NIGHTLIFE · COCKTAILS · 2026
Behind a flower shop, a revolving bookcase and two unmarked doors, Buenos Aires keeps four of the best bars in the world. The hard part is knowing which nights they open.
Buenos Aires has become, quietly and then all at once, one of the serious cocktail cities. Three of the four bars below appear on the World's 50 Best Bars list, and one of them is currently ranked tenth on the planet. They are within a few kilometres of each other, across Retiro, Recoleta and Palermo.
What follows is where the doors are and what each place does well. The practical detail worth reading twice is the opening days: two of these four are closed on Sundays, and turning up on the wrong night is the most common way visitors miss them.
01 · FLORERÍA ATLÁNTICO
RETIRO · BEHIND A FLOWER SHOP · 50 BEST
Down the stairs, past the refrigerator door
From the street it is a flower shop on a quiet, elegant block. You walk in past the lilies, open the door of what looks like an industrial refrigerator, and go down a concrete staircase into a low, dark room built to feel like an immigrant harbour tavern.
It belongs to Renato "Tato" Giovannoni, who was named Roku Industry Icon by the 50 Best in 2023 and makes his own yerba mate gin, Príncipe de los Apóstoles, which turns up throughout the menu. The list is organised by the migrations that built Argentina: Spanish, Italian, Polish, English. There is a charcoal grill doing seafood.
Getting in: it opens at 18:00 Monday to Friday and 20:00 on Saturdays and Sundays, and runs late. Book if you want to eat. If you just want the bar, arriving in the first hour is the way to find a stool without a reservation, but note that on a weekend that first hour starts at eight, not six.
→ ARROYO 872, RETIRO
02 · PRESIDENTE BAR
RECOLETA · MANSION · HIDDEN LIBRARY
Ask about the room behind the bookcase
A period mansion in Recoleta with high ceilings, gilded mirrors, velvet and a back bar stocked with things you will not find elsewhere in the city. The front room is the show. The reason to ask questions is the room behind it: there is a hidden lounge reached through the library, smaller and darker, with its own bar.
Getting in: *Tuesday to Saturday from 20:00. Closed Sunday and Monday.
→ AV. PRES. MANUEL QUINTANA 188, RECOLETA
03 · TRES MONOS
PALERMO · No. 10 IN THE WORLD · 2025
The best bar in South America, and the loudest
The opposite of a hushed hotel bar: neon, cassette tapes, punk on the speakers, a room too small for the number of people who want to be in it. It is also, on the 2025 list, the tenth best bar in the world and the best in South America, and it won the 50 Best Art of Hospitality award in 2023, which is the one that measures how a place treats people rather than what it pours.
It belongs to Charly Aguinsky, Sebastián Atienza and Gus Vocke, and much of what you drink is made in house or made for them: a bourbon-style whiskey from local grain, liqueurs, sake, their own wines. Atienza and Aguinsky also run La Escuelita, a free cocktail school in a Buenos Aires villa that trains young bartenders who would not otherwise get in the door of this industry.
Getting in: it is small and works largely on a first come, first served basis. Early evening is calm; after eleven it is a queue.
→ GUATEMALA 4899, PALERMO
04 · COCHINCHINA
PALERMO · No. 26 IN THE WORLD · 2025
French Indochina, by the country's best bartender
Inés de los Santos, the most decorated bartender in the country, built this with the designer Eme Carranza around the idea of French Indochina: lanterns, murals, several distinct spaces including a hidden private room. The kitchen, run by Juan Carlino, does Franco-Vietnamese food, and the cocktail list splits between drinks made for this bar and the "Clásicos de Inés", the ones she is known for, including the Dijon Bloody Mary.
It is currently number 26 on the World's 50 Best Bars.
Getting in: Monday to Saturday from 19:00. Closed Sunday. Book if you want dinner with the drinks.
→ ARMENIA 1540, PALERMO
The four, at a glance
| Bar | Neighbourhood | The door | Open |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florería Atlántico | Retiro | Through the flower shop's fridge | Daily, 18:00 weekdays, 20:00 weekends |
| Presidente Bar | Recoleta | Front salon, then the library | Tuesday to Saturday, from 20:00 |
| Tres Monos | Palermo | Straight off the corner, no ceremony | Evenings, walk in early |
| CoChinChina | Palermo | Unmarked, book ahead for dinner | Monday to Saturday, from 19:00 |
How the night actually runs
Nobody eats dinner before half past nine. The bars fill after eleven and the good hours are between then and two in the morning, which means that a night across Retiro, Recoleta and Palermo involves three or four moves between neighbourhoods in the small hours.
That is the part worth planning. Street taxis thin out on residential blocks after midnight, app cars take longer to appear the later it gets, and none of these places is walkable from the next. A driver waiting outside changes the evening from a series of logistical decisions into one continuous night.
Book an evening driver. Message us on WhatsApp at +54 9 11 2404-0448 or arrange private evening transport across the city.