Live Twice Speakeasy Bar on Bukit Pasoh: S$16 Happy Hour

Live Twice is a 40-seat cocktail bar at 20 Bukit Pasoh Road, Singapore 089834, and it works like a speakeasy because you reach it through a plain glass door in a 1930s shophouse rather than under a big sign. Happy hour runs 6pm to 8pm daily with cocktails at S$16++, wine at S$14++ and beer at S$12++. Reservations go through the bar's online booking page, and Outram MRT exit 4 is the closest station. If you typed speakeasy bar into your phone while standing in Chinatown, this is the one to book.

Bukit Pasoh Road is a short, quiet street of restored shophouses a short walk from Outram, and Live Twice occupies the ground floor of one of the 1930s buildings. The bar's own description tells you to follow a soft warm glow through the glass door, which is the whole trick: there is no neon and no queue barker, only light behind glass. Reviewers have also described the entrance as a hidden alcove next to the seafood restaurant Humpback, so if you walk past the first time, double back along the shophouse row and look for the amber glow.

Live Twice shares the building with two other venues from the Jigger & Pony Group, the cocktail bar Gibson and the oyster-and-seafood bistro Humpback. That matters for the evening: the neighbouring doors are not the bar you booked, so check the name on your reservation confirmation. From Outram MRT, take exit 4 and walk up Bukit Pasoh Road; the stretch is short and flat, which makes it an easy walk even in Singapore's humidity.

The bar opened in December 2019 in a space that had been a dive bar called Flagship, and the group pitched it as an ode to mid-century modern Japan: the Tokyo of the 1960s, when people with busy professional days wanted to play just as hard after dark, in bars that blended Japanese and Western influences. The name comes from the 1967 Nancy Sinatra song You Only Live Twice, written for the Bond film, and the cocktail list is organised around its lines.

With just 40 seats, the room is small enough that the bartenders can see everyone. The official description says it is designed like a mid-century home built for entertaining, so no furniture is repeated apart from the chairs at the bar. You will find original Sigurd Resell Falcon chairs and yellow Tulip stools by Eero Saarinen, and an Isamu Noguchi Akari paper pendant lamp glowing in the alcove. The soundtrack stays in the swinging sixties and seventies, loud enough to give the room energy and soft enough that two people can talk across a small table.

The mood is film noir rather than nightclub: dark, a little enigmatic, but warm. The bar describes the room as a place for gatherings of like-minded companions, couples on a romantic retreat and the lone drinker keeping company with a glass and the bartender. The bar says it welcomes guests from all walks of life, and the 40-seat layout makes the bar counter the best place to be if you are alone.

The drinks menu runs to seventeen cocktails across four chapters, and each chapter opens on a line from the Nancy Sinatra song. Principal bartender Luca Lulli leads the programme, and the stated rule is that every drink is built around the spirit at its centre, with nothing decorative, garnish included. Think of it as a Japanese-influenced bar where a classic such as an Old Fashioned is treated with the same care as the house creations, and where the chapter structure follows the shape of an evening, from lighter openers to something stirred and serious.

If you want the cheapest way in, use happy hour. From 6pm to 8pm every day the list narrows to four cocktails at S$16++ each: the Mikan Margarita with Codigo Blanco tequila, mikan, agave, lime and orange bitters; the Muscat Gin Fizz with Tanqueray gin, Cocchi Americano, apricot, lemon and frozen muscat grapes; the Pear Bellini with Another Hendrick's gin, pear, lemon, prosecco and lavender bitters; and the King Cole Old Fashioned with Maker's Mark bourbon, Fernet Branca and Okinawa sugar. Wine starts at S$14++ for a Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, a Veneto prosecco or a McLaren Vale shiraz, and beer is a Pilsner Urquell at S$12++.

My honest take: arrive at 6pm, drink two happy-hour cocktails and then move to the full menu for one drink from the main menu once the room fills. The Old Fashioned is the safest pick if you like whisky, and the Mikan Margarita is the one to order if you prefer something bright. Prices on the happy hour sheet are subject to service charge and GST, which is what the plus signs mean.

The kitchen cooks yoshoku, the western-influenced Japanese style that grew out of the Meiji era, alongside izakaya snacks, and the 2026 food menu lists prices clearly. The sandos are the headline: a tamago katsu sando is S$24, a pork katsu sando is S$35 and a wagyu katsu sando is S$44. A gyutan curry rice bowl is S$25, tempura squid is S$21, and smaller plates run from citrus olives at S$8 to shokupan with XO butter at S$12 and potato and cheese croquettes at S$15.

For dessert there is a hojicha tiramisu or a warm chocolate cake, both S$14. The sashimi platter is S$48 and can be skipped if you came for cocktails; the tamago katsu sando at S$24 gives you more flavour per dollar and pairs better with a stirred drink. Last food orders are at 10pm every day, and a limited supper menu is served after 10pm, so ask the team what is available if you arrive late on a Friday or Saturday.

With 40 seats and a bar that fills on Friday and Saturday evenings, booking is the sensible move, particularly if you are a group of four or more. Live Twice is cashless: it accepts Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Alipay, WeChat Pay and PayNow.

Weekday evenings are the calmest. Sunday to Tuesday the bar runs from 6pm to midnight, which gives you a long, unhurried window if you book the first slot and stay through happy hour. Wednesday and Thursday run to 1am, and Friday and Saturday to 2am, so those are the nights for a late drink after dinner in Chinatown.

For the best balance of price and atmosphere, book the 6pm slot on a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. You catch happy hour, you get your choice of seats, and you can stay until midnight. If you want the room at full volume, go after 9pm on Friday or Saturday, when the bar is open until 2am and the sixties soundtrack carries the whole space.

If Live Twice is fully booked, the simplest plan B is Gibson, the Jigger & Pony Group's other cocktail bar in the same shophouse building. It is a different room and a different menu, but you stay on the same street and can still walk to Outram afterwards. Humpback, the seafood bistro in the same group, is the alternative if you need dinner before drinks.

Bukit Pasoh Road runs between Neil Road and Keong Saik Road, so the streets around the bar are some of the most walkable in the Chinatown conservation area. Keong Saik Road, with its painted shophouses, is a few minutes away on foot, and Duxton Road, lined with restaurants and bars, is a short stroll in the other direction. Outram Park station is close by for the trip home, and late at night a taxi or ride-share from the street is easy to find.

Because Live Twice has no sign to photograph, the real souvenir is the walk itself: the pastel shophouse facades, and the quiet of the street after dark. If you only have one evening in Chinatown, a 6pm reservation here followed by a slow wander down to Keong Saik Road makes a complete night.

Address: Live Twice, 20 Bukit Pasoh Road, Singapore 089834, near Outram MRT exit 4. Email: info@livetwice.sg. Hours: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday 6pm to 12am; Wednesday and Thursday 6pm to 1am; Friday and Saturday 6pm to 2am. Happy hour is 6pm to 8pm daily, with cocktails at S$16++, wine at S$14++ and beer at S$12++. The bar has 40 seats and takes online reservations through its official site, livetwice.sg.

The bar has been recognised in Tatler Asia's list of Singapore's top 20 bars in 2025 and 2026, and earlier ranked No. 65 on Asia's 50 Best Bars in 2022 and No. 75 in 2021, so it is a bar with a track record rather than a pop-up. Ask the Karpo APP for a Chinatown evening plan, and it can line up dinner, this reservation and a late walk along Keong Saik Road.