Bar Benfiddich

A small, doctor's-office-aesthetic cocktail bar in Shinjuku where head bartender Hiroyasu Kayama works in a white lab coat, foraging Japanese mugwort, hops, and absinthe-wormwood from a farm outside Tokyo to make his own infusions. World's #19 in 2025, Best Bar in Japan. Cluttered shelves, low light, more apothecary than bar. Best for a slow late-evening drink with a curious palate.

Order: whatever Kayama is making with foraged ingredients that month.

Virtù

A precise, intimate cocktail room on the fourth floor of the Four Seasons Tokyo at Otemachi, World's #45 in 2025. Bar director Keith Motsi (Zimbabwean, Tokyo-based) builds drinks around Japanese seasonal ingredients with a continental cocktail-bar formality. Reservation-only, six seats at the bar, the kind of room that feels like a private dinner. Best for an anniversary drink or the start of a quiet evening.

Order: the Virtù signature, or whatever Motsi is pouring that night.

The Bellwood

A two-floor cocktail bar in Shibuya from Atsushi Suzuki, World's #48 in 2025, where the upstairs is a 1970s Tokyo aesthetic and the downstairs runs more casual. The program leans on yuzu, shiso, sansho, and kinako, with classic technique behind everything. Best for an early-evening Highball before dinner in Shibuya.

Order: a Highball, made the way the Japanese tradition built it.

Bar High Five

A basement cocktail bar in Ginza from Hidetsugu Ueno, no menu, no website, no signage. Ueno is one of the most influential figures in modern Japanese bartending; the ice is hand-cut, the technique is precise, and the bartender chooses the drink based on conversation. Best for a deliberate single-cocktail visit; not a place to bar-hop.

Order: a Whisky Sour. A Sidecar. Whichever classic Ueno suggests.

Sushi Suntos

A modern sushi-ya in Omotesando from Kyosuke Tsunashima, where the omakase is paired with natural wine rather than sake. Twenty-plus courses, sushi designed around the wine pairing rather than the other way around, bold technique with a creative streak (a "Tuna Trio with sea urchin and salmon roe" is the signature). Best for an unusual sushi experience for someone who's already done the conventional version.

Gyopao Gyoza

A high-energy Japanese-Taiwanese fusion soup-gyoza shop in Roppongi, top-rated on Tripadvisor and Google for Tokyo for several years running. The signature is gyoza in chicken-bone broth, not the pan-fried version common in Japan; small room, lively service, the unfancy counterpoint to the city's hotel-bar circuit. Best for a casual lively dinner before or after a night of bars in Roppongi.

Park Hyatt Tokyo

The Shinjuku tower above the Park Hyatt, the *Lost in Translation* hotel, reopened December 2025 after a two-year renovation. The New York Bar on the 52nd floor remains one of the most loved hotel bars in Asia; New York Grill alongside it is the dining room of record for the address. Tony Chi's redesign respected Yoshio Taniguchi's original architecture.

Bulgari Hotel Tokyo

Crowning the Tokyo Midtown Yaesu skyscraper, the Bulgari Hotel Tokyo debuted as the 2023 flagship and currently holds the #15 spot on The World's 50 Best Hotels list. This Rome-meets-Tokyo aerie represents a high-gloss evolution of the city's luxury landscape, trading the cinematic nostalgia of older icons for the vibrant energy of the central Ginza-Nihombashi corridor. The experience culminates at the 45th-floor rooftop bar, where guests sip Italian-inflected cocktails between two lush terraces (one planted with lemon trees, the other with yuzu) suspended high above the Tokyo skyline.