Cloakroom: Number one bar in Canada!!
Canada’s 100 Best just dropped its 2026 ranking of the country’s best bars. Montréal is at the top. We’re pleased. That’s that.
Every year, Canada’s 100 Best publishes its ranking of the best Canadian bars, and every year we scan the list hoping we’re well represented. This year, the answer is yes — and with flair. Three Québec addresses in the top 20, including the number one spot overall. We’re not going to pretend that’s ordinary.
Cloakroom: Number one bar in Canada, and it makes sense
If you’ve never been to Cloakroom, here’s what you need to know: the bar is hidden behind a menswear boutique in a century-old building in the Golden Mile. 25 seats. No menu. You sit down, talk to the bartender, and they build something for you. That’s it. That’s all it takes.
Co-owner and mixologist Andrew Whibley has trained his team to figure out what you want to drink — even if you don’t know yet. The result might be a personalized Old Fashioned, a reworked Manhattan, or a caffeine-free Espresso Martini. The library behind the bar — house-made amari, liqueurs, tinctures produced by low-temperature distillation, plus a vintage spirits collection assembled over ten years — is there to serve the moment, not to impress.
That this bar is number one in Canada says something. In a world where bars compete with conceptual menus and sculptural glassware, the best one is where nothing is on display. Just craft, attentiveness, and a drink made for you. That’s a pretty Montréal approach, isn’t it?
The other Québec entries in the top 20 — and they’ve earned their place
Atwater Cocktail Club — No. 7 — Montréal
Ten years in and still among the most frequented bars in the city. The ACC has that rare quality: staying relevant without reinventing itself every season. The cocktails are bold, the backbar is serious, and the warmth of the welcome has kept a largely local clientele — the true sign that a bar has figured something out.
JJacques — No. 11 — Québec City
Yes, Québec City. Not Montréal. This Saint-Roch speakeasy juggles cocktail bar, oyster bar, and restaurant with disarming ease. The menu revolves around the golden age of travel, oysters are served until 3 a.m. on weekends, and the wine list exceeds 175 bottles. JJacques is exactly the kind of place you stumble upon by chance and never quite manage to explain to your friends.
Bar Numéro — No. 17 — Montréal
Six months old and already on the national list. The Entre-Deux team has opened something special on Saint-Laurent: gastronomic cocktails in a clean brutalist space, Martinis poured tableside in frozen glasses that get refreshed at the halfway point, and a Labatt 50 that sits at the bar just as comfortably as a force-carbonated scotch-and-aquavit highball. That last image perfectly captures why we love it.
Three bars in Canada’s top 20 is no small thing. Above all, it’s three addresses that have little in common — except perhaps a shared belief that drinking well should never feel like an effort.
Full ranking at canadas100best.com
Written by Mariela Ticas-Garcia
Photography by Alison Slattery
