Clubs & Discos

Lavishly decorated, with all manner of lace, animal print and even a bum in the wall, Allure looks so trendy it’s a wonder it isn’t teaming with Bucharest posers, eager to splash their cash on designer drinks. Cosy terrace – and they deserve plaudits for a rare non-smoking section.

In what used to be a seedy strip club the Armadillo has begun forging itself a nice little niche. Underground does not thankfully, for once, also mean gloomy, and the music is good enough to grab you and pull you in as you walk past the staircase that descends into this enjoyable new bar.

While not playing host to the most chic clientele, this downstairs dive is still a popular and well populated venue. Drinks can be a mite expensive, but rocky, retro music is the norm, and the place has been known to put on some live music too. A blast for youngsters looking for some local action.

A large, luxurious underground nightclub which is currently the favoured location of the city's most in the know poseurs. It is as exclusive as hell, and if you do not look your best then you may not get in. Open 19:00 - 04:00.

A legend. If you want a local, unpretentious, up-for-a-laugh studenty crowd getting down to classic songs that you won’t have heard for ages, this is the one place in town you can be guaranteed to find it, every night of the week. Live music on most weekend nights. Top banana.

Coyote is a loud, proud music bar which sets new standards for live music and good times. A huge warren of a venue, good rock music - sometimes provided by the owners themselves - and the right kind of crowd. Very nice indeed.

On the shores of Lacul Tei you'll find this hotch-potch of a club, terrace and restaurant that takes the Cuba theme and stretches it until it breaks. Evolution is revolution apparently, though we fail to see how Darwin can be held responsible for Castro. Still, forget politics and just come and skae your thing to contemporary sounds with the hundreds of others who make this a hot weekend night spot.

Dr. Ink, drink, get it? Well, it seems that the joke is on anybody who fails to try out this  club, which we found to be both lacking in bad music and bad people. Indeed, with decent music and a good crowd this place could give Bucharest's nightclubs a good name. Not that Dr. Ink really is... Open 17:00 - 02:00

The former Why Not? club has made a comeback in recent months. It's a non-descript venue, but with its emphasis on space and not fuss it is a great place to shake your thang. Open Fridays and Saturdays only it can often be shut for invite-only gigs. Phone to check the score.

In a previous life this was the Cabaret Moldova, a seedy dive that masked underhand activities between rich men and attractive young girls. Now it is a very good, genuine cabaret type establishment, where a variety of live acts, from jazz bands to magicians and stand-up comics entertain the crowd. Live Dixie-jazz ever Friday at 22:30.

Every Friday and Saturday at EXIT, which you will find downstairs at Amsterdam, you can enjoy the smoothest sounds in town as DJs mix Bossa Nova, Chill Out and New Jazz.

Smoky, rock-playing venue for disaffected youth types. Popular among those who like that kind of thing.

One of the latest clubs to burst onto the Bucharest scene, this is a basement affair in one of the best areas of town, which during term time attracts students from the local law faculty. Good music always a feature.

It may look like the Crystal Ballrooms, Dagenham, but this place is good. Top club music played by Europe's finest DJs. A big name plays here at least once a week, and we mean the biggest names, like Seb Fontaine, Pete Tong, Steve Mac and the like. For serious clubbers this really is the only option.

Centrally located club that used to be known as Rusky Salon, and has now been changed a little and has reopened as Le Chateau. Will you feel the king of the castle if you get yourself along? Absolutely maybe. Open 22:00 - until the last guest leaves, Closed Mon.

Full of people looking as though they're about to dance, but then change their mind at the last minute because they're worried about having bad breath or something. This downstairs excuse for a disco is so inspired that there's glow in the dark stars all over the walls. What an imagination the designer must have.

Swanky new establishment on the city's major thoroughfare: it gets no more central than this. Super decor, great music, and a good crowd of party people having nothing but a good time.

