5 Best Bars in Civic District, Singapore

A part of the NCO club, the new concept in Singapore's haute bar scene blends sophisticated mixology with premium live music. From 8 pm, an international cast of musicians steps on stage to fire up the bar with performances ranging from jazz to flamenco, rumba, and other Cuban and Latin rhythms; soulful singers round out the mix.

The home of the Singapore Sling cocktail reopened in 2019 after a major makeover and now sports stylized, earthy decor inspired by the Malayan plantations of the 1920s. But some things haven't changed: you can still knock back the original-recipe Singapore Sling and chuck peanut shells on the floor, technically the only place you're allowed to litter legally in Singapore. As you might expect of a bar inside Singapore's best-known and most historic hotel, it's touristy and pricey.

A low-key, homey gastronomic cocktail bar, a stalwart in the local bar scene, specializes in award-winning artisanal cocktails with creative names inspired by Singapore's history and modern personalities. It’s all explained in their creative menu, "Vol. 6: The Cocktail Diaries," but think about getting the Ramos at Home, which celebrates local singer Kit Chan with its fruity pineapple-and-egg-white-spiked Singaporean take on Gin Fizz. Don’t miss the happy hour deals with a free flow of crispy chicken sandwiches from 5 to 7 pm.

Sporting leather sofas and bar stools in timeless British colonial style, the intimate boutique shop of this famous independent whisky company welcomes patrons with a mix of glitzy modern and historical chic. Lined on the bar and stocked along the walls, close to 70 different choices of top-notch single-cask whisky, rum, cognac, calvados, and Armagnac wait for the pick of drinking connoisseurs.