Petit Cafe
French-inspired cocktails and live jazz, candlelit
Petit Café has two locations — Berry Street and Lark Lane — and both carry the same brief: bring a bit of Paris to the Liverpool, unapologetically. Candlelit, cocktail-forward, with live jazz on weekends and a bar snacks menu that makes it easier to stay longer than you planned to. The classics are done well (the Sazerac is worth ordering), and the room has the kind of warm, slightly romantic energy that makes girls’ night feel like more of an occasion than it actually is. Walk-ins are welcome at Berry Street but book ahead for Lark Lane.
76 Berry Street, Liverpool L1 4EB
L’Aperitivo
Spritz-led, jazz and vinyl, golden-age aesthetic
Nestled amid the buzz of Liverpool’s legendary Bold Street L’Aperitivo is a cosmopolitan, 1970’s inspired cocktail bar. Both warm but sleek, retro but modern, it transports you to another place and time. In practice: spritz cocktails, a considered wine list, live jazz, and vinyl DJ sets covering funk, soul, hip hop, and house. It’s the aperitivo hour bar Liverpool didn’t know it needed, the kind of place that makes a 6pm start feel intentional rather than early. Downstairs has Afro Jazz nights; upstairs handles the broader crowd.
112 Bold Street, Liverpool L1 4HY
Arts Bar
Grade II listed Masonic Hall, live music, local art
Arts Bar on Hope Street sits between Liverpool’s two cathedrals, inside a Grade II listed Masonic Hall that has absolutely no business being this relaxed about what it is. Cocktails, gin, good coffee, live music, open mic nights, film screenings, local art on the walls. Less polished than the cocktail spots on this list, more interesting. If your group has at least one person who’d describe themselves as a creative, this is where they’ll want to start, and probably where they’ll want to stay.
58-60 Hope Street, Liverpool L1 9BZ
The Grapes
Corner local since 1804, serious rum shelf, Sunday jazz
If your girls’ night needs one pub, and The Grapes on Roscoe Street is an option. A corner local since 1804, it’s as far from a theme bar as you’ll get: original signage, live music at the weekend and good spirits (in both the literal and figurative sense). Not a destination, more of an anchor point. The kind of place you say you’ll stay for one and then find yourself still in three rounds later.
60 Roscoe Street, Liverpool L1 9DW
Sister Ray
Top 50 UK Cocktail Bar, Scandinavian-cool
And in a full 180 from our pub, we’ve got Sister Ray in Wolstenholme Square. This one is a themed bad. Well not so much themed, as just cool. Scandinavian-inspired interiors, vibey lighting, a soundtrack that works. The cocktail menu splits between New York classics and Liverpool originals, think a Gin Martini with oyster leaf and kombu Weird, but wonderful. Founded by Chris Edwards (also behind Simone’s, also on this list), it has the energy of a bar that takes its job seriously without being precious about it. Book ahead.
Wolstenholme Square, Liverpool L1 4JB
Bar Glue
2 UK Top 50 Bars 2026, Anchor Courtyard
Bar Glue is tucked into Anchor Courtyard at the Albert Dock — easy to miss, hard to leave. Opened in 2024, it’s teeny tiny with only thirty seats inside, and spills over when the weather allows. It has a bespoke cocktail menu of just eleven drinks that changes often. It’s unique, built around community and exceptional drinks, and it shows in the way the bar actually feels: neighbourhoody, unhurried, and genuinely good. One of Liverpool’s best right now, I’d say.
Anchor Courtyard, Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4AB
Manolo
Caribbean speakeasy, 24 seats, table service
Another small spot, Manolo on Slater Street is the kind of cocktail bar that has tested its 17-ingredient Cosmopolitan upwards of fifty times before putting it on the menu. Caribbean-inspired and intimate in a way that the rest of the Ropewalks area isn’t. The full menu runs to 45 drinks and the attention to detail is the kind that makes you feel looked after. Thursday to Sunday only, fills up, and the experience is quieter and more considered than the street outside would suggest. Not a party spot.
Slater Street, Liverpool L1 4BS
Simone’s Cocktail Club
Liverpool’s first listening bar, Japanese-influenced
Simone’s on Queen Avenue is Liverpool’s first listening bar, the Japanese tradition where the sound system gets the same attention as the cocktail menu. Bespoke speakers curated by audio specialist Barney Rosenthal; resident and guest DJs on jazz, Afro-beat, and house; a cocktail list with Japanese influences alongside classics. The bar is owned by Chris Edwards, so the pedigree is the same as Sister Ray. Quieter than a club, more intentional than a bar, perfect vibey setting for the cool-girl group.
6 Queen Avenue, Liverpool L2 4TG
Castle St Townhouse
Grade II-listed, grand mirrored bar, live music all weekend
Castle St Townhouse is housed in a Grade II-listed building and does the all-day bar well, famed for being one of the iconic Liverpool bottomless brunches. With live music Thursday to Sunday, a grand mirrored bar it feels more considered than the usual all-dayer, and the evening atmosphere is nothing short of social. If you’re spreading a Liverpool hen activity across drinks and dancing, it’s a sensible and good-looking base before things start to escalate.
25-27 Castle Street, Liverpool L2 4TA
Gloria’s
House band, the only light-up bar in the city
Truly, underrated. Gloria’s at The Stables starts the evening as a cocktail lounge, and then — usually around the point the house band kicks in and it becomes a disco. A real, live, 1970s disco. Light-up bar, retro interior referencing legendary clubs, and free entry. Open from 5pm at weekends with a 5am close. It’s fun without being desperate, and I’ve never had a bad night at here. Wednesday to Sunday, so there’s a midweek option for the group that doesn’t need a reason.
The Stables, Back Berry Street, Liverpool L1 4HW
Jenny’s Bar
Over-25s only, Gatsby meets Studio 54, monthly cocktail menu
Jenny’s Bar is a secret-bar tucked behind a seafood restaurant sign. Down the stairs, through a velvet curtain: mirrored ceiling, crushed velvet booths, disco and soul on the decks. The cocktail menu changes monthly; the crowd is strictly 25-and-over; and the energy is a unique mix of boujee but still welcoming. Another one of those bars where nobody leaves when they said they would.
