So, for those planning a trip to Fun Town, this week I’ve compiled a mid-season report card on Pattaya’s popular night spots with some comparison on how they were doing at the end of high season three months ago. While experiences vary at any bar from night to night, my weeks of “research” have resulted in a pretty good handle on where, on average, you’ll most likely find the best crowds, girls, deals and, hopefully, fun to be had.
Casanovy, Pattaya Walking Street
Walking Street (Main Street)
Starting from the north, this is the list of bars you’ll find on the main section of Walking Street.
- Silver Star – There are three Silver Star go-gos in Pattaya. All have the same Thai owners and the same general format. But Walking Street’s iteration – known as Silver Star 3 – is definitely the worst of the three. Not only is its layout a cheap and obvious copy of Club Boesche, but it’s the most expensive of the trio of Silver Stars. The women are a step up from the Soi 7 location, but the prices for draft beer are 50% higher and significantly more than the bars right next door.
- Casanovy – This table-dance joint was opened by some former staff at Beach Club and copies the format and layout almost exactly. Many of Beach Club’s cuties left to work here, in fact. But the quality of the women has fallen off noticeably since high season with the departure of all the showgirls on the payroll then. Shows are now done sparingly. The beer is cheap and there’s a few cuties, but get there early.
- Beavers – One of Walking Street’s best-known and least-heralded bars. It’s another table-dance bar and there are no real stunners, but the girls are all fun, have great attitude, are mostly petite. Plus the beer is cheap and the music tolerable. Nothing fancy, but good solid entertainment.
- Pinky Girl – One of five go-gos operated by Nui of Nui’s Club 2, Pinky is small, has no women to speak of and the one’s that are there aren’t worth speaking about. Avoid.
Pattaya's Air Port Club, set to open later this year.
- Air Port Club – The sixth Nui go-go bar. Just opened.
- Sisterz – Since sacking manager/co-owner Ricky, the remaining partners in Sisterz have worked hard to build up the clientele, but have blundered badly. The first mistake was creating a new class of dancers above showgirls (called “Superstars”) and setting their barfines at 1,500 baht. The second was hiring an apparently deaf DJ who often pumps the volume to ear-shattering levels and taking some shortcuts with the draft beer, which has had more than a few complaints of being dodgy. To the bars credit, there are many more women on staff than when Ricky departed and there are regularly scheduled dance contests and events through September to spice things up.
- Nui’s Club 2 – The best of the Nui bars, it was renovated at the end of high season and now has a few attractive and fun girls. Reasonable prices.
- Hot Girls – Not hot and not for white tourists.
- Sweethearts – Decent management, but so close to the street owners of this table-dance joint won’t risk nudity.
- New Living Dolls One – Doing the best trade of the main-drag Walking Street go-gos. Busy every night despite the lack of showers, play mats, table dancers or dildo shows. A simple go-go with one hourly (faux) lesbian show. So why is it packed until the wee hours? Great farang management, 75 girls with virtually zero attitude, free beer coupons, 55 baht draft, 39 baht mixed drinks (during happy hour) and 400 baht barfines. Some panty-less new costumes don’t hurt either.
- Champion – In a big-time world of hurt. One hot girl and a dozen slappers. Mamasan admits she’s probably leaving once she gets paid this month. Only go if you like fat women dancing to The Doors.
- Peaches – Under construction. May end up being the smallest go-go bar ever.
- Lollipop – Jacuzzi, play mat and main stage are filled with fun, but not overly attractive women. It’s dropped a bit in quality and numbers since high season, but still a fun time, thanks in part to the 20-year-old Brit manager and American owner. Hint: Check out the menu of 50% alcohol Jell-O shots.
- Polo – Showbar for Asian tourists. Consistent quality, but expensive.
- Galaxy – Eastern European dancers with stratospheric attitudes and prices. 200 baht for one Heineken and 400 baht lady drinks.
- Peppermint – The biggest story of low season. New Thai partners have “fixed what didn’t need to be fixed,” said another bar owner, resulting in new lewd shows, some sexy cut-out bikini costumes that leave nothing to the imagination and a bunch of smoke and fancy lights. Not what it was, but still worth a happy hour visit.
- Dollhouse – No comment. See below.
- Living Dolls Showcase – As is the case with Dollhouse, The Ghost is banned from Showcase. Other owners report the bar has done very well this low season with a few desperate nights with no loss of showgirl talent. But management of LDS and Dollhouse won’t tolerate any criticism of drink prices or the dancing staff, so you can simply choose to see for yourself (or not).
