New South Wales · Haymarket
Banchō
Cocktail and whisky bar
Tokyo Bird's bigger Chinatown sibling, with rare Japanese pours and cocktails built from the markets outside.
Banchō is a laneway small bar in Thomas Lane, in the middle of Sydney's Chinatown, from the team behind Tokyo Bird. It's a bigger room than its Surry Hills sibling, with around a hundred seats, and a looser, livelier night out.
The back bar leans on Japanese and Scotch whisky, including rare and independent bottlings, with American, Australian and Taiwanese pours alongside. The cocktails borrow from the Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese and Korean groceries a few doors away, and the food runs to Japanese-style bar snacks like katsu skewers.
Go to Tokyo Bird for the deepest Japanese list. Go to Banchō when you want the same team's whisky with a cocktail list and a crowd.
Same team: Tokyo Bird