Cocktail Bars in Munich
Munich's cocktail scene starts with Charles Schumann, who tended bar in the city from 1973, opened his own bar on Maximilianstrasse in 1982 and moved it to Odeonsplatz in 2003. Upstairs, Les Fleurs du Mal pours at a single nine-meter table made from one tree, and was Germany's Bar of the Year at the 2017 Mixology Bar Awards. In the Haus der Kunst, Die Goldene Bar keeps gold-leaf murals that map where drinks come from, from Cuba and Jamaica to Champagne. Across the Isar in Haidhausen, Emanuele Ingusci has run Barroom, a tiny rum bar, since 2008. Call Soul in Schwabing is themed on Breaking Bad. These are the five we would start with.
- Schumann’s Bar am Hofgarten50 BESTCocktail Bar
Schumann’s Bar am Hofgarten
Charles Schumann's Munich institution, facing the Hofgarten from Odeonsplatz. The house style is spare and classical, a short list of drinks made without ceremony by a team in white jackets, and it has shaped how a generation of German bartenders think about a cocktail. Open from morning through to late.
Odeonsplatz 6-7, 80539 MunichFull profile - Die Goldene Bar50 BESTCocktail Bar
Die Goldene Bar
Inside the Haus der Kunst on Prinzregentenstrasse, under 1930s gold-leaf murals of the wine and spirit regions of the world. It works as a cafe by day and a cocktail bar at night, with a terrace onto the Englischer Garten, and the room is the reason to come as much as the list.
Prinzregentenstrasse 1, 80538 MunichFull profile - BarroomCocktail Bar
Barroom
A Haidhausen bar built around rum, with a list that travels from the Caribbean and Latin America through Panama to India and Australia. The room is classical and unshowy and the bar treats the category as a subject to be worked through rather than a shelf to be shown off.
Milchstrasse 17, 81667 MunichFull profile - Call SoulCocktail Bar
Call Soul
A Breaking Bad themed bar in Schwabing, and more serious about the drinks than the premise suggests. The room is staged as a lab, the cocktails are built with theatrical presentation, and the team describe the whole thing as an obsession rather than a gimmick.
Biedersteiner Strasse 6, 80802 MunichFull profile - Les Fleurs du MalCocktail Bar
Les Fleurs du Mal
The upstairs room above Schumann's on Odeonsplatz, run as its own bar rather than an overflow: darker, quieter and more deliberate than the ground floor, with a list that leans on Charles Schumann's own canon of classics. One of four rooms the Schumann's name covers in Munich.
Odeonsplatz 6-7, 80539 MunichFull profile
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- Ory BarHotel Bar
Ory Bar
Ory has been the bar of the Mandarin Oriental in Munich's Altstadt since 2018, a room built on fine materials, generous geometry and an avant-garde feel. Selektiv Studio designed it, down to a wall structure made for the room. The signature list maps Munich itself: Vibrant Silence, for the Isar, mixes tequila with meadowsweet distillate, hops and verjus; the Bavarian Old Fashioned, for the Wirtshaus, pairs Hibiki Harmony whisky with pretzel distillate and chocolate malt; and the Kir Royal 2.0, for Schwabing, adds parmesan to cognac, apricot brandy, cranberry and champagne. A separate list of eight alcohol-free drinks sits alongside, and the whisky and champagne selection runs deep. Sebastian Hess is partner and bar manager.
Neuturmstraße 1, 80331 MunichSun-Thu 17:00-01:00, Fri-Sat 17:00-02:00Full profile - Zum WolfWhiskey Bar
Zum Wolf
Zum Wolf in the Glockenbachviertel calls itself the Home of Whiskey & Blues, a neighborhood hangout styled after American cocktail bars and juke joints. The shelves run deep in whiskey and bourbon, including the bar's own Maker's Mark Private Select edition. The house list keeps to that spirit, from the 8 Foot Punch of Jamaican and overproof rum, mandarin liqueur, lime, orgeat and nutmeg to a Smoked Old Fashioned with Buffalo Trace, Islay whisky and lapsang tea syrup, while the König Otto Spezial tops rye and Greek vermouth with champagne. The soundtrack is rhythm and blues, jazz and soul, with a vinyl night from the house records every second Sunday.
Pestalozzistraße 22, 80469 MunichDaily from 18:00; Sun-Thu to 01:00, Fri-Sat to 02:00Full profile
More of Munich
These are the cocktail bars specifically. The full Munich guide ranks the best bars of every style, and the directory lists all 10 with a map and filters.
