Formerly one of the best places to hang out in Manila, the place has now seen better days, so what is the Ermita Nightlife scene in 2023? Still alive, but only just…..
What’s the deal with Ermita?
Home to a fairly famous shrine the main draw used to be a spicy nightlife full of girly bars, the Hobbit House with midgets and did I mention girly bars? Top on said girly bar list was LA Cafe, one of the few holdouts that is still there.
Many of the places though have very much gone, with those left being far from their former glory.
Where to stay in Ermita?
There are tons of hotels here to pretty much fit very budget, with there even being places that rent “by the hour” next to LA Cafe.
For a lightly more upscale place to stay we usually use Lotus Garden Hotel, at least for our Extreme Philippines Tour. When we visit Palawan we now use Selah Garden Hotel.
Manila Lotus Garden has a greta breakfast decently prices rooms and a fairly liberal policy to house guests. This is the general vibe for Ermita.
Ermita Nightlife guide
For Ermita Nightlife you generally have more regular bars than you do giurly ones now, but with the later still often having freelancers. Top of this is Smorgasbord which is opposite Manila Lotus Garden. Nice beers and live music, but also like a knackers yard for hookers.
There are though other places that deserve a mention and are good for a night out, such as Dusk Till Dawn, a bar that opened late in 2018 and has since managed to weather the storm. They have some of the best live music in the area, by far the best staff and a large menu that is served until extremely late. I shall give Dusk Till Drawn Ermita its own article at some point….
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSNhtYSG4
And then of course there is LA Cafe the var that never sleeps and the only place that I know where a man can finally MeToo and know what it is like to be a female. The place is not without its charms, but again it has changed a hell of a lot since prior to Covid-19….
And that is the overall story for the Ermita nightlife scene. Not what it once was, but still worth a night, or two if you are passing through the Philippines and going somewhere better, like Palawan.