The capital does its drinking indoors, licensed and air-conditioned, as God and the municipality intended. Five rooms between the Corniche and the towers. There is no public licence register here, DCT keeps its books behind a login, so trading is proven the hard way: operator sitemaps, dated menu files, and the patrons themselves keeping the record in Russian and Malayalam.
- 1 · The Cold Open
The Tavern, Sheraton
The old reliable. Abu Dhabi National Hotels purpose built this Sheraton on the Corniche in 1979, still owns it, and the British pub inside has been where the old hands start for about as long as anyone can usefully argue. Dark wood, live sport on the screens, and a freshly pulled pint of lager, which is what you order, with the all day pub grub if the flight was long. The hotel has just come through a full renovation and the room kept its nerve. Regulars remember when the Corniche was half its width and the water came nearly to the door. Doors around noon, last orders deep in the small hours. Start here, where the city's drinking memory runs longest.
the hotel 1979; the pub's own year is nobody's record to show · noon till 3am by the aggregators; the operator posts no clock · verified Aug 2026 · 🏨 the night ends at Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel & Resort
- 2 · The Detour
Belgian Café
Mussels, frites and abbey beer on the water line of a hotel that hosted the first GCC Summit in May 1981. The order is the famous mussel pot with chunky frites and a Belgian abbey ale from one of the city's deepest beer lists. Tuesday is Mussels Tuesday, the happy hour runs four to seven every day, and the Sunday Roast has its own quiet congregation of loyalists. The marina lights come on around your second bottle. Allow it. During the 2026 World Cup the room simply stopped closing, twenty four hours a day, which tells you exactly what it is for. A long standing favourite, open till one on weeknights and two at weekends, and the rare hotel bar that feels like a local.
the hotel 1981, host of the first GCC Summit; the café keeps its own age to itself · noon till 1am, weekends till 2am; happy hour 4 till 7 · verified Aug 2026 · 🏨 the night ends at InterContinental Abu Dhabi
- 3 · The Anchor
PJ O'Reilly's
The Irish embassy in all but paperwork, at Building 113 on Khalifa Street, in a tower built in 1993 and 1994 as the Forte Grand, now Le Royal Meridien. The house calls itself the first Irish pub in the UAE, and nobody in the room is filing a correction. Order a full plate and a round: fall off the bone ribs, a loaded burger, or sausage and mash, because the kitchen understands its assignment. The happy hour runs noon to eight daily, the longest in the city by its own cheerful claim, and Saturday brings a beer garden brunch. For the 2026 World Cup they raised a fan tent in the garden from June to July. Every accent in the Gulf arrives by the second round.
the tower 1993 to 1994 as the Forte Grand; first Irish pub in the UAE is the house's own claim · noon till 2am, weekends till 4am · verified Aug 2026 · 🏨 the night ends at Le Royal Meridien Abu Dhabi
- 4 · The Wildcard
Heroes Never Die
Heroes never actually died. The licensed dive that everyone ended up in closed in summer 2022 when the Crowne Plaza on Hamdan Street became the Millennium Downtown, then came back down the same stairs in June 2023 as Heroes Never Die, run by the Stars N Bars crew. The room is still a rock and roll joint wearing a sports bar's clothes. Order the wings and whatever the band is doing; the cocktails are named for Amy Winehouse and Tina Turner, which sets the register. Happy hour runs from three in the afternoon with house pours from 22 dirhams, live sport covers every screen, and the basement takes no notice of the hour. Everyone still ends up here. Tonight it is on purpose.
the dive closed with the rebrand in 2022, resurrected June 2023 · afternoon till 3am, weekends 4am; two sources disagree on the opening hour · verified Aug 2026 · 🏨 the night ends at Millennium Downtown Abu Dhabi
- 5 · The Last Call
Ray's Bar
Sixty two floors up Tower 1 of Etihad Towers, the capital's highest bar since the hotel opened in November 2011, Jumeirah then, Conrad since October 2020. The towers glow below like a rendering that got built. Order one nightcap at altitude: the cocktail list is the point here, built by a bar that calls its trade innovative mixology and gets away with it. Doors are for grown ups only, twenty one and over, and the dress code means it. Evenings from five, Saturdays from one, with the adults only Altitude Brunch on the last Saturday of the month and a wine and cheese night on Fridays. One drink, the long look down the Corniche, then down to a bed you can see from your barstool.
the towers 2011, Conrad since 1 Oct 2020, level 62 · 5pm till 1am, Thu and Fri till 2am, Sat from 1pm; over 21 · verified Aug 2026 · 🏨 the night ends at Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Towers