Club Glen / Décolleté

The Hidden City has, for the most part, remained hidden when it comes to bars. The only bar that was housed in the restaurant-heavy complex was 1/5, a venue that failed to excite upon opening.

It has since been taken over by Wilfred Kwok, the entrepreneur behind hip Japanese whiskey joint Glen, who has opened two new bars, Club Glen and Décolleté, in the space.

Splitting the dual-level venue into two is a smart move. Each bar targets a decidedly different demographic. Upstairs, Club Glen is a smart, minimalist whiskey bar, decked in shades of grey with curtains cornering off private areas and bizarre sculptures adorning the bar top and walls.

The menu has a long list of single malt’s including Cragganmore (100RMB for a glass) and Talisker 18 (120RMB). Essentially, there’s not much to separate it from the original Glen – and that’s a good thing.Downstairs, Décolleté aims to attract the ladies.

If the purple and pink flowers on the wall don’t hammer the point home hard enough, the drinks list does – at the time of writing, it consisted only of ten champagne cocktails, starting at 80RMB and rising to 180RMB for the Pommery cocktails.

Positioned together, the bars complement each other. The women can sit upstairs in Club Glen, discussing politics and emerging markets over an 18-year-old bottle of whiskey, while their boyfriends natter away downstairs quaffing champagne cocktails.

Or maybe vice-versa. Either way, the prices are steep, but the quality is high. Finally, the bars in the Hidden City are worth seeking out.