15 Best Bars Near BTS Asok (With Walking Times)

By NaJade · DJ in Bangkok · Published August 14, 2026

Asok is the crossroads where Bangkok’s nightlife changes gear — and almost everything worth drinking at is within a ten-minute walk of the station. Here are fifteen, with walking times from the exits.

Asok is the most useful nightlife station in Bangkok, and not because it has the best bars. It’s because it has every kind of bar within a short walk, and it’s the interchange between the BTS Sukhumvit line and the MRT — so it’s where you start a night, meet people coming from opposite ends of the city, and bail out to somewhere else when the room isn’t working. As a DJ I pass through this junction more than any other, and this guide is organised the way you’ll actually use it: by walking distance from the station, with what the music is like and which night the place is worth your time.

Asok’s bars cluster in three directions: Soi 23 for craft beer, cigars and cocktails; Soi 21 and the Terminal 21 side streets for after-work drinking; and Soi Cowboy for the neon. Draft beer runs roughly 120–160 baht and cocktails 220–350, cheaper than Thonglor and more varied than Nana. Venues here legally close at 2am — Asok is not one of the extended-hours zones — and the BTS stops around midnight.

How to Use Asok

Exit 2 or 3 puts you on the Terminal 21 side and closest to Soi 21 and Soi 23. Exit 4 drops you toward Soi Cowboy. From the MRT, use the Sukhumvit station exits into the same junction.
Soi 23 is the quality street. Craft beer, cigar lounges, cocktail rooms — a five-minute walk and the density is excellent.
Prices sit between Nana and Thonglor. Draft beer roughly 120–160 baht, cocktails 220–350, wine by the glass 200–320.
It’s an after-work district first. Rooms fill from 6pm with office crowds, empty around 9pm, then refill with a different crowd. Both waves are good; they’re just different nights.
Walking is hotter than it looks. Asok to Nana looks close on a map and feels long in the humidity — use a motorbike taxi between sois for 20–40 baht.

Quick Reference: What’s Near Which Exit

Where	Exit	Walk	What it’s for
Soi 23	3	5–6 min	Craft beer, cigars, the best street off the station
Soi 21 / Terminal 21 side	2 or 3	2–5 min	After-work drinking, cocktail rooms
Soi Cowboy	4	2 min	Neon, adult entertainment, a photograph
Soi 20 (Sky on 20)	2	8 min	Budget rooftop, happy hour
Soi 27 (Brewski)	3	10 min	Craft beer rooftop, no dress code
Soi 11	—	12–15 min or 1 stop	Rooftops, hidden bars, Latin dance floor
Thong Lo (Octave, Tichuca)	—	2 BTS stops	The big DJ rooftops

Walking times are from the station exits at a Bangkok pace, which is to say slowly and in the heat. Add a few minutes in April.

Soi 23: The Best Street Off the Station

1. Mikkeller Bangkok Sukhumvit

The semi-outdoor craft beer stall on Soi 23 with a rotating tap list well into the dozens and a long bottle fridge behind it — heavy on hoppy, high-ABV IPAs and interesting sours. It’s a standing-and-stools operation rather than a lounge, and it’s the best beer selection within walking distance of the station. Music: playlist at conversational volume; you come to talk. Best night: any weeknight from 7pm. Walk: about 5 minutes from Exit 3.

2. Whisgars Sukhumvit 23

A cigar lounge with a properly organised humidor, deep leather sofas, and easy-listening live covers most evenings. Even if you don’t smoke, it’s one of the most comfortable rooms in the area for a long conversation over a whisky. Music: live acoustic covers, soft — a genuine listening-friendly volume. Best night: Wednesday to Friday when the live sets run. Walk: about 6 minutes from Exit 3.

3. Brewski (Radisson Blu, Soi 27)

The 30th-floor craft beer rooftop just off the Asok cluster, and my standing recommendation for a rooftop without a dress code or a 600-baht cocktail. Twelve-plus taps, a proper view over the junction, and a relaxed room. Music: background house from a DJ, kept low. Best night: excellent on a Monday or Tuesday when everything else is dead. Walk: about 10 minutes from Exit 3, or one stop and a short walk. Take the lift; there is one.

