Returning from a five-year stint in Singapore, Shelley Tai is back in Hong Kong with MIUS, a cocktail bar all about the classics with a twist.
After a five-year stint in Singapore, Shelley Tai’s homecoming has captured significant buzz in Hong Kong’s drinks community, as her new cocktail bar opened in August with marked attention.
With a line trailing the narrow Sheung Wan street before doors open at 5PM, patrons fill the minimalist Scandi-Japanese-styled bar, and fast. Two tones – silver and rusty oak wood – colour the space with a drinks menu, just 12 cocktails deep, serving customers.
The cocktails have no more than six ingredients, the bartenders don plain outfits, and the volume is kept at a gentle tone throughout the night. MIUS cocktail bar is simple, it returns to the basics of what drinking is, and that’s what Shelley wants.
“MIUS is not about my journey, it’s not particularly [following a] Hong Kong or Singapore style, it’s about the cocktails,” she shared at her bar minutes before the 5PM opening. “The mid-century modern style of the bar, with a focus on wood which is very minimal, allows the focus to be put on the cocktails.”
Opening her first independent cocktail bar comes at a turning point for her and the bar scene. “Hong Kong is moving from binge drinking to quality drinking. When I first entered bartending, there were no cocktail bars. It has only been in the last 10 years that cocktails have become big here.”
In her five years working in Singapore, Shelley worked within the Nutmeg Collective, which manages five bars including the 24th best bar in Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2025 list, Nutmeg & Clove. There, she learned how to build a cocktail programme based on themes, manage drinks operations, and grow business.
Here, at MIUS, the stripped-down interior and streamlined service means the cocktails shine. As drinks concepts in Hong Kong continue to evolve with more themes or immersive experiences, MIUS doesn’t lack a theme, but chooses not to have one.
“Our [12] cocktails range in strength from low to high ABV. We have refreshing, sweet, sour cocktails. All of our cocktails are made simple with few ingredients.” Their highball, garibaldi, and bamboo cocktails are all priced at HKD90, with others ranging in price from HKD120 to HKD140.
In the words of Shelly, MIUS sells classic cocktails with twists. The instant crowd favourite Gin & Apple brings gin, coconut, kaffir lime, lemongrass, and green apple soda together for a refreshing drink made for summer.
Their Strawberry Negroni innovates on the Italian cocktail with a syrupy strawberry infusion, whereas the Shiso Sour brings sour plum into the mix for a subtle Hong Kong flavour infusion.
Asia’s flavours find themselves on the menu too: matcha finds itself within the Matcha Mori with a hot whisky and coconut mix, guava and oolong meet for the Guava Oolong Float, and black sesame is the main attraction alongside chocolate and coffee in the Alex After Dark.
Since the bar’s soft opening on Aug. 27, the line trailing the bar outside has not let up until late into the night. Shelley’s less-is-more philosophy has been refreshing for a bar scene often leaning too into the theme of a cocktail menu, a curated interior design, or exaggerated service and style.
In her 15 years of bartending inside and out of Hong Kong, this return to basics is comforting.
Shelley began her bartending career in 2010 at Nordic restaurant FINDS in Tsim Sha Tsui, where she met mixologist Antonio Lai of Quinary. He was tasked with crafting the restaurant’s cocktail programme, enlightening Shelley on the power of cocktails.
Following that, the budding bartender ventured into SoHo to work at late-night club Drop, where peak hours lasted from 2AM to 7AM. “[At Drop,] I didn’t really care about cocktails.” Shortly after, she followed her mentor to join Quinary as a bartender before her Singapore role came calling.
“ I think it feels more respectful to be a bartender at a cocktail bar than when I was in night club. Working in a proper cocktail bar feels different, it is the attitude and professionalism that comes with it.”
Check out MIUS, Shelley Tai’s first cocktail bar in Hong Kong, today on Gough Street.
