Bars and Clubs: Eastwood Lounges

Eastwood has been quite the surprise for me.  I remember heading over there in 2000 to see one or two buildings, the cradle of the burgeoning call center industry back in the day.  These buildings were soon joined by low rise buildings holding the biggest concentration of bars and clubs at the time.  Now, Eastwood is a full fledged mini city in Quezon City.

Here are picks to lounge around after a hard day's work or a weekend change of scenery, whatever you feel like doing, Eastwood offers a lot of choices.

A classic in Eastwood is Jack's Loft which began as a coffee shop with cake that quickly evolved to be the first pillar of Eric Cua's empire, yep, Embassy then eventually Repuliq and Opus, the  country's biggest clubs all began from Jack's loft and this was the first of several.

There is the Eden Night Club and Garden Lounge that has quite the high tech sound system and light show and Venom Shooters Bar, a cocktail lounge that offers the widest selection of shots and cocktail variations.   

The Distillery is a very famous bar, pub and lounge which has branches in different areas.   The Distillery has a wide array of imported beers, delectable cocktail drinks, whiskey and most of the usual libations one seeks to unwind on a weekend or after a tough day at work. 

 

Need more drink places ideas?  Check out Bar Fly!

Bars and Clubs in Ortigas Center, Pasig

For those who are looking for the best places to unwind and just get a conversation over a cold bottle of beer, there are plenty of bars and clubs in the Philippines. Ortigas is one of the most urbanized areas in Manila. This is a place for commerce and business where various people are on the look for after-work fun and rendezvous with friends and booze.

There are a lot of clubs which are worth trying while you are in Ortigas.  These clubs can provide the best beers and drinks alongside the perfect ambience for a relaxing moment with your friends and peers. Here are some of the best places to unwind which are dubbed to be included in the list of the best bars and clubs in the Philippines:

Ortigas has the very urbanized City Golf Plaza Compound which has all the best resto, clubs and bars in the area. The Barcino is a nifty place for people who would want to eat Spanish dishes and wines. One can find the best liquors such as white and red wine to pair up with a sumptuous meal.
Another place to visit for the best experience of food and drinks is the Locale Gastrobar. This food establishment can serve gourmet dishes to satisfy their guests. The best food stuff which is being served here would include nachos, truffle pizza and foie gras burger. Another addition to this wide array of food is a bottle of good beer and concoction of drinks to enjoy. 

If one would want a real night fun, The Reserve is one club to reckon. This is just located across the Locale Gastrobar and Barcino. This is a nice place to relax with a drink. The Reserve is a liquor lounge which gets too crowded during the weekend when a lot of patrons and guests would flock to enjoy the music and excellent customer service. Make a reservation before going to the bar to ensure a nifty spot for the night.

For those who would want to enjoy the booze in Ortigas, Bugsy’s Bar & Bistro is a top pick. A lot of the guests going to this night spot would adore the drinks and food. Fish and chips go well with beer and that is one of the most satisfying treat to have while at Bugsy’s. It is their yummy buffalo wings which are perfect pair for a bottle of beer with lots of fun.

Borough is one of the best bars and clubs in the Philippines located at Ortigas. This bar is located at the Podium Mall which provides the best New York style food with the best cold beer in town. The place is quite small which cannot cater all the patrons who flock during the weekend.

Metrowalk is a haven for bar hoppers with the premeiere bars and clubs in the Philippines. This is place where a lot of bars and clubs are found. There are Club Phi Restobar, Aruba Bar and Restaurant and Decades Bar alongside Elbow Room and Dencio’s Bar.

Clubs in Resorts World Manila

Resorts World has become the Philippine Mecca for barhoppers and clubgoers hoping to have everything from a quiet evening with friends, to a wild night on the town with the boys/girls. How could it not be the place for excess when it houses a casino, restaurants for every budget, and a 24-hour movie house just in case you change your mind about that wild night out.

Locals and foreigners alike frequent the Republiq Super Club. Flight crew on layovers who know the lay of the club land around the world claim that this club, aside from being the best bar and club in the Philippines, stands right up there with the best that they prefer around the world. The club has hosted every famous French, Dutch, and Ukranian DJ to grace Manila with their presence. If you’re looking for a place to dance til 7am in Manila, this is it.

 Inside Republiq Super Club is the Cabana Club, the VIP clubbing room with it’s own DJ booth as well as 2 bars. It has 2 floors, and 8 private VIP rooms complete with its own bathroom and fitted with curtains if you want privacy. The club is connected to Republiq’s main room.

