Opened in May 2010 on Rua da Consolacão, slick Bar Número is in the uptown, top-ranking category as far as bars are concerned. Just to get up its long, striking walkway and through the door means a hefty minimum spend on busy nights, and a reservation; but if you get the chance to peek inside, seize it. 

Nobody who has seen the dramatic interior with its strange, almost cinematic visual effect – the ceiling rises towards the back, which appears to zoom your vision through to the lush vertical garden at the rear – needs telling that this is the swishest new bar in town.

Architect Isay Weinfeld, no stranger to prizes and accolades, created the interior for a happy former client – co-owner Marcos Campos is also the man behind the chic nightclub Disco, also a Weinfeld creation. So is the doughty Fasano hotel, just a hop, skip and a jump from Bar Número's mysterious facade, where a set of monolithic numbers in relief on the wall, like the enigmatically placed contents of a typesetter's box, is the only sign the bar needs.

And though the upstairs has become one of the sceniest places in Jardins – if high society, sleek suits and supermodel types are your scene, that is – there's a lesser known, elegantly tousled side to Número. Downstairs, a cosy mini-club, walls decked out in a collage of torn rock posters, opens for birthdays and special events.