It may be located in the basement of a hotel (accessed via a separate, dark entrance), but this speakeasy-esque bar with a Shanghai opium den vibe comes with the solid pedigree of nightlife mogul Ashley Sutton.

Sutton is behind several of the city’s time warp-inducing establishments, such as Iron Fairies and Fat Gutz.

At Maggie Choo’s, you get live jazz, leather armchairs, bank vaults and Queen Victoria busts juxtaposed with cocktails, tile work, latticework and heavy wooden doors. Beautiful women clad in cheongsams hang from swings and drape themselves across the bar.

Allegedly, there are secret passageways, too.

If you’re hungry, you can sit on stools at a round wooden table in a restaurant attached to the bar and gorge on decent Chinese egg noodles with duck. Maggie Choo’s itself serves a selection of hors-d’oeuvres.

Maggie Choo’s,

Hotel Novotel Bangkok

Fenix Silom, 320 Silom Road

Tel. +66 (0)2 635 6055