The top 5 Hong Kong bars for mocktails and low-alcohol drinks

Hong Kong has countless great places to get a drink — you can barely go five minutes in Central without walking past one. Heady libations are all well and good, but what about a place that offers drinks that are a little less hangover-inducing? We feel you. After all, who needs another morning headache? Well, if you thought the city’s bars only catered to the ‘work hard, play hard’ crowd, you’d be wrong. More and more bars are taking into consideration customers who prefer their cocktails light or even entirely alcohol-free. Here are our favourites.

The Envoy

Since new bar Room 309 opened next door, The Envoy tends to get a little overlooked. That’s a shame because this Antonio Lai original shakes up a number of great soft cocktails to go with its various enticing happy hour deals. If you’d like a virgin version of the bar’s famous Dinosaur, you’re in luck. The Dinosaur Roar ditches vodka for a ‘secret recipe’ malted chocolate milk, a frozen Milo ice ball and a generous heap of Milo powder. The Morning Dew (pictured) — Dilmah green tea, jasmine double-strength tea and homemade pandan syrup all carbonated in a Perlini shaker — is another option to try before you leave.

Buenos Aires Polo Club

This restaurant may be best known for its fine cuts of Argentinian steak butBuenos Aires Polo Club also boasts a fantastic, if unfairly forgotten, bar. Notably home to an excellent range of fernet — the hipster spirit du jour — and an excellent range of mocktails also resides on the drinks menu. Under the Teetotallers section are creations like the Boedo, which combines cranberry, mint and ginger, and — our personal favourite — the Recoleta, a mix of mate, orange and grapefruit.

Bella Lee

Taking over the spot on Peel Street formerly occupied by Korean soju bar Edition, Bella Lee is a great place for low-alcohol drinks since spritzes are the name of the game here. There’s more than just a wide array of spritzes available, though, as there are also miniature bottles of Peroni Piccola for when less is more.

This Vietnamese restaurant in Wan Chai is another surprising purveyor of many excellent mocktails. Don’t worry if you’re not interested in the food — which is of a high standard nonetheless — as you’re still free to stop by Le Garcon Saigon for drinks only. Les Innocents, as they’re called, include a number of invigorating non-alcoholic cocktails, and we don’t just mean the Vietnamese-style coffee. Try either Tropiques D’Ho Chi Minh — pineapple, lychee, lime and egg white — or Memories de Saigon — lotus tea, apple, strawberry and mint — for best results.