Best bars in Gangnam

“I didn’t open the bar to please the customers’ requests for a location in Cheongdam,” says Kwon Byeong-su, the owner and bartender who often gets called out for his brusque manners. “The Gyeongridan bar was designed to mimic a “home bar,” like drinking from your living room, but this branch feels like the whole house.” The walls glow as if soaked in a diluted emulsion of Marciano cherries and the bar is spacious without being showy, just as a Cheongdam bar should be. An infusion of tea leaves and Tanqueray gin, the Earl Grey martini is served clean without the artfully carved out fruits, and if you’re not satisfied with the drink (or if your face shows it), the bartender will whip up another drink on the house. “At the end of the day, bars aren’t defined by concepts. It’s a place where you can have a good drink, enjoy, and leave,” Kwon adds. With fragrant cocktails, lounge-like rooms and bartenders sensitive to customers’ reactions, I resolve to often make the cut of twelve at Twelve.

Alice, a lounge style bar, serves experimental cocktails and equally bizarre bar snacks. The bar and lounge space mimics the airs of an English mansion with sofas to sink into, and ceilings that resemble the surface of a chocolate bar. Order the "Alice Boutique" from the signature cocktail list, and the bartender will whip up a gin tonic flavored with grapefruit juice, emitting a white cloud food grade nitrogen gas. The cocktail comes served in a glass shaped like an elephant, in which the truck doubles as an attached straw. The bar’s dedication to eclecticism doesn’t end here. At the touch of a button, bartenders can make drink glasses magically appear from the bar table and the bathroom with its camouflaged walls are a mysterious find, too.