- Hooty’s – No noticeable changes from high season. Owners say the bar is profitable even with low numbers of punters. No frills. Just good, clean go-go action.
- Roxy – The former manager of Carousel Club has joined Roxy since low season started and the bar has picked up both in crowd numbers and fun factor. It’s still an also-ran behind Angelwitch when it comes to shows, but Roxy has moved back from the brink of extinction.
Living Dolls 1
Soi 15, Soi 16 & Soi Marina Plaza Walking Street
Most of last week’s column was devoted to the hot bars on Soi 15 and the fading nightspots on Soi 16. So I’m not going to repeat my reviews here. But I do have a few things to add.
Looking at the Soi 15 go-gos from a mid-season report card view:
- Sakura Club 69, which won my personal award in May for most up-and-coming bar, has faded badly. The Ghost is actually banned from this place as well – the owner thinks I work for the police, of all things! – but friends of owner Danny said the bar is doing very poorly, with one night taking in just 8,000 baht the entire evening.
- Club Misty’s, which I haven’t been writing much about, is also a must-visit. Both for its interior design and for the large stable of attractive women the bar has attracted over the past three months.
As for the Soi 16 Covent Garden bars, a couple notes to add on top of last week’s comments:
- X-Zone –- The bar may or may not be on the market again. There’s an ad running on the Internet for it, but it’s unclear whether the website is simply outdated or, in fact, it’s a new ad. Either way, the owners are in bad shape. They were just banned from Coyotee’s for allegedly trying to poach girls there.
- Catz – I really like the owner here and hate to say anything negative about it. But Catz has fallen badly since the days when it was one of Walking Street’s Top 5 go-go bars. Sad to see. Hopefully things will turn around.
And, finally, the one bar in the former “black hole” on Soi Marina Plaza is Coyotee’s. The bar has just turned three years old in a location where no bar has ever survived. The key to that has been that the bar has always attracted some of Pattaya’s best-looking women.
Right now, at this mid-point of low-season, Coyotee’s has the largest number of beautiful women on Walking Street. There’s not a porker on the payroll. The bar, of course, continues to fight its longtime reputation to snooty dancers, high prices and bitchy mamasans, its hard to dispute its staff is top rate.
That’s this week’s report. Next week we’ll cover Soi Diamond, Soi Happy, the Soi LK Metro area and sois 7 and 8.
pg - seems all the bars I used to like suck now. I need a trip to sort this out. Who is Nui? I don’t think I have been to one Nui club from the looks of it.
I got a general question - what is the unwritten rule in Pattaya for poaching go-go staff?
View all comments by sideshowBOB
Nui has five bars: Nui’s Club 2, Hot Girls, Pinky Girl, Smile Girls, and now, Air Port Club. All are tiny, allegedly make no money and are utterly forgettable, with the exception of maybe the first one.
On poaching girls? Certainly if you’re a farang, you can’t do it yourself in someone else’s bar. I think most times its done thrugh by mamasans. Or the bar hires away a mama and she brings the hot girls with her. Arthur at Boesche did that (got 2) and it blew up in his face as one mama was a complete disaster and chased away all the hot girls.
View all comments by The Ghost
How would you split the seasons in Pattaya? When is high, when is middle and when is low?
View all comments by Suk Psycho
You mean there’s more bars than Happy A Go Go?
View all comments by jack dawson
SP — I’m using the hotel-deigned idea of high and low. Nov. 1-April 30 is high season. May 1-Oct. 31 is low.
My report is late about 2 weeks to be truly “mid” point.
View all comments by Pattaya Ghost
Dec. 15 - jan. 15 being the season to avoid…
View all comments by mart
I’m with JD on this one - so what about Happy’s?
View all comments by psi100th
jd & psi — Like the story says, Happy is next week. BUT, I will give you a snippet from a story that goes online at 9 a.m. on my blog.
I was in Happy last night around 1. The place was jumping. The back lounge closes at midnight and the remaining girls and punters were in the main bar.
The mamasan said she has 125 girls on the payroll during this low season and 85 showed up yesterday. Of those, 45 were barfined by 1 a.m.
View all comments by The Ghost
banned from a slut bar… can it get any worse??
View all comments by MSB
“Hot Girls – Not hot and not for white tourists.”
That’s an intriguing one-liner. What’s the deal with that place? I’ve never been there and guess I won’t go, but you have me a little curious.
View all comments by Powers
@P — It’s aimed at the Chinese tour bus crowd. Stupid P*ssy Tricks shows are the order of the day there. Think upstairs Patpong.
View all comments by Pattaya Ghost