The 10 best bars in Buenos Aires, ranked: Tres Monos, Victor Audio Bar, Florería Atlántico and more, with opening hours, hidden doors and who each bar suits.
The best bars in Buenos Aires are small, hidden or both. Two of them are in The World's 50 Best Bars 2026: Tres Monos at No. 21 and Victor Audio Bar at No. 31, both in Palermo Soho. Around them sit a cellar behind a flower shop in Retiro, a speakeasy behind a phone booth, a bar built around a New York subway car and a whisky room in Villa Crespo.
Most of these bars open between 19:00 and 21:00 and close between 01:00 and 04:00, so they work as the first half of the night, before a boliche opens around 02:00. A cocktail costs roughly ARS 10,000–20,000 (€6–12). Each entry below gives the hours, the way in and one reason to skip it.
We ranked the bars on six things: drinks, sound, crowd, door, late licence and value. Drinks means the menu and its recognition, including the World's 50 Best Bars lists. Sound covers rooms where the music is part of the design. Crowd means who fills the room. Door means whether you can walk in or need a code or a booking. Late licence means closing at 03:00 or later. Value compares the room with what it asks. Opening hours come from guides updated in 2026 and the bars' own sites where they exist. Where a bar publishes no hours or booking rules we say so. We do not sell tickets ourselves.
No. 21 in The World's 50 Best Bars 2026 and No. 10 in 2025, on the corner of Guatemala and Thames in Palermo Soho. The drinks use Argentine ingredients and own-label spirits made with local producers. It opens at 19:00 or 20:00 and closes at 01:00, or 03:00 on Friday and Saturday. Skip it if you want a table without a wait: past midnight it is standing room at the bar.
No. 31 in The World's 50 Best Bars 2026, up from 87th a year earlier. A Palermo Soho townhouse where each guest uses a headphone jukebox, with a martini menu that runs from the martinez to the porn star. It comes from the Tres Monos team. Skip it if you want a loud night: the point is to listen.
You enter through a flower shop, pass a cold-room door and walk down to a cellar bar with a menu themed on Argentina's immigrants. It ranked 18th in 2022 and 90th in the 2025 list. Open daily, to 04:00 on Friday and Saturday, with grill plates and tapas. Skip it if you want an empty room late on a weekend: it fills around 23:00.
A Palermo Soho bar with a menu built on tea, sesame and kaffir lime, plus Vietnamese and Cantonese snacks. It ranked 26th in The World's 50 Best Bars 2025 and is open every day from 19:00 to 02:00. Skip it if you want classic cocktails only: the flavours are deliberately unusual.
An elegant, dimly lit townhouse bar in Recoleta with a menu built on vermouth and Argentine spirits, a martini room and seasonal changes. It appears on both the World's 50 Best Bars and Latin America's 50 Best Bars lists. Open Tuesday to Saturday, to 04:00 at the weekend. Skip it if you want a party.
The original Buenos Aires speakeasy, open since 2011. You go through a phone-booth door with an access code, and inside the menu is classic cocktails with Argentine twists. Open Wednesday to Saturday, to 03:00 or 04:00. Skip it if you dislike gimmicks: the hidden door and the code are the whole concept.
An old-world cocktail bar on Avenida Medrano with a Jules Verne theme and submarine-window decor, long listed on Latin America's 50 Best Bars. It is open every night, until 04:00 on Friday and Saturday, with themed cocktail nights later in the week. Skip it if you want a loud, high-energy bar.
A subway-themed bar with a recreated New York subway car inside and a menu organised by line and stop. It was No. 50 in The World's 50 Best Bars 2024. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 20:30 to 04:00, so it is one of the later bars in Palermo. Skip it if you want a quiet conversation: it is a party bar with DJs.
A speakeasy where a coffee bar on Costa Rica hides a sliding back door and a vintage room, with modern signature drinks, tea-infused cocktails and Argentine craft spirits. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 20:00 to 04:00, a good late stop. Skip it if you want a door you can find by its sign.
A discreet bar on a residential stretch of Thames in Villa Crespo, known only by its number. It lists more than 100 whiskies, classic and inventive cocktails and a wine list, and runs a refill project called A Granel. Open until 02:00 or 03:00. Skip it if you want a Palermo Soho crowd: it is a quiet, whisky-led room.
Build the evening around two clusters. In Palermo Soho, Tres Monos (Guatemala 4899), CoChinChina (Armenia 1540), Victoria Brown (Costa Rica 4827) and Victor Audio Bar (Soler 5130) are all within walking distance. In Palermo Hollywood, Frank's and Uptown are both on Arévalo.
Three more bars are worth knowing but did not make the ten. The Alvear Roof Bar in Recoleta is open Wednesday to Sunday from 19:00 to 23:30, and Crystal Bar in Puerto Madero is open 18:00 to 01:30 except Mondays. Both require reservations. Bar Sur in San Telmo runs live tango every night. Between bars, take a taxi or app: the Subte stops around 23:00.
Start early, end in a club. For the hours, prices and door rules that apply across the city, read our Buenos Aires nightlife guide. When the bars close, see the 10 best clubs in Buenos Aires, or plan the whole night with our guide to Buenos Aires nightlife by neighbourhood. Tickets for shows and club nights are on NightFind tickets, and the Argentina guide covers costs, cash and rules across the country. Book a ride home before the last round: the Subte is closed and the night buses are slow.
Tres Monos in Palermo Soho. It ranked 21st in The World's 50 Best Bars 2026 and 10th in 2025. Victor Audio Bar, from the same team, ranked 31st.
Between 01:00 and 04:00 for most cocktail bars. Tres Monos closes at 03:00 on Friday and Saturday, and Frank's and Uptown at 04:00.
Not at most cocktail bars, but the Alvear Roof Bar and Crystal Bar require reservations, 878 takes bookings by phone and WhatsApp, and Frank's needs an access code.
Roughly ARS 10,000–20,000 (€6–12). A 500 ml beer in a bar costs about ARS 5,000–8,000 (€3–4.50).
Florería Atlántico is entered through a flower shop and a cold-room door, Frank's through a phone booth and Victoria Brown through a coffee bar.
