I’m going to start this review with a disclaimer. Voodoo is one of the Dryden group of bars and I’m on friendly terms with the owner. I won’t intentionally let that dissuade me from giving my honest impressions of the bar, but I wanted to be upfront about that relationship. The owner is also the leader of the local business association and regularly interacts with city and barangay leadership on issues that impact the expat community. I don’t want to cause any trouble by inadvertently saying or showing things that may or may not comport with current restrictions and requirements. I tried to be discreet in my photography for that reason. With that said, here we go:
It is a very small bar, but not uncomfortable. People come here to enjoy the company of the dancers waitresses–no pool, no darts, just the ladies. Well, if you look closely at the photo above, there is a small curtained alcove in the back (you can see a young woman sitting there). I was told that it is a karaoke room. That sucks.
The bell ring is one of the traditions of the girly bar genre. A bell ring costs 2900 pesos ($60.) at Voodoo and all the girls working get a lady drink. It is a quick way to popularity. It’s not my thing, but I’ve seen some guys, usually tourists, go nuts with the bell rings–in some cases spending over a thousand bucks. That’s why the bars need the tourist trade, us expats tend to be cheap bastards.
So, here’s the deal. The girly bar format is really not my thing. Even when the girls could dance around on the stage, it just wasn’t much of an attraction for me. So take what I say with a grain of salt, some guys love this type of bar. The girls in these places tend to be more aggressive than in “normal” bars, although last night I wasn’t pestered much for lady drinks. One gal joined me at my table uninvited when I first sat down, but after I told the waitress “no” when she asked if I was going to buy a lady drink, I wasn’t asked again. The girl stayed at my table anyway, and I did eventually buy her a drink.
The attractiveness of the staff covered the spectrum, but no one stood out enough for me to be tempted. Service was fine. Beers were 90 pesos at Happy Hour and then are 110 pesos normally. The lady drink was 185 pesos. Prices tend to be a bit higher in girly bars for what I presume is the overhead expenses of employing so many women.
So, a cozy bar to sit and watch or chat with the women. I kind of liked the ambiance of feeling close to everyone surrounding me, almost like being at a party. If I were into the girly bar scene I might prefer a small bar like this one. And since I was the only guy in the place, I’m pretty sure I was the most handsome man around. I didn’t specifically ask about “take out”, but I’m pretty sure the girls are free to leave with a customer if they desire to do so. Bringing people together is what this bar format is all about.
The rankings:
- It Doesn’t Matter
- Alley Cats
- Adam’s
- Blue Butterfly
- Out Back Billabong
- Dynamite Dick’s
- Palm Tree
- Hideaway
- Rosies
- Rock Lobster
- Queen Victoria
- Voodoo
- Annex
- MacArthur’s
- Redz Pub
- Whiskey Girl
There’s a place in Virginia Beach that apparently functions as a regular, innocent restaurant by day, then becomes The Voodoo Lounge at night. At a certain time in the evening, the lighting changes, some curtains come down to give the walls a different color, the music changes, and the place suddenly comes alive as an “adult” establishment. I heard about all this from a friend; I’ve never been myself. Not my kind of place, but I’d love to visit right at the moment of transition. The Voodoo you visited sounds a lot tamer.
“The Voodoo you visited sounds a lot tamer.”
Unless that “karaoke” room is used for something else…(pure speculation on my part, well, not so pure, but you get what I mean.)
I love that concept of the transition from restaurant to bar. Best of both worlds.
Do the ladies have a “quota” of lady drinks that they must sell? I know that for example, in Thailand, most of the “girlie bars” have a minimum quota for the girls to meet on a monthly basis. They obviously get some per cent of each lady drink bought for them, but failure to reach the quota may mean a docking of pay.
(This is pre-pandemic. COVID has knocked alot of business models on their ass.)
Brian, yes it works the way you describe in most bars here as well. They get a commission (usually 50% of the drink price) but must meet a certain quota of drinks or their base pay is docked. When the bars were allowed to reopen (still no tourists here) the bar owners reduced pay. In one bar I know of it went from 300 pesos a day to 150. Tough times for the girls so I try to be a bit more sympathetic to their pleas of “buy me a drink!”
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