Yoka Balance Description

The unassuming Ginza-style cocktail bar is just a few blocks north of the more highly trafficked part of Shaanxi Bei Lu, home to Up Shanghai, The Rooster and more. Look for the subdued-yet-glowing circle of light next to a nondescript pale wood door, and you’ve arrived.

The bar is run by Chinese mixologist Yang Hua (who also goes by Yoka) who trained with a Japanese teacher. Painstaking attention to detail – from ice cubes carved into shapes and sizes to match the cocktail ordered to the correspondingly different glasses – puts them squarely in the Ginza genre of bartending.