Bars in Sukhumvit

Drinking in Sukhumvit, Bangkok means going up. Five of the eight bars listed here are rooftops, and they stack across the corridor at different heights: Bangkok Heightz on the 39th floor with a Thai kitchen behind the bar, Belga on the 32nd at the Sofitel pouring Belgian beer flights, Sato San also on the 32nd at a Ratchaprasong hotel mixing Thai-Isaan and Japanese plates, AIRE on the 28th above Sukhumvit 24, and Pastel on the 22nd off Soi 11.

The exception runs the other way. Abandoned Mansion sits underneath a hotel on Sukhumvit 14, a cavernous 190-square-metre room with six-metre ceilings, chandeliers and a Prohibition-era theme, with cocktails named after Dillinger and Capone. The Speakeasy Rooftop keeps the same 1920s idea two dozen floors up at Hotel Muse, behind a staircase hidden by a painting.

Two of the eight are quieter propositions. BarBlah is a wine bar on the fifth floor of a Sukhumvit 22 building working minimal-intervention producers, and The White Mulberry Bar pours whisky and cocktails on the ninth floor of a hotel near Phrom Phong BTS. Both close by midnight, as does AIRE on weeknights. Six of the eight run past midnight; BarBlah is the only one shut a full day, on Mondays.

6 of the 8 stay open past midnight: Abandoned Mansion, AIRE BAR, Belga Rooftop Bar & Brasserie, Pastel Rooftop Bar & Mediterranean Dining, Sato San Rooftop Bar and The Speakeasy Rooftop Bar Bangkok. Not open every day: BarBlah (closed Mon).