Hanoi Nightlife

Hanoi can only realistically support a small number of after hours venues. There are a few reasons for this, but the most important reason, and the only one worth mentioning, is that the audience is small.

Hanoi may be a big city, but the community that spends their time out after midnight is relatively small.

Solace is a reincarnation of the original late night barge dance-spot Titanic which sunk sometime in 2006 for good (though really it had lost most of its following in 2005 to another bar that shall go nameless, as it no longer exists; thus the resurrection of Solace)

The "club" and I use that word because while the space has lounge roots in its decor, after midnight when the throngs arrive, it is really about the dancing.

This venue does deserve some credit as the two seating areas, one inside and the other on the barge-deck, provide both plush couch seating as well as cool outdoor seating. (This is a far cry from the limited bench seating provided by the former venue, but we shan't look back.)

Drink prices are reasonable for such a venue in Hanoi. A bottle of beer (Halida, Tiger, Carlsberg) is about 25,000VND and a mixed drink (not stingily poured either) are about 50,000VND. That would be $1.53, and $3.06 respectively for those that have some trouble dividing by sixteen thousand.

The music at Solace can be a bit of a disappointment some evenings, with the standard fall-back soundtrack of 2003 hip-hop that seems to plague Hanoi nightlife often rearing its ugly head. Though there seems to be more of a tendency to mix it up (both in the musical selection and the more impressive beat-matching) in this incarnation of the venue.

If you're a dance snob then this is probably not the place for you, but if you're a dance snob you probably shouldn't be in Hanoi at all. So, off you go!

Otherwise navigate yourself to the river after hours, have a few drinks, dance 'til you sweat, and then watch the sun rise over the Red River.

It may not be Ibiza, but the evenings at Solace are often entertaining.

A relative new comer on the Hanoi bar scene, the quizzically named X-Y Cafe & Bar appeared quietly at some point over the last fews months. Located on a small side street between Tong Dan and Ly Thai To, the bar is almost directly across the way from the Press Club.

Please don't be put off by the Less-Than-Zero-esque neon lighting at bathes the bar on the ground floor. Immediately locate the unmarked/unlit stairs and make your way to either the second floor, for comfortable couch seating, or the third floor where you will find an "artistically" decorated velvet playground with low-to-the-ground (mostly) comfortable seating.

The third floor also sports a strange feature of which neither the motivation nor the purpose is entirely clear. There are at least two LCD panel television on the ceiling. The screens are not large (only about 30-40cm diagonally) and fortunately there is no audible sound, as the music playing in this space can be quite decent. The screens are not easy to see as one would have to contort oneself into an odd position, despite the comfortable seating, but their simple existence is entertaining. It's about as unassuming as the ubiquitous television can be.

Drinks are reasonably prices with a rack mixed drink such as Jack and Coke priced around 50,000VND and tap Fosters (yes, yes, I know, "Australian for beer") or bottled Heineken available for 25,000VND. That would be about $3.12 and about $1.57 respectively.

The building which occupied a much shorter art gallery, and then most recently an apparently unsuccessful bakery cum cafe, is surprisingly spacious and offers areas on the second and third floor (and the first, if the white-blue glow doesn't pierce your brain) for larger as well as intimate parties.

The staff are relatively small, and comparatively low profile for this town. A perfect mix between attentive and invisible was witnessed.

The bar is open til 1am sharp, so this is certainly not an answer to the never ending quest for a comfortable afterhours venue, but the XY Bar & Cafe is definitely worth a visit.

Down an alley, to the south of Tran Quoc Toan is the new location of the venerable--this is in relative terms, of course--Toilet Bar.

Now it might be worth a moment to discuss the name. I know it sounds somewhat vile, and in a place like Vietnam where the water-closet does not always rate highest on the cleanliness scale.

... Actually this is worth an aside to the aside: did you know that the Japanese magazine Sketch Vietnam actually rates toilets in most issues of the tourist magazine. There is often a two page spread including various venues about town, numerical or symbol (how many stars?) oriented grading system and an actual picture of the loo, specifically the toilet itself to guide would-be toilet users to the cleanest available location.

Anyway, the name of this bar is somewhat unfortunate, and even though the owners have clearly taken the time to express their artistic side with the urinals on the wall, and the bath tub which holds the beer, I'm not alone in finding the moniker a bit off-putting.

Regardless, the venue has consistently provided a good dose of well-mixed Hip-Hop in contrast to the otherwise melodic mediocrity to be found around town, and the new location with its enhanced DJ booth towering above the dance floor continues to please.

The space has very high ceilings and a somewhat annoying projection screen that can be slightly distracting if you're trying to get your groove on.

There is some seemingly comfortable banquette seating, and an overly large collection of tall tables and uncomfortable stools, but it might be that there are mostly reserved for groups nursing their way through the bottle of Johnnie Walker or Hennessey that adorns each table.

In the middle of all of this, there is a small-to-medium dance floor. The sound field in the center on the dance floor is quite impressive, and even though the lighting might be slightly bright, the space mostly serves its purpose.

Drink price, on the other hand, can be absolutely ridiculous. (NOTE: This opinion is based on an experience immediately after Tet, so it might have been a one-time price inflation.) It seems that the new venue is subscribing to the bottle-selling mind set that has swept through town from its humble beginnings at the Ho Guom Xang, and for this clientèle apparently 70,000VND for a beer is an acceptable price. Yup, That's $4.25 cents for a beer than normally goes for one third that price... even at the Metropole, if that gives you any idea what the mark-up on beer happens to be.

So, drink before you go. Then, Dance.