BEACH CLUB CAFE KUALA LUMPUR - THE PHENOMENON!

The Beach at the heart of the City.

The Beach Club Cafe is located at the busy Jalan P. Ramlee in Kuala Lumpur. It was voted the best bar in Asia by Asia Expat.com in 2006. This is no mean feat, what ever we might think of this iconic club. We can focus on the positives or just bitch on the negative, but there's more positives about this place.

The Beach Club Cafe is designed to give it a whole Hawaiian and tropical touch with its attap roof and timber finishing. Reminiscent of a beachside island bar, it holds everything from a rattan chairs and wooden tables. Beach Club Cafe brings about a breezy and warm ambiance,making it the perfect place to be if you are looking for somewhere to sit back and relax after an exhausting day. Once at the beach club, you will not be able to miss the sharks in the long fish tank over the bar. There used to be 4 sharks swimming in the tank but on the last visit there, only one remains.  To create the ambiance among many surf boards and other things, there is even a huge treasure chest &  life size figurine that must have been from the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean". Have fun trying to find them!

The Shark in the Tank over the main bar

There is no doubt that the Beach Club offers one of the best entertainment in Kuala Lumpur and is one of the must visit watering holes for tourist. It has to be one of Malaysia's most famous clubs, be it for the right or wrong reasons. Even  the now famous Jaclyn Victor, used to sing at the Beach Club when she was starting out her career. The bands that play at the beach club are pretty decent and some that have played here are among the best in KL such as SKYHIGH. The Resident Band  & DJ alternates all night long to give you one of the best live entertainment. They play R&B, House and Hip-Hop.

Although famous for having the most number of working girls, one major misunderstood fact is that the working girls who work at the beach club are brought in by the management so that customers patronise the club. The FACT is these girls come there as customers and get absolutely no privileges from the club management. The Management are strict and  even charge a cover charge of RM40.00 after 7pm. They are very strict with the cover charge. The misconception that these girls work under the beach club management,  is so not true!. 

This is why I call this place a phenomena, many clubs have tried to copy the beach club concept and even more they sometimes offer incentives to the working girls to bring customers to their club, but most who tried have failed miserably. The Beach Club is not the Immigration or Police to be checking the guest passports they just provide a platform for great entertainment.

The working girls here come from Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Russia and from the African continent. Although some of them can be pretty aggressive, most of the time they leave you alone and wait for your eye contact showing the green-light  for you to be approached. Recently there must be more Vietnamese girls here than any other national. These girl actually do take the trouble to dress very well and carry the latest "branded" hand bags! (Louis Vuitton will go nuts if he comes to the beach club.)

The Beach Club has a upper deck VIP area where  working girls are not allowed to enter and solicit. So this is where local guest with girlfriends or wives usually hang out, when they go to the Beach Club. This area has its own security so that rules are strictly followed. The Beach Club is a super place for great live entertainment, good DJ music and a super fun place to simply "watch'  the business negotiations that goes on outside the VIP area.

 At the same time there are many regular customers who go to the beach club for years and hang out at the bar areas but never take any of the girls home as they love to just simply enjoy the drinks and conversations with this working girls who we must remember are also human beings. It's not unusual  to see some of f the girls giving customers a neck and shoulder massage as they gulp down their cool beers, all for as little as RM20,00. When you talk to these girls. some of their stories give you an insight  what life is like for them in our neighbouring countries. If only Malaysians knew how good they have it here. Majority of these girls are single moms. It's rare to see any of the girls here being there because they were forced to.

The Beach Club has one of the most extensive drink menus to cater for all sort of customers. From Shooters , Cocktails, Beers, Liquors, Single Malts to Wines. they are famous for their Flaming Lamborghini's. One of the best kept secrets of The Beach Club is they serve great food too!. The offer an extensive menu made up of Local Malaysian Favourites, Thai Cuisine, Western Food and Pizza's. Its reputed that the Beach Club is one of the outlets that sells the most Carlsberg Beers in the city. 

The Group General Manager Mr. Zack Zaini can be seen at the club at the start of the night operations till late. Despite the success of the place and the many visitors it gets, the managers manage to keep the staff on their toes so that the service is good, casual and friendly. Security here is pretty tight and they don't give much room for the customers to over misbehave. 

When you leave DO NOT bother taking a taxi from the taxis that park in front of the beach club as they will slaughter you with the price they quote. They can be pretty aggressive at times.  Just walk a little further across the road to the taxi stand in front of the Shang Ri La Hotel and hail a  moving  taxi as these taxi's usually use the meter. 

Verdict: Love it or hate it, the world famous Beach Club provides great entertainment with the Live entertainment and splendid DJ music (unless if the navy comes to town, then the dj's play boring hip hop music all night long!.)

For Reservations: Call 2170 6666 


TRIBUTE:
Its hard not to mention anything about the Trend Matrix Group when writing about The Beach Club  As owners of The Beach Club, the group has had phenomenal growth in the last couple of years. While adding more clubs to their stable, at the same time they diversified successfully into hotel & properties. The man who was behind the phenomenal growth is the late Mr. Ronnie Choong who passed away last week in a biking accident. From starting out as a Dj to being the winner of the Ersnt & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2004, he was a well respected man in the entertainment and hospitality industry. There is no doubt his closely knit team led by his wife Judy Choong and Zack Zaini will carry on his legacy. 
R.I.P RONNIE!