Asia's 50 Best Bars names The Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo to its extended list, as the city ties Seoul for the most spots

Asia's 50 Best Bars has added The Bar at The Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo to its extended 51-100 list for 2026, entering at No. 75, according to a release from organiser William Reed. Tokyo ties with Seoul for the most spots on the extended list, with four bars apiece — the most of any city named in the release.

The extended list, published ahead of the main top-50 ranking, spans 25 cities and includes 11 new entries in total, the organiser said. Voting is carried out by more than 300 members of the Asia's 50 Best Bars Academy — bartenders, bar owners, drinks journalists and cocktail experts from across the region. The release named only the Ritz-Carlton bar specifically among Tokyo's four entries; the other three placings were not detailed in the announcement.

The full top-50 list follows on 28 July, at a ceremony in Macau staged with venue partners Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace and livestreamed on 50 Best's YouTube channel from 20:00 local time, according to the release.

A placement like this rewards the bar programme and the people behind it, not the room count or the address — a distinction worth noting against the run of hotel news floortok has tracked in Tokyo this year: new luxury flags signing on, historic properties reopening under new brands, and groups adding to their Japan pipelines faster than most can open. This kind of list is one of the few signals that arrives before a bar has to prove itself to guests directly, since it reflects standing among the region's own trade rather than a single reviewer or a marketing push.

Whether Tokyo's showing on the extended list converts into places on the top 50 unveiled in Macau on 28 July is the harder test, and the one the industry will actually watch. For now, the read is narrower: a hotel-bar scene still adding recognised names, even as competition among Tokyo's luxury hotels intensifies elsewhere.