 Right across Republiq is another place in the running for the best bar and club in the Philippines, Opus –a restaurant and luxury lounge, is where celebrity chef Carlo Miguel gets to play with food. And by playing, I mean experimenting with his molecular gastronomic take on European cuisine. You’ll have foam, fizzy stuff inside pearls, and soup where you wouldn’t expect it but your taste buds will gladly welcome it all in the end. Case in point is the Caesar Salad Soup with the romaine lettuce coming in the form of liquid. The Modernist Caprese Salad comes with tomato sorbet, black caviar, and basil foam. The drinks don’t disappoint either. Try the Molecular Lychee Martini, which is just as you’d expect it but topped with delicious organic coconut foam on top, and lychee pearls at the bottom. This is where DJs and acts who play in Republiq come to eat and unwind after a crazy set or show.

 The Bar 360 of the ground floor casino at Resorts World Manila is where you can catch performances by famous local acts and visiting foreign musicians. Sometimes it even plays host to acrobatic acts from Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine, as well as theater artists showcasing a little of what they’re offering at the Newport Performing Arts Theater upstairs. Sip on your cocktails in this neon-lit area whether to take a respite from gambling or while your night away in style.

To get phone numbers and make reservations, search for the club you want here.

Beer, king of alcoholic beverages in the Philippines

Filipinos love them alcohol. Alcoholic beverages in the Philippines are creative and usually sweet. From the strong boozy taste of gin killed off by being poured into the sweet concoction of Pomelo (local grapefruit) juice, to the many cocktails created using native mangos and local rum, there are indeed many ways to enjoy alcohol in the Philippines. But something you can find everywhere and anywhere is beer. Here is a short guide to Philippine Beers.

 Amongst all alcoholic beverages in the Philippines, the Red Horse brand of beer, with its sweet-cereal taste, and antiseptic smell, is the most popular amongst all options. This is meant to be drunk when refrigerated thoroughly. Enjoyed by many, it is affordable and even comes in a liter bottle. If you’re lucky, you might find the bottle with the mythical happy horse on its logo, supposedly promising that the beer you’ve received is of a stronger variant.

 If Red Horse doesn’t quite do it for you, then you probably will be the man for the bitter-tasting San Miguel Pale Pilsen, arguably the drink of choice for many a father or brawny uncle in the Philippines. As stereotypes go, the San Miguel Pale Pilsen drinker has the sort of alcoholic equivalent of mystique that the Marlboro Man presents. This beer, with a good hoppy flavor, and decent head, can be found anywhere from the local roadside beer gardens in provinces to the top hotels in the country. A similar style would be the San Miguel Super Dry beer, a little harder to find but also well appreciated by many an educated beer drinker, good to accompany you through dinner.

 IF you’re just looking for something light to accompany you through your long night of partying, the San Miguel Light beer promises 0 calories, and none of that heaviness that you feel in your stomach that accompanies most wheat beers. Marketed using the sexiest and most popular local celebrities of the moment, this adjunct lager is also best served cold and will be enjoyed by people who enjoy the similarly styled Corona, Heineken, or Dos Equis beer.

 Now if you’re the kind of beer drinker that only partakes of this calorie-laden alcoholic beverage if it is prepared by Trappist monks in Belgium or small award-winning craft breweries in the US, fret not, as there are growing options for you all-around the Philippines –you just have to know where to look. A good place to find these handcrafted beers would be in Global Beer Exchange, owned by beer geek Jim Araneta, who sources Craft Beer from Japan and the US, while helping nurture local beer-making enthusiasts through monthly meetings with the Beer Club of Manila.

One of the local beers that is well-stocked at the Global Beer Exchange is by a local craft brewery called Katipunan Craft Ales. They brew a mean American Pale Ale beer that is slowly garnering the attention of beer connoisseurs everywhere.

 If you’re still under the notion that the choices for alcoholic beverages in the Philippines are limited, then, obviously, you don’t get out much. 

List of Hotel Bars and their Specialty Drinks

As of last year, with the Department of Tourism’s push for everything being more fun in the Philippines, it was decided that if Singapore had the aptly named Singapore Sling in the historical Raffles Hotel, then the Makati Shangri-La would also have a signature drink for Manila, called, the “Manila Sunshine” of course.

