Karaoke
It's Nothing Like This!
Ah… What to say about Karaoke. It is one of the favorite Asian pastimes and, Vietnam has taken it to a whole new level. There are two types of Karaoke, “Family Style” and “Nhà Hàng / Restaurant” style. The former will usually be called something like “Karaoke Gia Đình”. These places are where you would take a bunch of friends, sit down in a room and sing your heart out. Chances are if a girl asks you to go sing karaoke with her, this is where you are going. Nice karaoke is a big local chain that comes to mine.
Chances are, I won’t be writing about any of those! The “Nhà Hàng” style is a bit different experience. The locals fondly call it “Karaoke Ôm” which means “Karaoke Hug”. These places are very popular with local business men, politicians, and married guys who want two hours away from their wives. They are typically called “Nhà Hàng” because it’s fuzzy whether or not the concept is legal so, there you go. Seeing how GOVT guys love these places, I doubt they are going away anytime soon. There are basically three categories of “Nhà Hàng” style karaoke:
Middle to High End Vietnamese Style
These places usually have the best looking girls, they will sit with you, talk, sing, feed you, drink with you, go out with you if they like you, and, in some cases are take home. I’ve made out with a couple of these girls in the room but that’s about it. Had a blast one time watching the Curious Case of Benjamin Button while drinking Green Team and Whiskey.
- 166
- VIP Karaoke –
- Gold
- 13 Ly Tu Trong
Naughty to Super Naughty
They vary in how naughty they can get. Peep the individual write-ups for more info on how far it could go. These girls are almost always take home. Some places might even service you somewhat in house. The girls are definitely not the cutest but, every now and then there is a diamond in the rough.
- 127 Tran Quan Khai
- 108 Nguyen Van Cuu
Japanese Style
These places are real expensive, quite prude and something I’m really not an expert in. Le Thanh Ton street and a small side street don’t recall (I will update this) are the homes to these places. The side street has about 15 bars down it. Even though I don’t go much, it’s fun for a traveler to take a walk and see the scene. Go at midnight and you’ll see 200-300 girls coming out and going home…Pretty wild. I lived around the corner for a year so I got a good taste of it during my drunken night wanderings.
Jugs and Beaks 
Hey man…these places are interesting…im going back to vn soon so can you please send me a good list of theses? like the karaoke place…you only give the # but not the street name so can you send them to my email? thanks and where is the jp style located at? thanks
i updated a couple of them… I will try to figure out exact street names. This is a nice spot i wrote up more on the mid-range level – https://jugsandbeaks.wordpress.com/vietnam/saigon/karaoke/hot-lips-family-karaoke/
Nice post.
I think I know exactly what you’re referring to.
Last september i was in Saigon, i was walking along the Rex/Sofitel hotel area alone at night, somehow I ventured into this area that looked like a japanese town then I went into this little alley and saw a bunch of establishments with lots of beautiful girls sitting at the front door.
I wanted to go in but I was by myself and its no fun to go into these places alone. I always wondered how much it would cost to have a drink with one of the girls and what they allowed me to do?
sorry for the SUPER late replay… been so swamped with work i haven’t been kicking it or paying attention to my blog as much..
man, those are PRICEY.. usually $6-$8 a beer, up to $10 for a mixed drink. Girls drinks are $6 and they are just juice. $15 for fruit, etc… you will come out of the pocket. the girls aren’t as cute, usually they are student who are studying english and japanese. not typically take home girls nor are they super flirty. If you want to have fun you’re better off at vietnamese style karaoke.