Ku Bar
Anupas "Kong" Premanuwat spent five years mixing at New York's Angel's Share, then came home and opened a bar on the third floor of an old Phra Sumen Road printing house where the menu changes monthly and he names every drink for the one market ingredient that leads it.
Why go
The system is the draw: Kong shops the fresh market, and the list reads like his basket, names BK Magazine calls functional rather than flowery: 'Banana,' 'Gooseberry,' 'Roasted Corn.'
The 2017-era flag was the 10 Herb, which BK details as jub liang herbal tea with gin, honey, egg white, lime and burnt sugar, and the Infatuation's 2025 review confirms the rotation still runs on market produce, curry leaf, Vietnamese coriander, thyme
among it. Co-founder Elaine Sun keeps a natural wine list alongside. The room itself is wood, raw concrete and, per the Infatuation, brutalist elements from old Thai architecture,
with barely a bottle on display.
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever the current month's list holds, chosen by ingredient; that is the format working as intended. Ask for the 10 Herb if it has cycled back, and let Sun steer a natural-wine detour.
- Avoid: walking past it. The way in is a dark alley beside Brown Sugar jazz bar, a spirit house guarding a small brown door, then three flights of bare concrete stairs.
What locals & experts say
- BK Magazine (2017):
Mysterious yet fun, this 'secret' bar strikes a nice balance without being too pretentious.
1 - The Infatuation (July 2025), Vichayuth Chantan:
Ku is a pretty relaxed spot that anybody can appreciate.
3 - 50 Best Discovery:
Hard to find, hidden down an alley and then up a staircase to the third floor, but once inside you'll find a classy, minimalist space consisting largely of wood and concrete.
2
Good to know
- Timing: evenings; the current 50 Best listing says Wednesday to Sunday, BK's 2017 review said Thursday to Sunday, so confirm the day on Instagram before crossing town.
- Booking: walk-in scale; no verified reservation channel.
- Getting there: Phra Sumen Road in the Old Town, near Khaosan but a world apart; pairs with a Rattanakosin evening rather than a Sukhumvit crawl.
Verdict
should-visit — The Old Town's serious cocktail room: an Angel's Share-trained bartender running a monthly market list in a bare concrete printing-house walk-up, with drinks named for single ingredients years before that idiom went citywide. No rankings hardware, but two independent critics eight years apart land on the same judgment, and nothing else in Rattanakosin plays at this level.