The 5 best hostess bars in Phnom Penh

When I first traveled to Cambodia back in 2010 there weren’t nearly as many hostess bars as there are today. In fact the number of girlie bars in Phnom Penh doubled over the last seven years. Since I’ve already told you about the worst girlie bar in Phnom Penh I figure I might as well tell you about the best hostess bars in Phnom Penh too!

With so many new bars opening all the time it can be hard to narrow them all down into a list of the five best hostess bars in Phnom Penh, but I’m willing to try. It sure beats working in the Post Office or typing up freelance articles for two cents a word, especially when the hands on research required is taken into account!

Rose Bar

Rose Bar is probably the most well known girlie bar in Phnom Penh. Legend has it that it was the first hostess bar to open on Street 104 with others following soon after. Today 104 is filled with bars from one side to the other and there is even a Hooters under construction at the end of the street. Apparently the corporate bucks want in on the money too.

Rose Bar is pretty big with pool tables in the back and another lounge area upstairs. There are probably thirty chicks working there including a few who are really hot and two or three who walk around braless in thin skin tight shirts. It helps to show up early though because once things get going the place fills up and all the hot chicks get taken.

Airforce Bar sits right across the street in a double wide space. Airforce is usually mentioned along with Rose Bar when people talk about the best hostess bars in Phnom Penh. I’ve never been a fan of Airforce. The few times I just didn’t get any kind of cool vibe.

69 Bar

Another bar that gets a lot of word of mouth advertising is 69 Bar on Street 136 near the riverside. This place sticks out to me from years ago. I still remember passing through the strange round wooden doors that you had to yank to get open. Inside there were probably forty chicks. I ended up in one of the private booths in the back french kissing with a chick for over an hour while her friend rubbed my junk through my pants.

As far as I know 69 Bar is one of the only bars in Phnom Penh where chicks regularly dance. At 69 they do it on the big wooden bar. They usually wear shorts but sometimes you’ll see chicks in tops that look like bikinis and short skirts. Some other bars like Zanzibar on Street 104 will sometimes have chicks dancing on stage but 69 in the leader. The boss probably has some connections because as far as I know dancing isn’t allowed.

Then again I might be wrong. The newer Crazy Dog bar on the same street actually has an elevated stage complete with stripper pole inside, though the music is so outrageously loud that I’ve never been able to stay inside long enough to find out if it actually gets used.

Phnom Penh Hilton

The Phnom Penh Hilton on street 136 has nothing to do with the huge Hilton corporation in the same way that Angry Birds Bar has absolutely nothing to do with the once popular mobile game of the same name. One aspect of the old wild Cambodia that still looms is a complete disregard for copyrights (and traffic laws).

The Phnom Penh Hilton is one of the only new bars on this list. It didn’t open last week or anything, but it is new to me. I remember when the only bars on 136 were all on the block next to the riverside. Now they stretch further up the road even past the Phnom Penh Hilton.

The PP Hilton is actually a pretty small and shitty bar but there are probably thirty chicks working there too. Some are really old and haggard but they also have some hotties in their twenties. Unfortunately they usually have one or two ladyboys hanging around too, which seems to be more and more common especially on Street 136.

The main reason this place is on my list of the best girlie bars in Phnom Penh is that the chicks in Phnom Penh Hilton can get just as wild and touchy feely as the ladyboys. It’s the kind of place where groping is pretty common and it’s nothing to see chicks flash their hooters or even let a guy get a squeeze for a $3 lady drink. Plus I’m pretty sure all the women do barfines too.

Mao’s Club

Mao’s Club is the biggest hostess bar in Phnom Penh. It takes up a whole building on the corner overlooking the Night Market and the riverside. With a mix of Khmer and Vietnamese chicks and a kitchen, it’s kind of like the old Cathouse. It even closes at midnight like that place did. Unlike Cathouse they have barfines. Sure, not all of the chicks will leave the bar, but the fact that at least some do makes it infinitely better than the Cathouse and the even worse Shanghai Bar to me.

Mao’s is hit or miss in terms of chicks. Sometimes they have some real hot girls and other times it looks more mediocre, but there are always a lot of women around. They have a DJ, lots of pool tables and darts too. Some of the chicks are borderline masters of these games, and they use those skills to bet for lady drinks.

The lady drinks at Mao’s are more expensive than other bars but the difference is less than a dollar. That doesn’t bother the Asian dudes who hit the place up in groups and run up thousand dollar tabs, and it doesn’t bother me either. I stick to tabs or ten or twenty bucks and still have a good old time.

City Bar

Anybody familiar with City Bar on Street 110 near the Old Market may seriously question why I would include this place on a list of the best hostess bars in Phnom Penh. I have my reasons.

City Bar is one of the last of the old style hostess bars in the city. It is even run by a Vietnamese chick with a lazy eye. That’s as old school as it gets, or at least as it can be now that the bars where chicks sucked dick for a dollar are dead and buried.

Whenever I want a taste of the hostess bars of my memory I stop in and check out City Bar. The place is small and shitty, but the chicks are cool and everything is laid back. Most of the chicks barfine too and they still ask the regular rates from seven years ago as opposed to the new breed of chicks who work places like Darling Darling in Naga World and apparently think their pussies are made of hold.