G.O.D. (Genius On Drugs) Bar Bangkok: Bespoke drinks, eerie music, and bartenders that carry an air of mystery about them. Let’s go.
G.O.D is a bar on Soi Nana in Bangkok’s Chinatown where the door handle is a cocktail shaker. That tells you everything and nothing about what’s waiting on the other side. Welcome to Genius on Drugs, possibly the most interesting cocktail bar in a city already absolutely spoiled for choice.
G.O.D’s history
Niks Anuman remembers what this alley looked like in 2015. There used to be a gang of teenagers hanging out on the corner, outside the youth center, sniffing glue. So they called their first bar Teens of Thailand after them.
These days Chinatown has gentrified, and Niks and his business partner Gunn Lee have been a big part of the area’s development. They now have five bars around Soi Nana: Teens of Thailand, Asia Today, TAX, Independence Bar, and G.O.D. Each one pushes further than the last. G.O.D. is where they’ve apparently decided that restraint is for other people.
The bar was built from two abandoned shophouses fused together over a three-year transformation. It looks like someone set the stage for an art-house exorcism. There’s a stained-glass wall, red light bleeding across graffitied stone walls, and on most nights, a live pianist hammering out brooding baroque compositions through the speakers.
In Thai, “god” sounds like “hug”. So there’s that too.
G.O.D’s Space
Walk in and give yourself a moment. The ceiling is high, the lighting is low, and most of the illumination comes from candles.
The back bar is filled with anonymous bottles, so as not to cause a distraction. The bartenders are in crisp white shirts and suspenders. There’s a small step up to the counter seating, the same kind you’d find leading up to a church altar.
On weekends, around 9PM, a pianist ascends the stairs and starts playing, neo-classical stuff, and above it the exposed metal building rods converge dramatically.
Oh, and there’s opera playing in the toilets.
G.O.D Drinks
The menu is split into chapters: oyster drinks, uni drinks, and a section titled “excessive is necessary.” That last one is not a warning. It’s a promise.
The Uni Martini
This is what G.O.D. is known for and the reputation is fully earned. The menu describes it, justifiably, as “an excessive way to enjoy a martini.” It comes with a scoop of bafun uni on the back of the hand and a hay-smoked olive. It even comes with instructions: uni first, then the martini, then the smoked olive, then back to the martini. Repeat.
The martini itself is something else. The team has to take the pre-batched bottles out of the freezer a couple of hours before shift, and it still arrives in the glass with a slushy consistency.
The Oyster Martini
Served with a Fine De Claire No. 2 oyster, a coconut and dill vinaigrette, and some coppa ham. On paper it reads like a dare. In the glass it makes complete sense.
The Salted Cacao Negroni
A more grounded option, relatively speaking, though G.O.D.’s version of grounded still involves salted cacao. Moreish is the right word for it.
The Rest of the Menu
After the opening heavy-hitters, the menu takes its foot off the gas slightly with the cheekily titled Jeez & Tonic, Rest In Peach, Rice and Shrine, 4 Cheesus, the ramen-inspired Amen, and the Trinity: The Father, The Son & Larb Kwaii.
The 4 Cheezus pairs pecorino distillate with Madeira wine, mozzarella water, gin, and wild honey. It works. Somehow, it works.
Every single drink comes paired with a bite. Ikura bombs, ramen spheres, pandan cakes, truffle chicharrón, always there to frame, contrast with, or extend what’s in the glass. The bartenders will explain how best to enjoy the food (i.e. before, during or after the cocktail swivels around your palate).
The Little Details
The custom cocktail shaker door handle. The altar step. The opera in the bathroom. G.O.D. is a bar that has thought about everything and chosen, deliberately, to be slightly unhinged about all of it.
When you request for the bill, it’s given neatly tucked into a bible.
The Verdict
G.O.D. is ranked No. 26 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars list, and that is both deserved and probably an undercount. This is not a place you go for a quiet drink. It’s a place you go to be surprised, repeatedly, by how well flavours that have no business being in a cocktail together actually work together.
Go on a weekend for the live piano. Order the Uni Martini first. Stay for the Negroni. Sit at the counter if you can.
We went and became believers. You will too.
G.O.D. Bar Bangkok
Address: 25, 27 Soi Rammaitree (Soi Nana), Pom Prap, Pom Prap Sattru Phai, Bangkok 10100 (2 doors from Asia Today Bar)
Opening Hours: Daily, 7:00 PM – 1:00 AM
Reservations: First come, first served. Bookings available via Nightify
Instagram: @god_bkk.