4. Rabbit Hole

Three floors of exposed brick and serious cocktails, one of the bars that shifted Bangkok’s drinks scene upmarket. Spirit-forward classics made properly, and a room that stays busy without being unbearable. Music: DJ on the upper floors at weekends, hip-hop and soul leaning; ground floor stays talkable. Best night: Thursday or Friday. Walk: it’s on Soi 55 side rather than Asok proper — about 8 minutes if you’re coming from the Asok end of the strip, or one BTS stop.

Around the Junction: Soi 21, Soi 19 and Terminal 21

5. The Iron Fairies (nearby, Soi 55)

The candlelit blacksmith-fantasy bar with hanging iron butterflies and a nightly live band on a tiny stage. It’s touristy now and still genuinely atmospheric — the room is unlike anything else in the city. Music: live jazz and blues most nights, loud enough to be the point. Best night: midweek, when you can actually get a seat near the stage. Walk: one BTS stop from Asok plus a few minutes, or a 60–80 baht taxi hop.

6. Above Eleven

The garden-in-the-sky rooftop on Soi 11 with Peruvian-Japanese food and a long view down the Sukhumvit canyon. Technically a Nana address but an easy walk or a one-stop hop from Asok, and worth including because it’s the best rooftop in this radius. Music: DJ-led, deep and disco early, more upbeat after 10pm. Best night: Thursday or Saturday. Walk: 12–15 minutes from Asok, or one stop to Nana and 5 minutes. Book on weekends.

Entered through a vintage phone booth with a rotating code, opening into a pre-revolution Cuban bar with rum-led drinks, cigars, and a dance floor that fills late. One of the more genuinely fun hidden-entrance bars in the city rather than a gimmick. Music: live Latin band and DJs — salsa, Latin house, and it’s a proper dance floor after 11pm. Best night: Friday and Saturday. Walk: Soi 11, so 12–15 minutes from Asok or one stop to Nana.

8. Q&A Bar

A narrow, dimly lit room done up like a vintage train carriage, serving precise spirit-forward classics — the Martinez and the house Martini are the orders. Cocktails around 350–480 baht. It’s small, so it’s better for two than for six. Music: low jazz, no DJ; this is a talking-and-sipping bar. Best night: post-dinner, 9–11pm, any night. Walk: about 5 minutes from Exit 3, off Soi 21.

9. Upper Deck Sports Bar

A newer sports bar in the Asok radius with the screens, the food, and the crowd for a match night — genuinely useful in a district where the good bars mostly aren’t showing football. Music: commentary, then playlist. Best night: whenever your team plays; European kick-offs land late Bangkok time, which suits the 2am closing. Walk: a few minutes from the junction — check the current address, since sports bars in this area move.

10. Sky on 20 (Novotel, Soi 20)

The bargain rooftop of the area — drinks from roughly 200–350 baht with a clean view across the Asok cluster, and an early-evening happy hour that makes it absurd value. Not glamorous, which is the appeal. Music: playlist or light DJ, background level. Best night: weeknights for the promotion. Walk: about 8 minutes from Exit 2. Arrive: 5:30pm for the sunset and the happy hour together.

Soi Cowboy and the Late End

11. Soi Cowboy (the street itself)

A hundred metres of neon two minutes from Exit 4, and one of Bangkok’s genuinely famous sights whatever you make of it. Worth knowing about even if it isn’t your night: the street is safe to walk, the neon is a photograph, and the bars are adult-entertainment venues rather than places to drink well. Music: loud commercial pop from every doorway. Best night: walk it once, early, then move on. Walk: 2 minutes from Exit 4.

12. The Alchemist

An open-fronted, unfussy bar and eatery that stays useful late — good for the point in the night when you want a beer, some food, and a seat facing the street rather than another cocktail programme. Music: playlist, mid-volume. Best night: any, late. Walk: a few minutes from the junction.

13. Zuzu Ramen Bar & late-night eats on Soi 23

Not a bar, but the reason your Asok night ends well rather than badly. Soi 23 and the sois off the junction keep pad kra pao and noodle counters running late, and there’s proper ramen when you want it. Best time: after 1am, on the way to the taxi. Street plates land around 60–120 baht. Every DJ in this city has a late-night noodle spot; this junction has more than most.

