It’s been several months now since Chill first opened its doors but yesterday was my first visit. I had heard enough to know it was one of “those” kinds of bars that just aren’t my thing. I guess this is a good time to remind readers that my reviews and rankings are based on my personal likes and preferences. Which is to say, just because a particular bar leaves me cold (or chilled, as it were) doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with it or that your impressions may be the opposite of mine; to each his own.
So, here’s my take on Chill. It is very small inside. That’s not a bad thing necessarily, but other than sitting at the bar sipping a drink or snuggling with one of several bargirls, there’s not much else to see or do.
And that’s really all there is to the place. Buy the girls a drink, get a massage, or negotiate an evening out of the bar, short or long time, depending on what you want to spend. I suppose you could just sit at the bar and drink a reasonably priced beer, but my impression is that’s not what this bar is designed for.
Chill is located across the highway from It Doesn’t Matter, so it’s easy to find. From my perch at IDM, I do see customers coming and going, so I suppose they are doing alright. I was the only customer last night, but it was still early in the evening.
Not my kind of place; maybe it’s yours.
- It Doesn’t Matter
- Cheap Charlies
- Snackbar
- Mango’s Beach Bar
- Alley Cats
- Wet Spot
- Bar Barretto
- Mugshots
- Adam’s
- Blue Butterfly
- Out Back Billabong
- Dynamite Dick’s
- Palm Tree
- Hideaway
- Hot Zone
- Alaska Club
- The Green Room
- Thumbstar
- Bottoms Up
- Rosies
- Rock Lobster
- Queen Victoria
- Voodoo
- BarCelona
- Annex
- Chill
- MacArthur’s
- Redz Pub
- Whiskey Girl
Thanks for all the writing as usual 😀
There are more and newer bars every other month.
We all defer to your superior knowledge when it comes to the rankings. After all, you’ve sampled all the wares on our behalf . Not all heroes wear capes.
For the life of me, I can never figure out the bars locations in terms on a map. What is even the center of Barretto where somebody could pinpoint as a starting point of a bar crawl? I’m sure you’ve done your own bar crawl before, but you do seem to enjoy the walking as much as the drinking 🍸
What would you recommend as a best of Barretto bar crawling experience for a pot-bellied fella who does not intend to get many steps on that pedometer? 🤔 a mixture of naughty and nice places, loud and conversation-friendly, full of parlor games or drinking games, indoors and outdoorsy areas, hard liquor and light beers 🍻
A wild trip through all of these over the best of the best.
Somewhere in there , there’s gotta be food. That would be a great night
I was shocked to hear of your recent health scare. We all thought you’d beaten all that lung affliction. You even gave up the smoking and or the vaping with the cool kids. Good news you have your doctors right in the neighborhood.
Keep healthy , wealthy and happy
Also, my obligatory support of your relationship with Joy 😊
Whatever you may call it, I am glad to see you give and get joy in this arrangement.
That was not a pun
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James brings up an interesting point. Think you have what it takes to make a connect-the-dots map of the various bars and their locations relative to each other, to the center of town, etc., with your apartment as the main point of reference? If not, you could send me the addresses of all those bars (I have your address), and I could use Photoshop to make said map.
Man… imagine planning the ultimate pub crawl, just like in that movie “The World’s End.” Hitting every single bar for a single drink. Or if that’s too much for one night, you could plan multiple routes, and even a Pub Crawl Olympics!
Kev, All the bars are right on the National Highway through Barretto, which runs about 2K total. It won’t be hard to map out a bar crawl; I just need to learn how to make a map. I’ll get to work on that.
There are over thirty bars here now, so I couldn’t do them all in one crawl, but I’m thinking about doing “themed” bar crawls might be fun. Stay tuned!
Thanks, James. You’ve inspired me to work up a couple of different “themed” bar crawls that should meet your needs on any given night. The newest and nicest hotel in town, the Central Park Reef, is pretty much smack-dab in the middle of the action. It’s also the most expensive hotel here, but there are other lower-cost options nearby. I’m going to figure out how to make a map of the bar strip in Barretto (about 2K end to end) and go from there.
Hopefully, this lung issue will clear up soon. I hate that shortness of breath feeling. Thanks for the good wishes.
I’m afraid Joy might be hoping for more than I’m willing or able to give. She’s a sweet gal and makes good company on the occasions I’m in the mood, but she’s a very young mother, and that’s not relationship material for me.
There’s someone for me somewhere. Or maybe not. Either way, life goes on, and I intend to enjoy the ride as long as I can.
Hmm takeout sounds nice right now, where is my passport?
QP, HaHa! Yes, takeout is a good option for tourists. Living here affords me the opportunity to satisfy my hunger in other ways.
let me add my voice to support the bar crawl and map businesses.
it would be great 👍
not that you care that much, but that may bring actual tourists into your town , and even more readers for your blog who may find useful information 😀
not to send our beloved small-town newspaper reporter into danger or anything, but where are purely Filipino bars on your list?
we both share a loathing for loud off-key karaoke singing, but surely there’s a few bars that are mostly frequented by Filipino men and women that you haven’t ventured into even though they’re part of the Barretto scene ?
with a hefty bodyguard to watch your back, I believe you could make some time to check out a few of those.
thanks to Kevin for offering to create a bar crawl map.
with a title like the best of Barretto bar crawl or something better for clickbait, you’ll achieve your dream of superstardom. get ready to sign autographs every where you go
My readers’ wish is my command! I’m working on the bar crawl idea. Actually might be kind of fun, especially giving it the test ride.
I really don’t write with any particular audience in mind (ha! I guess it shows), but when I’m approached by strangers who know me through my blog, they’ve usually found it through a Google search for something Barretto-related.
As for Filipino bars, other than the KTV/videoke joints, I’m really not aware of any in Barretto. There is one across the river in Subic I’ve been curious about, but I’d probably want someone to go with me. Being the only white guy in a bar full of drunk Filipinos could be a problem if I said or did anything perceived as disrespectful.
Thanks for reading and commenting. Having a loyal few suits me just fine. If I were a “superstar,” I’d have to be careful about what I do and say. There’s freedom in anonymity!
I just had an evening there only me in the place but the 2 girls there were very nice as only me we had good chats & I got 2 rounds of drinks at 1200 peso yes 300 a girls drink 100 over the top of all the other bars. The down side was every 10 mins the people from the massage shop linked to it keeps poking there heads in looking then 1 said did he get ladies drinks. well that just put me over the top. I made my comments known that this was the worst place I ever been in ,in 14 years . 1 woman then started screaming at me that I was in the wrong while she was having a melt down.
who or how should I report this as I’m 59 years old & as a customer no one should be treated like a piece of dirt.
Andy, I’ve been to Chill just that one time to do my bar review. Not my kind of place. And I have a rule that I won’t buy a “double” lady drink (usually a bottled beer) for 300 pesos. Sometimes I’ll buy two 180 peso singles, so it is more about the principle than the money.
I’m a little unclear what exactly happened that triggered the meltdown. All you can do in that situation is to never go back and warn others to stay away. It sucks to have your night out ruined that way.