32 Best Bars in Shanghai, China

Also known as Bandu Music, this unpretentious café and bar in the M50 art compound sells hard-to-find CDs and occasionally holds concerts of traditional Chinese folk music. When touring the M50 galleries, this is a nice place for a break.

In the trendy Bund 18 complex, Bar Rouge has been the destination of choice among Shanghai's beautiful people for years. Pouting models, visiting celebrities, and, seemingly, all of the city's French expats are among the regular clientele. The Pudong views are knockout—as are the drink prices.

This is a popular evening destination especially with nearby office workers who come by for happy hour. The interior is straight out of Arabian Nights, with billowing draperies swathing the space. Usually quiet and classy, it switches to hot, hip, and hopping on weekend nights, especially in summer. It's the ambience, not the food or drink, that bring people in.

Though somewhat dated, Hotel Indigo's rooftop bar and steak house is still a prime place to take in unimpeded views of the Pudong skyline and Huangpu River while sipping drinks and snacking from a charcuterie board for two.

The fourth sibling in the ever-growing Constellation bar family is just south of Xintiandi, a stone's throw from the metro station. It sticks to a tried-and-true formula of cigars, mid-volume jazz, and high-quality Japanese-style cocktails.

This friendly, laid-back favorite moved many times before settling into the current old garden house. Busy without being loud, Cotton's is a rare place where you can have a conversation with friends—or make some new ones. The patio here is one of Shanghai's loveliest, but the food menu is not, so stick to drinks.

Crowded at all hours with locals of all ages crooning pop favorites, the popular Haoledi chain has branches virtually everywhere. A few of the outlets in downtown are on the sixth floor of New World Mall at 479 Nanjing Dong Lu, near People's Square, and on the seventh floor of mall Metro City, at 1111 Zhaojiabang Lu in Xujiahui.

Several music sets nightly and loads of ambience—dark-wood paneling, low-lighting, memorabilia from 1930s Shanghai—make the House of Blues and Jazz a must visit.

This swanky spot in the newer tower of the Pudong Shangri-La offers decent cocktails, but it's the excellent design and equally excellent views (when Shanghai's fog and pollution levels cooperate) that make it popular with locals. You may still feel like you're in a hotel bar, but you'll have a stiff drink and some amazing city vistas.

At the king of Shanghai's jazz offerings, house bands and stellar guest performers mix it up nightly. Look for plush seating and drink prices to match. JZ Club is also the organizer of JZ Festival, which they claim is Asia's largest jazz fest. It takes place in the fall and outdoors along the Huangpu River.

This is one of Shanghai's gems, a sweet, simple dance hall where local men can come three nights a week and dance to tender Chinese pop songs from an earlier time. Songs are played by a band, which sometimes dresses in drag, as does one of the owners. There are a number of regulars, and strangers aren't shy about asking for a dance, but it's all quite chaste. Foreigners are most welcome and treated no differently than locals. In general, photos are not allowed.

Two-parts club, one part bar, M1NT is one of the few places in Shanghai with a strict door policy. The club is on the 24th floor of an office tower situated on a quiet side street just behind the Bund. There's no set dress code, but men should not wear shorts. Although bottle service is popular, plenty of revelers stick to buying drinks and shots from the bar, whose lines can be three deep. The shark tank is partiers' favorite photo backdrop.

The original and most popular location of the Muse chain offers a Chinese-style megaclub experience, with theme parties and a musical line-up that includes hip-hop, house, and electro. Loud and crowded, M2 is where people end up after hitting a few other drinking establishments. All the branches are popular with young locals who order bottle service and stay until the sun comes up.

To the west and south of Xintiandi is one of Shanghai's best live-music venues, with foreign as well as up-and-coming local bands taking to the stage to play everything from heavy metal, indie, and punk rock to folk music. Past performers have included Thee Oh Sees, Grimes, and Gang of Four.

The average age of the musicians in the Old Jazz Band is 80, but you wouldn't know it when listening to them jam. The food and drinks are inspired by what the bar served in the 1920s and '30s, when Shanghai was in its golden age, and the Peace Hotel was the place to see and be seen. Dark woods, heavy red curtains, and warming cocktails make this bar an especially good choice for winter.

In true speakeasy style, this swinging spot is easy to miss, situated as it is behind an unmarked door on a quiet street. Step inside to travel back in time, with big-band music playing in the background, velvet damask wallpaper, a pressed-tin ceiling, and classic as well as contemporary cocktails.

It's a family affair at Shanghai Brewery, where you're equally likely to find a group of footballers and a posse of parents with toddlers in tow. There are seven house-made brews here, including a Black-Eyed Bear Stout and the sweet, summery peach beer. The food menu is all over the place, with both Western dishes and a handful of Asian options, but it's all solid.

The Kerry Hotel's microbrewery is tightly run and one of the best options for a drink in the Century Park neighborhood. The crisp cider is very good for those who don't love beer, while the Pilsner and IPA are the most popular among brew-heads. Shooting pool, tossing back peanuts from a tin pail, and sipping brewskies, you may well forget you're in China. On weekend afternoons, this is a family-friendly bar.

On a quiet lane off busy Nanjing Xi Lu, this café and bar mimics the inside of a tree house, with high ceilings and wood paneling on the rounded walls. The performers here play a variety of jazz and acoustic music, which you can listen to while sipping wine, beer, and cocktails. The food is nothing to write home about and best skipped unless you're starving.