94 Best Bars in Paris, France

You’ll feel like an honorary Highlander at Auld Alliance, where Scottish shields adorn the walls and the bar staff (who don kilts for special events) serve 120-plus types of whiskey. Scottish beer and pub grub, including a haggis burger, are also available. It’s a great place to catch televised soccer or rugby matches, and, on occasion, live music.

This Les Halles mainstay open from 11 am until dawn draws a trendy crowd and offers a fully renovated piano bar in the cellar, where dancing on tables is the norm. Regular drag shows and go-go dancing keep patrons coming back.

Hôtel Le Meurice converted its ground-floor Fontainebleau library into the intimate Bar 228, with wood paneling and huge murals depicting the royal hunting forests of Fontainebleau. Its loyal fashion crowd is continually wooed by Philippe Starck's decor updates and lubricated with the bar's famous Bellinis. Try the Meurice Millennium cocktail, made with champagne, rose liqueur, and Cointreau.

The monolithic marble bar at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel offers an extensive champagne list and a menu of international street food–inspired bar snacks. The outdoor terrace is especially busy during Fashion Weeks.

The look here is something between a chic contemporary Paris apartment and a low-key lounge. Enjoy a cocktail over a good book from the bar library, or relax with a smooth drink in front of the outdoor fireplace.

Waiters wearing red overalls and revolutionary gavroche hats serve drinks every day of the week at this local institution (they demonstrate particular zeal around happy hour). With bottles of wine at about €25, it draws a quintessential Rive Gauche mix of expats, fashion-house interns, and even some professional rugby players. Sit outside on the terrace and enjoy the prime corner location.

Art Nouveau adornments, a shapely marble bar, and zinc mirrors in the historic upstairs give way to a moody industrial downstairs. Cognitive dissonance aside, the cocktails concocted here by a trio of Paris’s top mixologists are nothing short of extraordinary and the music is very good, too. Bar aficionados will appreciate the minute attention to details, from barware to presentation, that’s rare to find.

For well-priced Brazilian-inspired cocktails (try the delicious caipirinha, pisco sour, or spicy rosé margarita), check out Bar Principal. Here you can also enjoy the menu of delicious South American–inspired nibbles in the streamlined interior or outdoors on a pretty leafy square.

This romantic spot in the ultrachic Maison Champs Élysées offers a wood fire in winter and a quiet terrace in warmer months. Its impressive range of champagnes and impeccable cocktails is well worth the stellar prices. The separate all-black cigar bar is one of the few remaining in Paris.

Its swank Mad Men–meets–tiki bar atmosphere and dynamic gin-centric cocktails have earned this dusky cocktail den an avid following.

While it may be past its prime with Parisians, visitors can't get enough of the high-camp towering gold Buddha that presides over this bar's giant palm fronds, red satin walls, and colorful chinoiserie. A themed dining room serves pan-Asian fare. There's also an upscale speakeasy, Le Secret 8, which you access by answering a daily riddle on the bar's Facebook page and getting a password (only 25 are given out per day).

“Le Cox" is a prime gay pickup joint that's known for its live DJ sets. Its extended Sunday happy hour—from 6 pm to 2 am—is a rollicking good time.

One of Montmartre's trendiest addresses, Café la Fourmi has a funky, spacious bar-café where cool locals party. It's open until 2 am every night but Friday and Saturday, when it's open until 4 am.

Locals head to this charming retro-looking caviste (wineshop) and wine bar for a glass of something special with a side of oysters, or perhaps La Grande Mixte, a platter of charcuterie, terrine, and cheese (€23).

One of the few surviving cellar clubs from the 1940s has the "best boppers" in the city and packs 'em in for swing dancing and Dixieland tunes. It's a killer jazz spot for everyone but claustrophobics. The music continues until 4 am on Friday and Saturday. Entry is €14 during the week and €16 on weekends.

Behind a nondescript facade, you'll find a 1930s-style bar-club-restaurant arranged like a private home, with a series of rooms on three floors and lots of corners where the casually stylish cool cats of Paris get cozy until the wee hours. The bar notably hosts live music events every Wednesday.

Chez Georges has been serving red wine, pastis, and beer for the past 70 years in pretty much the same caveau that still packs in devotees today. Older students and locals fill sofas and crowd around tiny, candle-topped tables in the cellar bar before grinding to pulsing world music every night until 2 am.

