Macau Nightlife Guide: Nightclubs and Bars

And perhaps most importantly

Yes, there are lots of hookers but far less than only a few years ago. Westerners please differentiate – not all attractive Asian women are hookers. There are no excuses for inappropriate behaviour just because you are in Asia. And just about every minute of action in clubs in Macau will be instantaneously on Facebook and YouTube LOL. An influx of naive Western guys who assume that all sexily dressed women are hookers leads to problems. If you are a new visitor reading this remember that many of the people in the clubs are reasonably, if not very well-paid workers, from the hotel and the travel industry. If you misbehave the local community and the security staff will close down on you very quickly. Have fun, but be safe please.

Let’s start with the nightclubs first before hitting the bars.

Nightclubs

Macau is down to three legitimate clubs: Club MOP, Club Para, and DD3.

Club MOP

For the best nightclub in Macau, look no further than Moon On Planet, which is usually just called MOP. Studio City’s flagship nightlife venue is a 48,000-square-foot, space-themed dance club with an outdoor light-show zone, massive main hall, and one of the strongest sound-and-light setups on the Cotai Strip.

While a lot of “clubs” in Macau feel more like lounges with a DJ added as decoration, MOP is built for actual clubbing. Expect big staging, proper bass, legitimate dance floor, and enough LEDs to signal aircraft. It’s the only place in town that consistently feels like a real, modern nightclub rather than a hotel bar pretending to be one.

Crowds fluctuate — midweek can be quiet — but when it’s busy, especially on weekends, the energy hits the level Macau has always lacked. They also run frequent special nights with guest DJs, and these are the nights when the club really comes alive (expect a cover charge or table minimum on those events).

Good to know:

Best time to go: after 11 pm
Music: EDM, electronic, dance, guest DJ nights
Dress code: smart-casual, leaning smart
Location: Level 3, Shop 3100, Studio City Macau
Cover: usually free or minimal on normal nights; higher on guest DJ nights

If you’re serious about clubbing, MOP is your best bet in Macau. The space is huge, the production values are real, and when they’ve got the right DJ on deck, the place actually delivers a proper night out — something that’s still surprisingly rare in this city.

Club Para

Club Para is open everyday but expect it only to be busy on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Wednesday and Fridays are Ladies Night, so girls get in and drink for free, while Saturdays have a cover charge of $250, which includes two free drinks. Aside from that, the club struggles to maintain an audience and I’ve never thought the layout was conducive to hard core clubbing. There are too many tables, not enough space and no proper dance floor.

The security staff and front door personnel have the well earned reputation of being cocky as hell, and those vibes seem to rub off on the clientele as well. Expect a club with barriers, a club that’s cold, and a club that’s not much fun to be in.

Para used to be known as Cubic, which is why the picture looks like it does. I haven’t returned since the name change, but drinks before used to cost this much before: Shooters: $55 to $140, Cocktails: $85 to $120, Martinis: $100, Sangria: $100 to $150

DD3

With D2 now dust, DD3 is the only club left standing at Fisherman’s Wharf. Like Para, it’s open daily but only guaranteed to be busy on weekends from 3:00 am to 5:00 am. Kids these days, I tell you.

While scoping the place out, I spotted a few specials advertised on posters inside the club. Sundays through Fridays from 10:00 pm to 2:30 am they have free flow beer for only $120, which is obviously a great deal. On Fridays, bikini clad hotties get 1 Free Drink as do Gentlemen, sort of making it the opposite of Ladies Night.

On special nights with DJ’s they may have an entry free for $180 that also gets you 3 free drinks, which doesn’t really make it an entry fee at all.

I don’t know how good DD3 is when it really gets going, but at least it won’t cost a lot to find out.

BARS

Anyone who’s spent any kind of time on this site knows how I feel about MacauSoul. It’s the pinnacle of life, the best bar in town, and you absolutely must visit it when you’re in Macau. What it’s not, however, is the second coming of Party Central, so if you’re looking for a louder, more raucous scene, definitely consider another venue on this list.

Only two bars in town are extremely popular with Westerners, so let’s start there.

Old Taipa Tavern

Located in the heart of Taipa Village, the Old Taipa Tavern (or OTT) is generally considered to be Macau’s best expat bar. Often rocking a very good business, it’s the top option in town for Westerners to meet over a few drinks and a bite to eat.

The food gets high marks and goes beyond standard pub fare, with tapas, wraps, steaks and salmon all available. The drink list is extensive and reasonably priced to boot, with beers $39 to $57, pints of draft $64 to $117, and bottles of wine are $180 to $360. If you prefer single glasses, reds and whites range from $50 to $99, while most spirits are just $41 to $100.

