El Ocho (permanently closed)

Address: Zhang Yuan, 99 Taixing Road, Shanghai, China

Door: Open door/walk-ins
Style: Cocktail bar
Food: Bar Snacks

From the same successful family as El Coctel, El Ocho sits alongside Starling in Zhang Yuan, but delivers a very different vibe. It's a warren of moody, dimly lit, mirror-lined rooms on the third floor - a pocket-sized terrace caters to smokers - with velvet seats around a sunken bar. Why Ocho? Well, it's Spanish for eight, eight is lucky, and the Chinese are obsessed with lucky numbers.

The menu is heavily classical, divided into Bishops, Flips & Nogs, Old-Fashioneds & Manhattans, Sours & Smashes, Fizzes & Mules, Tiki Gods and Modern, and leads on dark spirits. A Laphroaig Project, a San Francisco creation featuring Green Chartreuse, Falernum, Laphroaig and peach bitters, was complex, accessible and well-made.

Spanish chef Willy Trullas Moreno has been opening rock solid venues in Shanghai since 2007 - that's decades in Shanghai time - and El Ocho is no exception. His Tomatito tapas joint downstairs offers snacking potential and expands the bar snack menu here.