Our 30-minute car ride turns into an elaborate guest shift. We take off from the Four Seasons hotel set in the glossy heart of corporate Kuala Lumpur, with dramatic views of the iconic Petronas towers. Our guide for the evening’s bar crawl is the award-winning bartender who runs Four Seasons’ Bar Trigona, Rohan Matmary, and is friends with everyone behind a bar in the city. Rohan is generously willing to share his contacts and insider tips.

Which is how we get into Coley, set in the southwestern part of the city in Bangsar, a quaint, residential neighbourhood dominated by classic row houses. Sandwiched between two shops, Coley has an unassuming familiarity. The simplicity of its being reflects in its bestselling cocktail: gin blended with coconut water and served chilled in a mug.

Inside Coley
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Rohan says Coley is the go-to place for locals in the neighbourhood. With dimly lit interiors and limited table seating, the cosy space offers cocktails blended with local flavours, such as Bumi Kita, made with Woodford Reserve bourbon whiskey, pandan leaves and beetroot vermouth.

Three x Co
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Three x Co

Our next watering hole is on the third floor of the oldest shopping mall in the city. Tucked into one side, Three x Co looks vintage till you enter it. The interiors are chic, and everyone we meet seems to have a welcoming smile on their face. The room is dominated by a striking mural of a Chinese opera singer holding a Martini.

“We serve a variety of cocktails that are not just based on ingredients but stories. Our current menu is called Individuality where we are exploring the space between people and the bar takes on the role of an observer,” says co-founder Angeline Tan.

Some of the drinks here come with alluring textures, like the Whimsy Wabbit which is a Martini flavoured with lychee, poured over a jelly shaped rabbit, the bite of which adds a sweet lingering aftertaste. Or, the heady rum flavoured ice-cream dessert, carrying a tinge of bitterness from the spirit balanced with the creaminess.

Inside Cabinet 8
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Cabinet 8

After the elegance of Three x Co, it is time for something edgy. Our car stops on a bustling road leading to Chinatown, the city’s centre for local shopping, street food and fancy bars. A host of Chinese and Malay food stalls are busy, cooking with a variety of sauces, meats and vegetables, enveloping the lane in a deliciously tangy aroma.

Cabinet 8 is not easy to find. Sharing its space with another bar, Neighbour Club, reaching the place is filled with an adventure that involves a bookshelf and secret button. We will not give too much away, but this may be easier to find when you are not 4 drinks down. When we finally get it open, with lots of help from Rohan, we enter a new world, dipped in red light and thudding with pop music. It looks like a scene from a Wang Kar Wai film.

Wild Colada at Cabinet 8
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“This is where Gen-Z comes to drink as you get good quality cocktails at a cheaper price,” Rohan says as we settle at a long table just beside the bar. The menu here is designed like a fashion magazine, featuring sleek, neo-noirish photographs of models along with their signature drinks.

There’s an interesting wordplay in some of the cocktails, which are inspired from popular drinks, like the Berry Mary, with the Mexican mezcal, Los Siete Misterios Doba-Yej as the spirit mixed with strawberry, tomato and rasberry vinegar. The result is a sweet mix that has a slightly sour aftertaste. Also among its signatures is the Wild Colada, which is the highlight for me, with its delightful blend of a pineapple smoothie with Bacardi 8. Most of the drinks here are made with local ingredients like guava, kendonang, jackfruit and Sarawak black pepper, all sourced from a Malaysian farm.

Cabinet 8 is now featured on the extended list of Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2026 at number 65.

Head bartender Marcus Kwok
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“We use local flavours and make our drinks with modern techniques,” says head bartender Marcus Kwok as he works with an evaporator machine in the lab situated in a small room inside the bar. This allows finer flavours to be distilled in the spirit. It is also the secret behind their bestselling drink: Double Special. “It is just like a cheese burger but in liquid form. We are able to make it so authentic and flavourful because of this gadget,” says Marcus, patting his evaporator.

Bar Trigona
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Bar Trigona

It is closing time for most shops at Chinatown when we exit Cabinet 8 and head for our last stop of the night, Bar Trigona.

It is comforting to enter the hotel lobby after a small mini-tour of the city. In home territory now, Rohan explains that the bar is named after a locally sourced honey that is indigenous to Malaysia. The Trigona bee is stingless and its hive has a different structure than other bee hives, making the honey stay within its hold without dripping down. This leads to a slight fermentation adding an interesting kick to its sweetness. The difference is easily noticeable when I taste the honey before getting into the drinks.

A drink at Bar Trigona
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NZ PHANG

This honey, which is available to buy only at Four Seasons, is also used in some of the cocktails at Bar Trigona. Rohan explains, “Our menu is called The Nectar of Time. My idea of cocktails is that none of them is wrong or right. Its all about when to drink what. The pages in our menu have hourglasses which have different colours, signifying the colour of the sky during the day.”

Since it is past 10pm, our menu suggests Nightfall cocktails. “This is the time which is usually not about having refreshing drinks. It is time to have that one good heavy glass and sit at the bar for long without interruption. This section contains stronger drinks that are flavourful where you want the ice to melt into your drink slowly,” Rohan says. Along with that there is a section called Eternal Hours comprising drinks that can be had at any time of the day.

A cocktail at Bar Trigona
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NZ PHANG

Rohan suggests a whisky-based cocktail for me, after noticing what I chose throughout the bar crawl. The drink is no-nonsense and heavy-spirited, going along well with Rohan’s explanation of taking it slow.

The writer was invited to Malaysia by hotel Four Seasons.

Published - July 15, 2026 12:15 pm IST