Uber-trendy lounge bar and club in the cellar of the new Monaco French restaurant. There’s a giant screen for watching formula one, football or whatever sport takes your fancy. It’s upmarket so dress well. Open 12:00-15:00, 19:00-23:00. Closed Mon.

Just about the best live music venue in Bucharest right now, Music Club is where you'll find a great resident band most evenings performing creditable covers of all your favourite classic hits. They are more often than not joined on stage in the early hours by leading Romanian musicians who have quickly made this place their preferred haunt. Very nice indeed. Be prepared to have a very good time.

Popular bar and weekend club that attracts oldies who love dancing to oldies. It can be hot and sweaty on Friday and Saturday nights, but the clientele appear to like it that way. If you want to remember the 1980s this is as good a place as any to come.

Still the most popular night time destination in Bucharest, so much so that it can be difficult to get in on a Friday and Saturday night. A foriegn accent/speaking English loudly will not help. Sexy leather sofas, a tiny dance floor, good music and a crowd which so desperately wants to have a good time it hurts... and some of the most expensive drinks in the city. Not great, but if you want Friday night action then this is the place to be.

Given that many Bucharest nightclubs are as shabby as an old pair of pyjamas, Prometheus shines like its eponymous Greek god. The interior is classy, spic and span, the music is inoffensive, which is as much as you can hope for in Bucharest really. The only thing missing is customers. This was the case when we visited anyway. Regular live music and comedy, so perhaps it’s sometimes busier. It deserves to be. Open: 10:30-until late, Mon Closed.

It's moved again. The third incarnation of the Salsa club is the best yet. A spacious, stylish new location in the centre of town is just perfect for this Latino infused club that has been making its punters happy for years. The same crowd still comes to dance serious salsa to serious Latin tunes, but everyone is welcome to try their luck, leaden foot Anglo-Saxons et al.

Top dance club in the centre of town, known for its habit of attracting a tasteful crowd who like dancing to cutting edge tunes. Resident DJs include DJ Saint G, while top international names play sets here on a regular basis.

It's a classy restaurant! It's a classy nightclub! It's both! You can enjoy excellent food here before the tables are cleared away to make space for dancing and good times. If you enjoy mixing with a slightly older and more sophisticated crowd this is as good a place as any to come.

This place is good, a pub/club playing tunes you can actually dance to for a crowd a little older, wiser and quite frankly more civilised than the usual collection of teeny boppers found elsewhere. Nice, and with a terrace out back now open too, there is little excuse to not get down here.

Playing good music until very late, Temple strikes the right note from the moment its doors welcome you in, and you see the fetching and talented professional barmaids doing their stuff behind the bar. They claim here that bartenders are goddesses. We are inclined to agree.

Expensive and pretentious, The Office is the best place to spend the early hours in Bucharest. Top music, a top - nay exclusive - crowd, lines outside the door and perhaps a few in the loo too, natch. Good times and empty wallets all round. Ace.

Filling up early with a pre-dinner drinks crowd, reservations at Tipsy are recommended. After some food from the Tipsy kitchen (good) it's all off downstairs for some party action until the very early hours. Dress reasonably smartly.

One of the few clubs you can practically get lost in thanks to the large amount of catacomb-like rooms it has. The slightly mysterious atmosphere presents a good opportunity to strike up conversation with potential lovers ('I'm lost') and everyone appears friendly. Better than average house and dance music, and a good range of faded church paintings.

The three great mysteries of modern man: why are we here, how can we cure the common cold and why is Twice so popular? Seedy ‘contests’ with amateurs stripping on the bars, dull music and hideously – and perhaps illegal – cramped conditions do nothing to dent Twice’s enduring appeal to the Bucharest hoi polloi. Unfathomable.

Quickly becoming one of the best venues in Bucharest, with its no-nonsense policy of top house music on Saturday nights, and an eclectic selection of live acts the rest of the week. Check the website to find out what's on, but there is always something, from Lithuanian punk acts to Ukraine's top house DJs. Worthwhile.