Palermo’s bar scene doesn’t announce itself loudly. Besides the terraces and busy plazas in Palermo Soho, there are some real gems that are more difficult to find: speakeasy bars behind doors that give nothing away from the street, and cocktail bars that have quietly earned a place on the World’s 50 Best Bars list.
What follows is the list we share when guests ask where to go.
Under the open sky: Palermo terrace and rooftop bars
Soria (Gorriti 5151, Palermo Soho) is the most relaxed, low-key address in this list. The logic of the place is outdoors: wooden tables in a garden wound with vines and warm light. There’s also a covered terrace and an interior section for when the weather shifts. Some nights there’s live jazz from a small band, and a DJ on weekends.
Bestial Fly Bar (Humboldt 2495, piso 11) goes up instead of out — 40 metres above Palermo’s rooftops, with 360-degree views that sweep from the polo fields to the river. The design is theatrical: vertical gardens, onyx floors lit from beneath, a bar ringed by chairs that face outwards. Cocktails are on the tiki side — the Bestial Zombie blends rum, passionfruit, grapefruit, and floral bitters, served in custom ceramic vessels. Thursdays through Saturdays, live performances rotate through the space after 10pm. Book ahead.
The ones that ask for a password: speakeasy bars in Palermo
Buenos Aires made the speakeasy its own long before it became a global trend. These two are among the originals — and they take the concept more seriously than strictly necessary.
Frank’s (Arévalo 1445, Palermo Hollywood) was among the first: it earned a place on the World’s 50 Best Bars list in 2012, a recognition that helped put Buenos Aires cocktail culture on the international map. The password changes weekly — follow their social media for the clue. Once inside: full 1920s glamour, chandeliers, a polished wooden bar, flocked wallpaper. The signature Frank’s Fashioned blends Scotch, bitters, saline and maraschino, and drinks as precisely as the room it’s served in. Open Wednesday to Saturday.
Nicky Harrison (Malabia 1764, Palermo Soho) takes longer to reach. The front of house is a restaurant — Nicky NY Sushi — good enough that arriving for dinner first is worth the plan. To get to the bar, you linger, and you ask: a hostess leads you through the wine cellar to a door you wouldn’t find alone. Behind it is a room recreating 1920s New York with impressive conviction — a bar salvaged from a 1910 bakery, an old piano, swing and jazz drifting through a space where the evening loses its edges. Reservation required. Open Monday to Saturday from 8pm.
Hidden in plain sight
Uptown (Arévalo 2030, Palermo Hollywood) hides in the most obvious possible way: the entrance, on a busy street, is a staircase that descends to a full replica of a New York City subway station — tiles, turnstiles, graffiti, a subway car. The bar below is long, well-stocked, and run by bartenders who take the cocktail programme seriously without making you feel tested. Past midnight, the space shifts — the music goes up, the lights go down, the floor opens for dancing. Reservation required. Tuesday to Saturday from 8:30pm.
Victoria Brown (Costa Rica 4827, Palermo) arrives with no fanfare: a mural on the facade, a heavy iron door, and what appears to be a quiet café. Walk through it, find the brick wall at the back, and wait for it to open. The former warehouse on the other side is one of the most considered interiors in Palermo — a steampunk take on Victorian England, with exposed ironwork, elaborate gears, a vast clock with backlit cogs behind the bar, and armchairs arranged as if someone had just left them. The concept draws, loosely, on the rumoured romance between Queen Victoria and her servant John Brown; whether or not that origin story holds up, the cocktail list is extensive and the room rewards a long evening. Tuesday to Saturday from 8pm.
Two of the world’s best
This is worth saying clearly: two bars currently ranked in the World’s 50 Best Bars are in Palermo, and they are about five minutes apart on foot.
Tres Monos (Guatemala 4899, corner of Thames) is No. 10 in the world and Best Bar in South America 2025. Nothing about the exterior corner prepares you for that — there’s no sign worth noticing. Inside, it’s dark, neon-lit, and loud with rock; the walls are scrawled in graffiti. What sets it apart is behind the bar: everything — the whisky, the sake, the gin, the wines, the liqueurs — is made in-house with Argentine ingredients, in partnership with local producers. The current menu includes the Julep de D10S, which combines house Licor del Norte, amaro, strawberry miso and grapefruit. Ask the bartender what they’d order; the seasonal menu changes, and they know it better than the list does. Open every day from 6pm.
CoChinChina (Armenia 1540) is ranked No. 26 globally, just off Plaza Serrano. The name comes from the region of Vietnam that was once a French colony, and the bar takes that double inheritance seriously: Asian signage stacked to the ceiling, a U-shaped bar on the ground floor, pavement deckchairs for those who’d rather stay part of Palermo than step away from it. Inés de los Santos — one of Argentina’s most respected bartenders — runs the cocktail programme. Her La Vida Que Me Merezco is a margarita shaped around pineapple, lemon and vanilla, balanced to a point that makes the second one feel inevitable. The food — shrimp bánh mì, short ribs — is Franco-Vietnamese and earns its place alongside the drinks.
A few practical notes. The speakeasies require reservations, and Frank’s requires tracking down the weekly password before you arrive. Most of the bars above open around 8pm, but remember that porteños are night owls: on weekends, dinner at 10pm and drinks afterwards is normal.
We’re a short walk or car ride from all of the above. Ask us at the desk before heading out if you’d like a route, or want to combine any of these with a dinner recommendation in the same neighbourhood.