Two Worth the One-Stop Hop

14. Octave Rooftop (BTS Thong Lo)

If the Asok rooms aren’t delivering, this is the two-stop escape: three levels rising to a 360-degree deck, mid-range prices, and the best DJ build of any big rooftop in the city — lounge early, a genuine party after 9pm. Best night: Friday. Getting there: two BTS stops east from Asok, then a short walk. Full details in my Bangkok rooftop bars guide.

15. Tichuca (BTS Thong Lo)

The glowing 46th-floor beach-club rooftop, and where the young Bangkok crowd actually goes on a Friday. It’s the most club-like of the big rooftops — real DJ booth, commercial house and EDM, volume that means it. Best night: Friday or Saturday. Arrive: before 6pm; no reservations and the weekend queue is real. Getting there: two stops from Asok.

A Note From NaJade

Asok is where I’d tell a visitor to base themselves, and the reason is boring and correct: it’s the interchange. You can drink well on Soi 23, see the neon in two minutes, be on a proper rooftop in ten, and be in Thonglor’s better clubs in fifteen — all without a taxi. Nowhere else in Bangkok gives you that many options from one staircase. The mistake people make here is treating it as a destination rather than a hub: they plant themselves in the first open-fronted bar on the main road, drink expensive Chang for three hours, and conclude Bangkok nightlife is overrated. Walk five minutes off the main road instead. One more practical thing — Asok is not one of the city’s extended-hours zones, so plan for a 2am close here rather than the 4am you may have read about, and remember the last BTS goes around midnight. Get those two facts right and this junction will run your whole trip.

More on the wider picture: my guides to the best rooftop bars in Bangkok and what time bars actually close in Bangkok. Running an event around Asok and need a DJ? Say hello.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best bar near BTS Asok?

It depends on the night you want. For craft beer, Mikkeller on Soi 23 has the best tap list within walking distance. For a rooftop without a dress code, Brewski on the 30th floor of the Radisson Blu. For serious cocktails, Q&A Bar or Rabbit Hole. For a long conversation, Whisgars on Soi 23. Soi 23 is the single best street off the station if you only have one walk in you.

What time do bars near Asok close?

Most venues around Asok close at 2am. Bangkok’s extended 4am closing applies only inside designated entertainment zones — Silom and Patpong, and the RCA–New Phetchaburi Road–Ratchadaphisek area — and Asok and the wider Sukhumvit strip are not among them. Licensed venues inside hotels can run later. Rules have been under active review, so it’s worth confirming on the night rather than assuming either time.

How much do drinks cost around Asok?

Asok sits between Nana’s cheap beers and Thonglor’s premium cocktails. Expect draft beer at roughly 120–160 baht, cocktails around 220–350 baht, and wine by the glass at 200–320 baht. Craft beer bars run higher per pour, and the rooftops in the area range from about 200–350 baht at Sky on 20 up to mid-range pricing at Brewski. Many bars run early-bird or happy-hour deals between about 4pm and 7pm.

Which Asok exit should I use for the bars?

Exits 2 and 3 put you on the Terminal 21 side, closest to Soi 21 and Soi 23, which is where most of the drinking worth doing is. Exit 4 is the one for Soi Cowboy, about two minutes away. If you’re arriving on the MRT rather than the BTS, use the Sukhumvit station exits into the same junction. Soi 23 is roughly a five- to six-minute walk from Exit 3.

Is Asok a good area for a night out in Bangkok?

It’s the most useful area rather than the most exciting. Asok’s strength is that it’s the BTS–MRT interchange with every category of bar nearby: craft beer, cocktail rooms, cigar lounges, rooftops, sports bars, and the neon of Soi Cowboy, all within a short walk. It’s also two stops from Thonglor’s better clubs and rooftops. Thonglor has more style and Nana more chaos, but Asok gives you the most options from one station.

How do I get home from Asok after the bars close?

The BTS and MRT both stop running around midnight, so if you’re staying until a 2am close you’ll need a taxi or a Grab. Short hops within inner Sukhumvit typically run 60–120 baht by metered taxi and 80–180 baht by Grab, with longer cross-town trips higher depending on traffic. Insist on the meter in a taxi. Motorbike taxis are useful for short soi-to-soi moves at 20–40 baht.

About the Author

NaJade is a Bangkok-based DJ playing progressive house, melodic EDM, pop, and Thai music across clubs, rooftops, and weddings in Thailand — which means most of the venues in this guide are rooms he has either played, worked, or drunk in. Find him on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

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