Barc

Barc is the bar that put Kathmandu on the international cocktail map. It opened in 2021 in the Bluestar Complex in Tripureshwor, and in 2024 it became the first Nepali bar to enter the Asia's 50 Best Bars list, at number 39. In 2025 it climbed to number 35 and won the Michter's Art of Hospitality Award, another first for Nepal.

The founder, Abhishek Tuladhar, left a finance job in Singapore in 2016 with no bartending experience and ran a cocktail catering pop-up called Bar Stories before opening Barc. His approach treats cocktails as a form of self-expression and puts hospitality at the centre, and the bar regularly hosts local musicians and artists as well as visiting chefs and bartenders from abroad.

The drinks draw on Nepali ingredients that many visitors will not have tasted. Aila, the fermented rice spirit, appears alongside timur pepper, tea from Ilam and childhood snacks such as titaura and khattu, the tangy dried fruit sweets. Signature drinks have included the Khattu, made with sweet and sour khattu plum, vodka and lime, a clarified version of the same, the Bloody Lapsi, made with hog plum, and the Chaangria, a sangria based on local rice wine. Classic cocktails and twists on them are also on the menu. Food takes in Japanese, Thai, Korean and Chinese influences, with bar bites, sliders, momos, buff tongue and dishes using kanchan, a local cheese.

The bar describes itself as an intimate speakeasy that blends international flavours with local ingredients and aims to feel both familiar and foreign. The room is set within large arches, with emerald walls, rustic colours and framed photographs of everyday Nepali art, a terrace, and a jazz soundtrack. It suits couples and small groups who want carefully made drinks rather than a party, and anyone curious about how Nepali flavours translate into cocktails.

Barc opens from Tuesday to Sunday. It is on the rooftop of the Bluestar Complex at Tripureshwor, and tables can be reserved by phone. The bar is also a good place to see how the wider city scene has developed, since its founder has made hospitality and community, rather than perfection, the core of the brand.