New York has 5 hotel bars in the BarMagazine directory, and The Portrait Bar leads the pack. This guide covers the hotel bars specifically; the full New York picture, all 54 bars of it, lives on the city page. Each listing is verified, with the address, opening hours and what to order.
An intimate cocktail bar and lounge inside The Fifth Avenue Hotel in NoMad, with wood panelling, a carved stone fireplace and an extensive collection of portraits. Bar Director Darryl Chan oversees a program of refined cocktails and elevated bar fare. It currently stands at No. 71 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026.
The Lobby Bar sits inside The Hotel Chelsea on West 23rd Street and is open from late morning to two in the morning every day. Its signature is the 1884 Martini, made with gin, cedro lemon, vetiver and Spanish olive oil, and the list runs from a tribute to Arnaud's French 75 to a non-alcoholic Strawberry Sbagliato, with wine, beer, sake and small plates alongside.
Nubeluz is José Andrés' cocktail bar on the top floor of The Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad, five hundred feet up with views across the skyline. The name joins the Spanish words for cloud and light, and the signature Foggy Hill pairs Del Maguey Vida mezcal with Yzaguirre vermouth, Cynar and Aperol under an orange and thyme aromatic cloud. Reservations are required, guests must be 21 and over, and a cocktail dress code is enforced.
Raines Law Room at the William opened in 2014 inside a Beaux-Arts townhouse hotel on East 39th Street, the second location of the cocktail parlor Meaghan Dorman and Alberto Benenati first opened in Chelsea in 2009. It is a seated lounge spread across four rooms, the Hawthorne Room, the Peacock Room, the Library and the Terrace, with a menu of twenties-inspired cocktails and a zero-proof section.
The Carlyle's legendary room, adorned with the murals Ludwig Bemelmans painted, nearly eighty years of history and still one of New York's most enchanting salons. Live entertainment nightly: piano from 5:30pm, jazz trio from 9pm, with a per-person music charge. The Hanky-Panky-era glamour survives in serves like Madeline's Vesper and the nori-dusted Gibson.
These are the hotel bars specifically. The full New York guide ranks the best bars of every style, and the directory lists all 54 with a map and filters.
Best bars in New York