Zest

Zest proves that a sustainability brief and a world-class drinks programme can be the same project, not a trade-off. The room is calm and golden, with no bottles on the back bar and an open lab where you watch citrus become gin and soda. Each cocktail carries one clear idea rooted in Korean produce, and the team explains it without lecturing. Plenty of bars now print zero waste on a menu; Zest built the entire operation around it and still climbed to No.3 in Asia. If you have one reservation in Seoul, make it here, and ask for the counter facing the prep station.

The bar sits at street level on Dosan-daero 55-gil in Cheongdam, a strip of designer boutiques and destination restaurants in Gangnam. Inside, the aesthetic is minimalist: a glowing back bar with no labels, low seating, and a visible prep lab where the team carbonates mixers and distils seasonal fruit. Counter seats are the best place to watch the work and talk to the bartenders about what arrived from the farm that week. The room opens earlier on weekends than weekdays, which suits pre-dinner drinks before a Cheongdam reservation. Service is polished and unhurried, and the team switches easily between English and Korean.

Start with the Jeju Garibaldi, built on freshly squeezed hallabong juice from Jeju Island, with Gujwa village carrots adding earthy depth. The team upcycles the orange peels into house gin and turns the pulp into cordial or fermented sauerkraut, so every part of the fruit appears somewhere on the list. The Oh. My. G!bson pairs citrus cardamom gin and Italian vermouth with omegi artisanal sour yakju and seasonal pickles, a serve that reads Korean terroir through a classic frame. For the house style in one glass, order the Z&T, a seasonal gin and tonic with house-distilled gin and in-house tonic water from the bar's own carbonation system.

Zest is at 1st floor, Sky Building, 26 Dosan-daero 55-gil in Cheongdam, a short walk from Apgujeong on Line 3 or Apgujeong Rodeo on the Suin-Bundang Line. It opens Monday to Friday from 18:30 to 02:00 and Saturday and Sunday from 15:00 to 02:00. Reservations are strongly recommended, especially on weekends, through CatchTable or by calling +82 10 3177 8801. Cocktails are priced at about ₩26,000 each. Weekend afternoons are the easiest walk-in window if you arrive at opening; evening seats book out several days ahead during peak season.

The name is a portmanteau of zero and waste, and the philosophy runs from the glass to the back office. The team makes its own sodas, citrus stocks, and spirits in house, upcycles peels and pulp into new ingredients, and sources honey and produce locally in reusable containers returned to suppliers. Hallabong oranges from Jeju are squeezed for juice, redistilled into gin from the peels, and fermented from the remaining pulp. An open prep lab lets guests watch carbonation and distillation in real time. Co-founder Demie Kim won the peer-voted Altos Bartenders' Bartender Award in 2024, and the bar took the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award at The World's 50 Best Bars 2024.

Zest sits at No.3 on our 2026 Asia ranking, Seoul's highest-placed room, behind 1920 Lounge in Jakarta and Hope & Sesame in Guangzhou. At the Asia's 50 Best Bars 2026 ceremony in Macau on 28 July it was named The Best Bar in Korea for a fourth straight year. It placed No.16 on The World's 50 Best Bars 2025, a rapid climb for a room that opened in December 2020 during the pandemic. Four Seoul bars make our Asia top 50 this season, with Zest leading a city that has become one of the continent's strongest cocktail destinations.