Best Bar in the World? Now or then and why.

[Accy cyclist]

Does Wetherspoons/The Commercial in Accrington count?

 

[Arrowfoot]

Best bar in the world I been to was in Itaewon area of Seoul.It was about twenty years ago and you had to go up a flight of stairs. With 3 other conference participants, all foreigners, we walked around until we saw this signboard to the stairway and went upstairs. It had a proper international pub feel, very neat and clean. We ordered from their international selection of popular drops.

Within a few minutes we noticed something odd as the everyone of the staff were females and not a male in sight. To cut a long story short and after few inquiries we found that owner was a 30 something university grad and she was also the bartender. All her service staff were Uni undergrads who spoke good English. Apparently they wanted to prove a point and the Korean men are not happy. Hence their patrons are all foreigners and locals don't step in even if their custom is welcomed.

We had a good time and spent hours there drinking and chatting. As we were leaving, we noticed on the wall, so many postcards from around the World thanking the staff for their attitude and service.

I cannot remember the name or the place where it is located which is sad.

Since then I have come across pubs / bars in the Far East and South East Asia that had a similar story including wife taking over from her deceased spouse and making it a success.

The ambience, atmosphere is always different and people behave.

A word of advice - never order spirit in any Bali bar unless it part of 5 star hotel chain. It's adulterated.

 

[Rusty Nails]

I can remember the smartest, the quietest, the most expensive, the unfriendliest, the scruffiest, etc., but for some reason can't remember anything about the best.

 

[Grant Fondo]

Definitely The Marquee, where I once got mistaken for John McVie in the loo. I think Mayall was playing.
There was a drinking spot I used to frequent in Goodge Street called the The Capricorn Club, which was in a dive bar in a basement. Pretty dodgy place also full of ladies of the night. Mick the owner would also distribute other forms of stimulus besides drink. Never raided by the Old Bill so I guess they must have had 'an arrangement '. Not the best in the world but interesting. Good old London eh.

That's near one of my old haunts .... Carpenters Arms on Whitfield St!

 

[Grant Fondo]

A quick mention for the isolated Frog & Toad pub, Tai Long, Hong Kong. Now long gone.

The owner, Joe Lee, from North Point, said he opened the pub in 1984. Its annual mud-wrestling competition, held in October, is a huge draw.

'We close weekdays unless we know there are customers coming,' said Mr Lee. 'But if anyone wants a drink here, they just need to give me a ring the day before, and we'll open.'

 

[Adam4868]

I am going for the long gone Doors Bar, Koh Samui, Thailand.
A cheap bottle of Chang from a battered 50's fridge. Badly drawn Jim Morrisons on the walls and Riders On The Storm coming out of a baked bean tin somewhere outside.
Gastropub? You bet! You could accompany your Chang with a chicken sandwich, so long as the barman could catch one of the key ingredients pecking around your feet.

I think it had come to 'The End' even before the new airport arrived in '95, so it was a 500 mile bus, ferry, tuk tuk from Bangkok to reach the place.

Simple but effective and magic.

Got any good ones that bring back great memories?

Reggae bar..... Was that the nightclub across the bridge in Samui ? Spent a year or so in Chaweng.
Remember a Sang Thip set 😁
I have fond memories of The Heart of Darkness bar in Phnom Penh aswell Well what I can vaguely remember !

 

[Cycleops]

I am going for the long gone Doors Bar, Koh Samui, Thailand.

Bet it's not a patch on Craig Cashs' Early Doors.

View: https://youtu.be/vtH87QNcFJg

 

[Gwylan]

It was Marathon, but ruined by Snickers.

Mars the old favourite but controversially I'd go dark Bounty.

Clever.

 

[Grant Fondo]

Reggae bar..... Was that the nightclub across the bridge in Samui ?

Thats the one .... tricky to negotiate on a moped for sure

 

[midlife]

Kingsdown Vaults, down cardiac hill behind the Bristol Royal Infirmary. It would cash my cheques,

 

[wafter]

Not that I'm particularly experienced in this field, but I still desperately miss the Cellar in Oxford. A compact, dingy, subterrrainian refuge of arches and alcoves that played host to everything alternative from open mic accoustic nights to techno.

I had some fantastic nights down there, both with mates and tbh often preferably on my own dancing like a loon to jungle; only interacting with others to buy drinks at the bar and acknowledge the epic magnitude of a particular tune. It was also host to Oxford's regular goth night until it closed, of which I was / am an occasional patron, while I also shot the odd event down there.

An absolute legend of a place tbh; its absence still leaves an aching void in the city's nightlife

RIP Cellar - you were truely loved.

 

[Dirk]

Any bar on the Isle of Man during TT week.

 

[slow scot]

Raffles Hotel bar, obviously.

 

[midlife]

Raffles Hotel bar, obviously.

Singapore Sling was outrageously expensive, and that was, 20 years ago!

 

[Grant Fondo]

Singapore Sling was outrageously expensive, and that was, 20 years ago!

I bet it was
On a similar theme, The Fumoir at Claridges costs a bomb, but the cocktails are fabulous. Tiny and art deco, preferred it before it was done up though, looked totally 30's original years back.