Best Nightclubs

Q Bar - Dressed To Impress

While the Q Bar is only about a five minute walk from Apocalypse Now, in terms of character and atmosphere, the Q Bar couldn't be more different from Apocalypse Now if it tried.

This is because the decor, the cliental, the feel, and everything about these two bars are polar opposites.

Q Bar - Opera House

Where Apocalypse Now is large, brash and unpretentious about its infamy, the Q Bar is sophisticated, intimate and has a reputation to maintain!

This is certainly not a bad thing in anyway, they are just two different sides of the same two-hundred dong coin.

I often visit Q Bar after visiting Apocalypse Now, the five minute walk giving me a break between drinks, and allowing me to sober up a tad in the cool night air while strolling down Hai Ba Trung.

Turning left at the Pacharan Restaurant, Q Bar is located in the basement of the Opera House on Cong Truong Lam Son.

From the outside Q Bar often gives the appearance of being a little subdued or closed.

Inside Q Bar - Opera House

It is not until you walk inside that you realize that Q Bar is the home of the chic and the stylish in Saigon.

And while you wouldn't bat and eyelid at turning up at Apocalypse Now in whatever you happen to be wearing at the time, if you are not dressed up to the nines when you visit the Q Bar, you will probably get a few sideways looks.

And fair enough to, the Q Bar has a reputation to maintain after all, and appearances need to be kept up!

I mean you don't spend a lot on money on slick bar furnishing and oh-so-comfy seating to have them sullied by riff raff!

Only jokes, but Q Bar does tend to attract a more polished cliental, and on any given Saturday night Q Bar is filled with a mix of business travelers, the long term expat community, and young upwardly mobile locals.

Q Bar - Opera House

Having said all this, Q Bar has a very intimate feel.

This is because when you walk into the Q Bar one of the first things that you will notice is the low ceilings, which should not be surprising given that the Q Bar is located in the basement of century old opera house.

But these low ceilings when combined with the sofas and soft lighting, give the Q Bar an intimacy that is often missing from larger nightclubs and bars.

It puts people closer together and makes it easier to strike up a conversation with others at the bar.

And if you and your friends need a little more privacy, there are numerous little cubby holed drinking areas located around the bar for people to hide away in.

These cubby holes are great for just sitting back and socking in the atmosphere of a bar that has the largest range of cocktails and spirits east of the Mekong!!!

Opera House
7 Lam Son Square, D1
Tel: 823 347