Best Cocktail Bar in Brussels: Signature Cocktails & Rooftop — Akai

The best cocktail bar in Brussels isn't at street level. It's 30 floors up, where the skyline opens out over Place Rogier and the bar starts pouring at 6pm. This is Akai — a Japanese restaurant and rooftop cocktail bar in one — and the cocktails are the reason a lot of people come back, even when they came for dinner.

The cocktails that built a reputation

Some drinks earn cult status, and at Akai a few have done exactly that. The Pornstar Martini is the one everyone orders — vodka, passionfruit, vanilla and a side of prosecco, vibrant and just the right amount of bold. We served 6,288 of them in 2025 alone. The Espresso Martini and the Mojito follow close behind, and the Lychee Martini has quietly become a favourite for guests who like their drinks fragrant and precise.

Then there's the one that surprises people: the Akai Martini, our signature mocktail. Passionfruit, pineapple, vanilla and citrus, with zero alcohol and full flavour. It outsold most of the alcoholic cocktails on the list, accounting for nearly a quarter of every cocktail and mocktail order in 2025. Proof that a great drink doesn't need a buzz to be the best in the room.

Where Japan meets the bar

What sets Akai apart from any other cocktail bar in Brussels is the Japanese hand behind the glass — and behind the kitchen. We build our signatures around the Suntory range — Haku Vodka, Roku Gin, Toki Whisky — and around sake. The Shiro Negroni swaps gin for sake and umeshu against a dry vermouth, lighter and more aromatic than the classic. The Hakka layers Haku Vodka with lychee, sake, coconut and passionfruit. The Tokyo Spritz brings sake, cava, yuzu and soda together for something crisp and easy. These are cocktails you won't find made the same way anywhere else in the city.

More than a bar: dinner with a view

The setting does half the work. Every cocktail at Akai arrives with a panoramic view stretching across the Brussels skyline, from the Belfius Tower to the rooftops beyond. But the glass is only half the evening. Akai is a full Japanese restaurant: a sushi selection many consider the finest in the city, warm sharing plates, and desserts like the Matcha Tiramisu, all built on Japanese-Mediterranean flavours. Come at sunset for afterwork drinks, settle in for dinner, or arrive late as the DJ builds the room from Thursday to Saturday. From the first sip to the last plate, the bar, the kitchen and the view never let up.

The best cocktail bar in Brussels is also a full Japanese restaurant, a rooftop and a lounge. Book a table for dinner, or pull up at the bar for drinks — either way, order one cocktail and you'll understand why the bar is what people talk about.

Open every day from 6pm Kitchen until 11pm — Thursday to Saturday until midnight — sushi until 11:30pm Reservations recommended. Dress code: smart and elegant