CMYK

CMYK is the bar that made Changsha legible to the wider Asia list: a high-energy room where print-shop logic meets Hunan nightlife without turning into gimmickry. The cocktails look vivid, but the ideas hold up in the glass, from fermented tomato served three ways to a bourbon drink that folds in salted egg and peanut butter and still drinks cleanly. Liu's team runs the room like a street-style bar that happens to own a lab, and the multi-room layout gives you a counter for watching builds or a semi-open terrace when you want air. If you are tracing how China's inland cities joined the continental conversation, this is the Changsha address to book.

The address is 388 Zhongshan West Road, on the second floor of an old residential building inside the revived Chaozong Street cultural block near the Jiefang West Road nightlife corridor. You climb to a cosmopolitan, multi-room space that feels neighbourhood-local rather than hotel-polished: warm lighting, colourful serves, and a crowd that skews young and adventurous. Counter seats face the working bar; the semi-open terrace off the main lobby suits quieter rounds. Service runs bilingual on busy nights, and the energy builds steadily through the evening as groups move between rooms.

Start with Smooth Operator if you want the house style in one glass: bourbon with salted egg, pineapple, peanut butter, honey, sesame oil, and lemon, savoury and sweet in balance. Super Fresh brings local Hunan chilli heat into an easy sipper, while Not Exactly 50:50 shows the sustainability angle with fermented tomato juice clarified, distilled with gin, and dehydrated into a savoury garnish. Tatler's must-try list also points to Coffee Chocolate, Co Joy, and the bar's own CMYK serve. Tell the team whether you want bright, spicy, or spirit-forward and let them steer you through the colour map.

CMYK sits at 2/F, 388 Zhongshan West Road in Tianxin District, inside the Chaozong Street block that runs off the Jiefang West Road strip. Changsha is well connected by high-speed rail from Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Shanghai, so the bar fits a wider China drinks itinerary. Check the bar's Instagram at @cmyk.china for current hours and any reservation notes before you go, especially on weekends when the Chaozong Street precinct fills. Look for the second-floor entrance in the converted old house rather than a standalone hotel lobby.

The name encodes the idea that four base shades can combine into countless new colours, and Liu applies that to cocktails: layered flavours that read clearly rather than muddy. The team extracts multiple profiles from the same ingredient to cut waste, as with tomato fermented, clarified, distilled, and dehydrated across different serves. That approach won DRiNK Magazine's Best Cocktail Menu and Best New Bar in 2022, and China's Best Bar Team in 2023. Liu, an award-winning bartender and co-founder of Hope & Sesame in Shenzhen, drew on years of global travel to shape a room that feels cosmopolitan while staying rooted in Changsha's late-night street energy.

CMYK holds No.28 on our 2026 Asia ranking, announced at Wynn Palace in Macau, after climbing from No.43 in 2024 to No.16 in 2025. The 2026 position still places it among the mainland Chinese rooms on a list led by Hope & Sesame in Guangzhou at No.2. Jurors cite the colour-driven concept, the technically advanced yet approachable menu, and a sense of place tied to Chaozong Street and Changsha's buzzy nightlife culture. For an inland city outside the usual Shanghai-Beijing axis, sustained list presence across three editions is the signal that the programme has depth, not a one-season spike.