The 4 Best Bars in Tainan
According to someone who got lost finding them.
Tainan gets called Taiwan’s food city, and honestly, that reputation is earned. But nobody really talks about Tainan’s nightlife scene enough — and they really should.
Over a few days and nights of spending in Tainan, my partner had some of the best cocktail bars that really couldn’t compare to any other bars we’ve been to in Taiwan: hidden behind unmarked doors, up narrow apartment stairwells, inside buildings that didn’t even look like they had a bar from the outside.
This is the real Tainan speakeasy scene — no neon signs showing you where to go, no easy Google Maps directions on how to get there. Here are four spots worth hunting down.
If you want them all pinned so you’re not walking around in circles like we did, my Taiwan Curated Map already has every one of these spots marked!
Bar Often 常酒
🍸 Modern cocktail bar | 📋 Bilingual menu | 📍 North District, Tainan
Bar Often has the kind of interior that makes you want to sit down and enjoy the space — modern, spacious, with a backyard area that leads to the bathrooms and plenty of room to actually sit and talk.
The cocktails were incredible, and the bar snacks held their own too.
What I appreciated most: the menu comes in both Chinese and English, so there's zero guessing if your Mandarin isn't fluent.
Bar Stair 樓梯
🥃 Speakeasy | $350 NTD minimum/person | 2-hr limit when busy | 📍 Chenggong Road, North District
This one messed with our heads a little.
You walk into what looks like a closed restaurant, genuinely unsure if you're trespassing, then spot a door in the back near the counter, open it, and head upstairs.
Heads up on the house rules: $350 NTD minimum spend per person, a 2-hour cap on your table if it's busy, a 10% service fee if you bring outside food, and no smoking inside.
The cocktails are refreshing and well-made — worth the slightly confusing entrance.
Find Gin Bar 尋琴記
🍸 Speakeasy | No menu — custom-ordered cocktails | groups of 4 max | 📍 2F, Yongle Market, Guohua St, West Central District
This was, hands down, the best bar of the trip — and we almost didn't find it.
My fiancé tracked this one down, and getting there meant walking up into an old apartment-style building, circling around, unsure if Google Maps was even leading us the right way (it's genuinely unreliable for pinpointing spots like this in Taiwan).
When we finally hesitantly opened the right door, there were people sitting at the counter, and we knew we'd made it.
There's no menu — the owner asks about your flavor preferences, asks you a few questions on what you typically like drinking, and builds a drink around it.
I don't even really drink gin, and mine turned out to be one of the best cocktails I've had. We ended up talking with the owner for a long time, and I was translating between him, my fiancé, and my brother the entire night.
If you only track down one speakeasy in Tainan, make it this one. This is the perfect bar to either start or end your night. Trust me, you won’t regret it.
IPA cellar Sparrow brew
🍺 Craft beer bar | 📍 corner of Ximen Rd & Zhongming St, North District
We passed this building quite frequently while we were out exploring Tainan and walking back to our hotel. What caught my attention was that this building — a triangular, corrugated-metal structure — reminded me of a scrappier Flatiron Building in Manhattan.
Eventually, curiosity won, and we walked in, only then realizing it was an IPA bar (the name really does say it, but since I don’t really pay attention, it was my mistake lol). I'm not a beer drinker, but my brother and I ordered two glasses of beer — bigger than either of us expected.
If craft beer's your thing, this is worth the stop; it draws a solid crowd of foreign residents and visitors, so it's an easy, low-pressure spot to strike up a conversation. Just note it's only open Thursday through Saturday evenings.
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Four bars, zero regrets. From a "closed" restaurant hiding a speakeasy to a gin bar tucked inside an old apartment building, Tainan's nightlife scene is quietly one of the best in Taiwan. Here's where to find it (fair warning: you'll probably get lost).