Boarding now: Sober Company’s cocktail bar takes flight with ‘Sober Airways’ in Shanghai

Word: Pasuta Phongam Photos: Pasuta Phongam

At the ground floor of Sober Company, where one of the city’s most influential drinking collectives continues to redefine cocktail culture, a new journey is boarding. Welcome to Sober Airways—a mischievous, meticulously choreographed tasting menu at Sober Izakaya that transforms dinner into an international flight path, complete with boarding passes, colour-coded ‘cards’ and a spirit of escapism that feels particularly timely.

Piloted by Chef Yoshi and head bartender Jimmy, the seven-course experience blends culinary precision with liquid storytelling. Each course ‘lands’ in a different destination, pairing globally inspired small plates with cocktails engineered to echo regional flavours, traditions and textures. It’s part theatre, part tasting menu—and wholly Sober in its irreverent confidence.

The journey begins in Venice, signalled by a Purple Card. A composed caprese of prosciutto, seasonal fruit and mascarpone is luxuriously lifted with caviar, paired with a Bellini reimagined through golden watermelon and passion fruit—sunny, aromatic, and gently indulgent.

From there, the flight veers west to Madrid, where foie gras meets cacao cookies and orange, matched with an Adonis accented by lightly roasted coffee, balancing bitterness and richness with surprising restraint.

A sharper turn brings guests to Okinawa. Here, ceviche-style scallop is layered with sea grapes, finger lime and bonito bread, while awamori is softened with bitter melon and tomato—saline, vegetal and quietly complex.

The menu then touches down in London, where nostalgia gets a Sober makeover: fish and chips arrive alongside blini and tartar sauce, paired with a cocktail blending gin, Earl Grey tea and IPA beer, capturing pub culture through a fine-dining lens.

The pace quickens in Bangkok, with steamed egg custard dressed in tom yum goong sauce—silky, spicy, unmistakably Thai—matched to a bright Daiquiri infused with Thai basil and kaffir lime.

In Seoul, textures and intensity collide: yukhoe bibimbap, dukbokki and bone marrow meet a Kimchi Margarita that walks a fine line between funk, heat and refreshment.

The final descent returns home to Shanghai, marked by a Red Card. A palate-cleansing seasonal sorbet and carbonated grapes are paired with a nuanced blend of Shaoxing wine, birch sap and plum wine—an elegant, contemplative ending that grounds the journey where it began.

Just when the flight appears to have reached its final destination, Sober Airways reveals one last flourish. Guests are discreetly invited upstairs to a concealed room—an intimate, softly lit space reserved for the journey’s epilogue.

Here, Kazuhisa takes the controls once more, presenting a final cocktail crafted with seasonal fruit and prized Japanese melon. Delicately perfumed and gently sweet, the drink unfolds with understated elegance, its clean, crystalline sweetness offering a serene landing after the sensory altitude of the courses below.

More than a tasting menu, Sober Airways is a playful meditation on global drinking culture, filtered through Shanghai’s restless creativity—proof that Sober Company continues to evolve not by taking itself too seriously, but by knowing exactly when to fasten the seatbelt and enjoy the ride. The journey concludes in a quiet, almost ceremonial register: less about spectacle than precision and generosity, leaving guests suspended in that rare space between arrival and departure, where the experience lingers just a little longer.

Sober Company Shanghai

Tel: +86 216 5353 065 Location: F106-107, F201-202 No.109 Yandang Road, Huangpu, Shanghai

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sobercompany/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sober_company/ Reserve: sobercompany@sg-management.cn