Bar Leone Is the World's Best Bar 2025 — Hong Kong's First Global No. 1

The Bar Is Named for Rome's Lion, Not for a Trophy

Behind a low, arched doorway on Bridges Street in Sheung Wan, off the crowded stretch of Hollywood Road and Staunton Street, Bar Leone doesn't announce itself. The burnt-orange facade carries through to the room inside: a mahogany bar, vintage Italian film posters, forty-five seats. "Leone" is Italian for lion, an old symbol of Rome, and the room is built as a tribute to Trastevere, the Roman neighbourhood where founder Lorenzo Antinori grew up. The menu calls its drinks "cocktail popolari" — cocktails for the people, not the room. Order the Leone Martini, made with Tuscan gin and Marsala, or the Bellini, served in a tumbler instead of a flute.

Bar Leone Is the First Hong Kong Bar Ranked No. 1 in the World

On 8 October 2025, at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, The World's 50 Best Bars named Bar Leone the World's Best Bar 2025 — the first time a Hong Kong room has topped the global list, and the first time the ceremony itself has been held in this city. Antinori dedicated the win "to Hong Kong and our amazing bar community." Bar Leone had already held Asia's top spot for two years running before the global win, and in July 2026 it placed third on Asia's 50 Best Bars — still Hong Kong's highest entry on that list.

The Win Sits Inside a Pattern, Not On Its Own

Trace the trophy shelf further and the story gets bigger than one ranking. In July 2025, at the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation's Spirited Awards in New Orleans, Bar Leone won Best International Cocktail Bar and Antinori won International Bartender of the Year, the same night. In July 2026, UK trade title Drinks International placed Antinori sixth on its Bar World 100, a ranking of the most influential people in the global bar industry. None of that is a Hong Kong panel judging a Hong Kong room — it's international trade press and international juries, independently, pointing at the same city. And Bar Leone isn't carrying it alone: seven Hong Kong bars sit on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2026, including Gokan, Coa, Mius, Argo, Montana and Penicillin.

What Changes for Everyone Else on the Same Street

A World's Best Bar puts Bridges Street, and every Hong Kong address near it, in front of readers who weren't searching for Hong Kong at all. That's the real value of the win past the trophy case: it's an export, not just an award — evidence that this city trains bartenders and builds rooms good enough to travel, at a moment the wider bar sector needed exactly that kind of proof.