Epitomizing the effortless cool of this arty neighborhood, Chez Prune is a well-loved spot. It offers the designers, architects, and journalists who gather here a prime terrace for gazing out at the arched footbridges and funkier locales of Canal St-Martin.

An almost-too-cool crew can be found in Clandestino's red-emberlike interior, drinking cocktails and eating the sultry bite-size pintxos of Basque country. There's a distinct party atmosphere here, which can spill into the street, especially in summer.

Untamed revelry isn’t this restrained neighborhood's forte—cocktails are more its speed. At this cozy, unpretentious outpost tucked away on a small street between the Seine and Invalides, you’ll find a menu of 20 well-priced (for this neighborhood) cocktails that check all the boxes for a fine elixir, along with a chic, welcoming atmosphere in which to enjoy them. It’s open early enough for an apéro before dinner and late enough that you can come for an after-dinner digestif (there are also small bites to enjoy with your drinks). The sidewalk seating in warm weather is a bonus.

After jump-starting the Paris cocktail bar scene, the partners behind the Experimental Cocktail Club applied the same winning formula to this hybrid wine bar–nightclub. Plush surroundings, an extensive wine list, and a tasty tapas menu draw a crowd of hip young Parisians who can hone their wine-tasting skills on classics in every price range.

The Duc's cozy interior and top-class jazz acts make this iconic club one of the city's most popular small venues. It's best to purchase advance tickets online or arrive early to guarantee a spot at the twice-nightly concerts at 7:30 and 10. Jam sessions Friday and Saturday begin at midnight and last until 4 am.

A favorite not only for its prestigious location between Opéra and Place Vendôme but also for its worn-leather chairs and English-private-club feel, the Westminster Hotel's bar offers drinks like the James Bond and Duke's Martini. At times, you get the feeling that Monsieur Hercule Poirot is lurking just behind that wing chair.

Young tortured-artist types flock to this low-key club—one of the oldest gay bars in the city—to enjoy the frequent art exhibitions, alternative music, and mood-inspiring ambient lighting. It's open from 8 pm to 2 am, except on Friday and Saturday when it's open till 4 am.

The popularity of this intimate restaurant–cocktail bar could be due to the upscale neighborhood's distinct lack of nightlife, but there's no denying its dusky allure. At cocktail hour, the bar attracts a mix of businesspeople and chic locals; at night, good music, tasty food, and plentiful drinks animate the crowd.

Equal parts cocktail bar and gourmet pizzeria, this stylish offspring of the übercool concept store Merci promises top-quality libations and stone-oven-baked pizza. The decor is industrial-rustic, with pressed-tin ceilings and a corrugated-iron bar, all enhanced by mood lighting. It's jam-packed with neighborhood hipsters, so reservations are a must.

Also known as Harry's New York Bar, this cozy, wood-paneled hangout decorated with dusty college pennants is popular with expats and American-loving French people who welcome the ghosts of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, both of whom drank themselves unconscious here. Gershwin composed An American in Paris in the piano bar downstairs, and the Bloody Mary is said to have originated on-site.

Despite years on the scene, the bar at Hôtel Costes still draws big names—and not just during fashion weeks. Expect to cross paths with anyone from Rihanna to Leonardo DiCaprio (as long as you make it past the chilly greeting of the statuesque hostess) to enjoy classic cocktails and down-tempo music from an ever-changing roster of DJs. Dressing to kill is strongly advised, especially for newcomers; otherwise, expect all the tables to be suddenly reserved.

This moody club at Le Méridien Hotel hosts a roster of top-billed international musicians in a classy set of rooms. Check out the Sunday afternoon jazz brunch buffet and the interior garden.

This bar is glorious not only for its panoramic skyline views but also for its manga-inspired decor and kooky, disco-ball-and-kid-sumo-adorned bathrooms. The rooftop restaurant's menu is inspired by Japanese fare, and these accents can be found on the house cocktail list as well with ingredients like shiso, yuzu, and umeshu. Top-shelf DJs keep patrons dancing on weekends. Valet parking is available starting at 7:30 pm. Be sure to reserve a spot ahead of time to avoid disappointment.