confirms that Beverly Hills pricing is negotiable. Dante translates effortlessly across coasts.
225 N Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210Mon-Fri 12pm-12am, Sat 10am-12am, Sun 10am-11pmFull profile
★ TOP 10Cocktail BarDeath & Co Los Angeles
The Los Angeles outpost of the influential cocktail bar group founded in Manhattan in 2006, set in the Arts District of downtown LA. The menu organizes an extensive cocktail list by flavor profile, served alongside a curated food menu of small plates and entrees.
818 E 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90013, United StatesSun–Tue 18:00–00:00, Wed–Thu 18:00–01:00, Fri–Sat 18:00–02:00Full profile
★ TOP 10Cocktail BarSeven Grand
A second-floor whiskey bar at the corner of Seventh Street and Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, part of the Pouring With Heart group with sister locations in San Diego, Austin, and Denver. The program centers on whiskey and classic spirits, with daily happy hour until 8pm.
515 W 7th St, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90014Daily 16:00–02:00Full profile
★ TOP 10Hotel BarThe Wolves
A cocktail bar styled after an early-1900s Parisian salon, set inside a historic building on Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. The room is known for its ornate antique interior, and service runs five nights a week with late hours on weekends.
519 S Spring St, Los Angeles, CASun–Mon & Thu 17:00–00:00, Fri–Sat 17:00–02:00Full profile
★ TOP 10Tiki BarTiki-Ti
Ray Buhen, one of the original "Four Boys" at Don the Beachcomber, opened this twelve-seat bar on Sunset Boulevard in April 1961, and his son Mike Sr. and grandson Mike Jr. still pour ninety-plus drinks from the same cramped counter. The 2025 Spirited Awards granted the Timeless U.S. Award to a venue that needs no validation from the present because it never stopped belonging to it. Ray's Mistake, accidentally created in 1968, remains on the menu. Tiki-Ti operates as living proof that a great bar needs nothing more than great drinks, a family that cares, and twelve seats.
4427 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027, United StatesWed-Sat 6pm-12amFull profile- Bar BenjaminCocktail Bar
Bar Benjamin
Ben Shenassafar, co-founder of streetwear brand The Hundreds, partnered with Jared Meisler of Roger Room and Bar Lubitsch fame to build a second-floor, reservation-preferred cocktail bar above The Benjamin restaurant on Melrose. A complimentary welcome drink, currently a clarified carrot-hazelnut-aquavit milk punch, sets the tone for a program that includes the Tom Kha-inspired Tommy Boy and what several critics have called the best non-alcoholic cocktails in Los Angeles. Bar Benjamin runs on impeccable interior design, serious service, and the confidence to give away the first drink.
7174 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046Tue-Thu 6pm-12am, Fri-Sat 6pm-1am, Mon closedFull profile - Bar FloresCocktail Bar
Bar Flores
An Echo Park cocktail bar on Sunset Boulevard that grew out of Sip, a nomadic pop-up speakeasy running since 2012, before settling into a permanent home. The program pairs vibrant cocktails with live music, and a taco patio operates Wednesday through Sunday. The bar does not take reservations.
1542 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026Mon–Fri 16:00–02:00, Sat–Sun 12:00–02:00Full profile
More of Los Angeles
These are the cocktail bars specifically. The full Los Angeles guide ranks the best bars of every style, and the directory lists all 19 with a map and filters.
Best bars in Los Angeles