Raffles Hotel Le Royal’s Elephant Bar Named World’s Top 10 Hotel Bars

PHNOM PENH, May 21, 2026: The Elephant Bar at Raffles Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh has been named one of the world's best hotel bars by Food & Wine magazine, appearing in the publication's curated list of just ten global hotel bars in its May 2026 issue. The recognition places one of Southeast Asia's most storied drinking establishments in the company of the best hotel bar programmes anywhere in the world.

For a bar that has been operating for more than nine decades in a hotel that predates Cambodia's independence, this is less a surprise than a formal acknowledgement of something regular visitors to Phnom Penh have known for years. The Elephant Bar is one of those rare venues where the building, the drinks, the service and the history of the place all point in the same direction at once.

Elephant Bar at Raffles Hotel Le Royal Earns Place on Food & Wine's Global Top 10 Hotel Bars

Dagmar Lyons, General Manager of Raffles Hotel Le Royal, received the recognition with visible pride in what it means for the property's people as much as its reputation.

"What a tremendous honour for Elephant Bar to be recognised among the world's best hotel bars. This historic venue is part of the heart and soul of our landmark hotel. It continues to offer guests an unmatched blend of old-world sophistication, warm Cambodian hospitality and unforgettable cocktails in one of Asia's most beautiful settings."

— Dagmar Lyons, General Manager, Raffles Hotel Le Royal

The phrase "heart and soul" is doing real work in that quote. Hotel bars that earn the kind of sustained global recognition Elephant Bar has built tend to be exactly that, not amenities appended to a hotel product, but places that exist independently in the cultural memory of a city. Elephant Bar is Phnom Penh's bar in a way that few hotel venues are genuinely of their location.

Nine Decades of History, French Colonial Elegance and a Guest List That Reads Like a History Book

Elephant Bar opened more than ninety years ago inside Raffles Hotel Le Royal, a property that has itself been a fixture of Phnom Penh's social and political landscape since the colonial era. The bar's physical character remains intact, rich wood panelling, colourful ceiling frescoes, historic photographs lining the walls, classic wicker chairs and leather sofas arranged beneath high French windows and arched colonnades. Nothing about the room has been modernised for the sake of it, and the result is an atmosphere that cannot be manufactured from scratch.

The guest list the bar has accumulated over those decades is genuinely exceptional. Charlie Chaplin drank here. Charles de Gaulle passed through. Jacqueline Kennedy visited in 1967 and, on that trip, sipped the first iteration of the cocktail that would become the Femme Fatale, a signature drink that has remained on the menu ever since. That single piece of history gives the bar a provenance that most new cocktail venues spend fortunes trying to simulate.

More Than 200 Gins, a House Gin and Two Hours of Unlimited Cocktails

Beyond atmosphere and history, Elephant Bar carries serious F&B credentials in its own right. The gin programme alone, over 200 carefully curated labels including the legendary Sipsmith Raffles 1915 and the hotel's own locally crafted Elephant Bar Gin, puts the venue in a different category from properties that treat the hotel bar as an afterthought between the lobby and the restaurant.

The Elephant Bar Gin Experience, which offers two hours of unlimited gin cocktails alongside a guided gin tasting, has become one of the property's signature experiences for guests who want to spend time at the bar rather than simply pass through it. At a hotel whose guests include seasoned luxury travellers who have stayed at the world's best properties, a programme that holds attention for two hours on its own merits is not a small achievement.

The bar also offers a refined cocktail and mocktail selection built around its classic identity, the Femme Fatale sits alongside a wider menu that takes the venue's heritage seriously without turning it into a museum piece.

A Recognition That Places Southeast Asia's Hotel Bar Culture on the Global Map

Food & Wine's decision to include Elephant Bar on a list of just ten global hotel bars carries weight beyond the individual property. It signals that Southeast Asia's hotel bar culture, which has been evolving rapidly in cities like Bangkok, Singapore and Phnom Penh, is now being assessed on the same terms as the great hotel bars of London, New York and Paris.

For Raffles Hotel Le Royal, the recognition adds to a property that has already been operating at the top of Cambodia's luxury hospitality market for decades. The Elephant Bar has always been the emotional centre of that property, the place where guests end their evenings and where the hotel's history is most tangibly present. Having that recognised by one of the world's most authoritative food and drinks publications confirms what the bar has been quietly earning for ninety years.