Behind Closed Doors: 6 Hidden Bars

The city has dozens of bars, but only one that’s truly hard to get into. Yellow Door is a legend among Kazakhstan’s speakeasies — a bar with no sign and no walk-ins. To get inside, you’ll need to complete a little quest: send them a DM, wait for the coveted «come over,» and find that very unassuming door. The bar’s concept is inspired by the Prohibition era, and the space channels the best traditions of 1920s underground establishments. The main source of light is candles, while smooth jazz plays in the background so it never drowns out quiet conversations. Raising your voice is frowned upon — but raising your spirits is encouraged. The bartenders will happily craft a bespoke mix from your imagination or make something from their nine cocktails on the menu. Try the iconic PG.9, created for the bar’s 10th anniversary — a blend built on pandan and pineapple shrub. And if you’re in the mood for something sweeter and more nostalgic, go for the Rahat Mule, a twist on the Moscow Mule with orange vodka, ginger ale, and chocolate syrup.  

Tucked away next to the Kyzyl Tan fabric store is a bar with the atmosphere of a tailor’s workshop. Atelier’s menu is laid out like a fabric catalog — a delight for tactile learners. Playful mixes include Lace (gooseberry, prosecco, and strawberry), Leather (coffee and miso), Latex, Cashmere, and Hopsack — you can literally feel each drink, assessing its strength by touch before you order. The cocktail menu was crafted by bartenders Georgy Kucheryanko and Darya Bezhina — their previous menus for Ogonyok restaurant and their own snack bar Syosyo have been featured on The World’s 50 Best Bars website.  

Beneath Renée Café, you’ll find Gruppo 63, where everything follows the rules of Italian dolce vita. The name nods to the 1960s neo-avant-garde literary group, while the interior evokes Milanese salotti where people sipped vermouth and debated poetry. Here you’ll find a long bar counter, mirrors, warm lighting, classical music in the background, and a well-dressed crowd. The bartenders play with Italian classics, tweaking the usual proportions of amaro, vermouth, and limoncello. Behind a hidden door lies a cigar room and a collection of strong spirits.

Below the Champagne restaurant is Adept, a bar and laboratory mix and the true domain of formulas, flasks, a rotary evaporator, a centrifuge, sous-vide, and pure chemistry. The space is bathed in near-darkness, with all the light seemingly focused on the glasses. Every cocktail is an experiment: Parfumer Negroni features a palo santo redistillate, Nomad Martini brings together kumis and chechil, and Reunion Sour carries «the scent of money» — thanks to patchouli, whose leaves once lined precious fabrics on the Silk Road and whose distillate now forms the base of a cocktail at Adept. The menu and concept remain deliberately mysterious — come and decipher them for yourself. This bar has every chance of becoming the most unforgettable stop on your bar-hopping route.  

This bar is nestled in the lobby of a city’s main stand-up club. Sometimes there’s an open-mic night, sometimes the space is closed for private events, but most often people come to Archive simply to talk, listen to a live band on Fridays, and, of course, explore the cocktail menu. It offers a full spectrum of flavors, from the slightly bitter Basil Collins made with dry gin (also available in a non-alcoholic version) to the spicy Rouge Tini with dark rum, coffee, and cornelian cherry. Standouts include the Golden Daiquiri with rum, banana milk, and Thai tea, and Rusty Bacon built on whiskey aged on bacon. No one leaves hungry — there are bar snacks like shrimp and nachos, as well as more substantial street food such as a burrito cheeseburger wrapped in a tortilla.  

Bul Bar sits between Kurmangazy and Baiseitova — it’s hard to imagine Kazakh music without these two names. The bar occupies the third and fourth floors of a building in the old town: upstairs is all about wine, sunsets, and vinyl, while downstairs is for house, disco, and nights that end later than planned. The space is divided not only by floors but by mood — upstairs is for talking and listening, downstairs for dancing. The cocktail menu changes and updates with the seasons. People come to Bul Barto talk — with or without a drink, admiring the views over the city and the gentle sound of jazz spinning on vinyl. 

Photos: restaurants’ websites and social media, Yandex Maps