As for food, appetizers are only $49 to $89, while burgers and pies are $85 to $98, and mains $78 to $200.

Current special is Buy 1 Pie, Get 1 Free, which happens daily from 6:30 pm until they sell out.

OTT isn’t the place for cheap gimmicks and marketing mumbo jumbo about new ways to experience an apple cider, which is probably why it’s as successful as it is. Blue collar all the way AND the blue blood of bars in town, start here if you want a proper pub type experience.

Roadhouse Macau

Roadhouse seems back to peak form again, now that rooms at Broadway Macau are back on sale again.

Live music has returned every night of the week from 9 pm to 2 am, with pop and rock taking centre stage. For an idea of their food and drink menu, please follow the link to the Broadway Macau review.

The rest of the bars below aren’t especially popular nor guaranteed to be busy outside of peak weekend hours. However, each one boasts its own special appeal that may make it worth visiting.

Woodhouse

Cocktail bars are the newest trend in Macau, with quite a few opening up during the Covid pandemic. A couple of them around Tap Saec Square get good reviews, but that location is way out of the way for tourists, which is why I recommend Woodhouse instead.

Located seconds away from St. Augustine Square in what looks like a converted house, the bar is extremely small but that’s a huge part of the appeal. The owner Sola cut his teeth making cocktails in Taiwan, before returning to Macau to work his magic here. Tired of working in the stiff confines of the casino bars where every drink and customer are the same, he set out on his own and opened Woodhouse in 2021.

You’ll be going to either have him invent a totally new cocktail for you on the spot, according to your palate and taste, or to try one of the many cocktail creations he’s already come up himself. Of course, he does all of the standard numbers as well, but that doesn’t sound like much fun to me. When on the road in a new city, go have something you can’t find anywhere else in the world!

Interesting to talk to, and even more interesting to watch, Sola moves like a magician behind the bar, mixing adept hand movements and actions with the type of precision that would make a surgeon swoon.

Cocktails run between $108 and $158, while they also sell wine ($58 per glass, $238 to $728 per bottle) and snacks like mixed nuts, potato chips, chirozo and vega truffle cheese for $58 to $98.

Closed on Sundays, Woodhouse is open daily from 6:30 pm to 2:00 am.

Mico

Mico is on this list because it specializes in cheap but good Portuguese wine, making it a (very) poor man’s MacauSoul. I used to think it had all the ambience of an airport hangar, but it’s grown on me a lot since.

The original owner Pedro was a nice guy and his wine prices were right, with some very good bottles available for just $240 to $390. Glasses of reds, whites, and ports only go for $40, while the bar also has a decently sized sake selection for $70 to $170 (170 ml to 300 ml bottles).

Special Chorizo Platter ($70)

As for nibbles, there’s a small snack menu featuring items like pate ($70), cheese ($70), baby sardines ($70), and parma ham ($80).

Liver Pate ($70)

Located behind Kiang Wu Hospital in a very residential district, tourists have no idea about Mico (until now), making it the most local hangout on this list. It opens everyday except Tuesdays, from 9:00 pm to 2:00 am.

MJ Cafe

I would be remiss not to mention the MJ Cafe at the Sofitel just for their all you can drink deal that happens daily from 8:00 pm to 1:00 am. Costing only $158 it’s ridiculous value considering you can drink for free for 6 hours, with selected beer, wine and sangria on offer.

That’s the kind of deal I would have had them re-thinking twenty years ago as a young man, but one that I couldn’t put a dent in it today. Seriously, two shots of whisky now and I’m hungover, whereas back in the day, I got up in the morning and kept going. Sweet Lord, did I really used to drink in the shower??

Sky 21

Part club, part bar, part restaurant, Sky 21 takes up the penthouse floor of the AIA building close to Grand Emperor and San Ma Lo.

The club usually needs a cover charge while the bar is free and often empty. It’s more a local hangout without much expat action, so I wouldn’t pay it much mind. The restaurant does get good reviews though.

China Rouge

China Rouge is currently closed, but I’ll still leave the old information up.

China Rouge used to be a private membership club but that concept bit the dust once the VIP gaming market collapsed in 2015. Now it’s open to the public with live music performances 6 nights a week from a Chinese house band, who dabble in a bit of everything.

China Rouge isn’t a bar in the traditional sense, nor is it a nightclub – perhaps the best way to describe it is very Chinese. Most of the older more mature 30 plus crowd don’t mingle or mix, preferring to keep to themselves at their own table and watch the show.

For more information, check out the China Rouge review here: China Rouge.