 The “Manila Sunshine” is made with lambanog, a coconut wine, as its base. It is also mixed with local fruits including mangos and pineapple, with a dash of triple sec, and the local rum much loved by tourist, Tanduay. The cocktail is then garnished with lemongrass and a sliver of sliced pineapple. A non-alcoholic version of the drink is also available, appropriately called the “Virgin Manila Sunshine”.

 Not to be outdone, The Mandarin Hotel’s Martinis Bar provides live music in a sophisticated setting, and of course –excellent martinis. Have your fill of the hotel signature drinks in the form of the Ginger Martini, Calamansi Martini, and the Coconut Martini. If you’re looking for something not easily replicated in other bars though, have a “Manileno”, a mojito/caipirinha mix made of the local dark rum muddled with fresh ginger and topped with ginger ale.

If cocktails aren’t quite your thing, then head over to Dusit Thani Hotel’s bar and restaurant called Fiesta San Miguel.  Here you can take partake of their signature drinks in the form of unlimited San Miguel Draft Beer with beer matches such as currywurst, fish and chips, and adobo pizza. You can take your drinks in the main area backdropped by big brewery kettles while listening to the Top 40 tunes provided by the house DJ. If you’re looking for a more laidback evening with your friends or workmates, head over to the terrace to bask in the open air for a relaxed evening.

 A reliable list of hotel signature drinks in Manila would not be complete without mentioning the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila’s grand restaurant Spiral. With 21 dining ateliers to cater to your every gustatory need, including a peking duck oven, a churrasco, a cheese room, a hug chocolate station, and all the sushi and sashimi you could ever hope to eat in an evening –there is certainly the a drink to match your every need. But because this is a French-run hotel, you might as well have something from their impressive wine cellar. Have their in-house sommelier choose a wine to go with your food, and don’t be afraid to tell them your budget beforehand, they won’t sneer at you if you want something affordable.

 The Salon de Ning of the Peninsula Manila provides the setting for a 1930s Shanghai ala Wong Kar Wai’s film “In The Mood For Love”.  Lose yourself in the cocktail lounge’s signature drink “Ning Sling”, a blend of Belvedere Pomerancza, lychee liqueur, passionfruit fruit puree, and orange juice.

Bars in Metro Manila

Filipinos enjoy gathering around with their office mates or friends after work and on weekend to enjoy drinks. Be it just to hang out or some business meeting, getting together with alcohol is part of every culture. For that very reason bars nowadays offer a wide variety of beer, wine, and spirits from all over the globe. There are a good number of bars and clubs in the Philippines that are perfect for enjoying a night of drinks.

The Distillery’s 3 branches around Metro Manila says it all about them. They aim to supply the crowd with whiskey, vodka, tequila, and foreign beer at reasonable and competitive prices. The place is usually packed with people but enough elbow room for comfort. High ceilings and a dim ambiance give it a cool place to relax and just enjoy with the company. Their branches are located in Eastwood City, The Fort, and Jupiter st. The crowd is great and usually filled with young professionals who want to catch a drink or two after work. Drinks usually range around 100 php to 200 php depending on the drink.

Draft Gastropub is a place not only for great drinks but also for great food. They specifically serve European food generously. Draft is located at the Fort and is usually best to call and make reservations since it seems like it’s always full. The gastropub definitely has a pub feel with wooden planks rowed in for walls and booths. Customers can also choose to sit in front of the bar and share a story or two with the bartender. The waiters and waitresses are very friendly and eager to serve. This place serves almost every drink one is hoping to find. Beers such as Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Becks, Guinness, and Leffe are on top of their list. They got a great selection of sandwiches, burgers, ribs, pasta and dessert to go with their drinks. One bottle of Hoegaarden goes for around 150 php and above.

Tourists and locals looking that are looking for a different kind of club, Sky W lounge bar is the place to be. This bar is located on the roof deck of W Building in Fort Bonifacio Global City. The place is classy and refreshing since it’s an open air area with huge fans to circulate the air. The place overlooks the Global city and is on the pricier side with drinks ranging around 200 php and above. This place requires reservation on their guest list and a proper dress code to get in. This bar is the place to see and be seen right now in Manila. Everyone comes to have a great time.
Republiq Club is located in Resorts World Manila and boasts the best nightlife and parties in the Metro. It is one of the biggest dance clubs in Asia with around 13,000 square feet of dance space to guests to move around and have a great time. International artists are invited often to draw the crowd into it’s dancing halls. The club caters to a younger crowd and never runs out of music and movement making it one of the best among bars and clubs in the Philippines.