Zouk!

Zouk, it's THE club to visit in Singapore.

This club has been around for ages and I've always wanted to visit it. Thankfully, I got the chance to do so recently.

A bit of background information to begin with - Zouk began life in Singapore, before opening up a sister club in KL (have yet to visit the one in KL, but I've heard good things about it). Anyway, this review is for the one in Singapore, so here goes.

Zouk in Singapore comprises of four sections - the Wine Bar, Velvet Underground, Phuture and Zouk.

Wine Bar is located just outside the main complex. Found it to be a brilliant place to chill with your friends before heading in, and if I'm not wrong, the drinks are cheaper out here as well. Also, there's no need to pay cover charge to enter the Bar.

Didn't spend too much time in Velvet Underground when I was there but found it to be a pretty posh place, a nicely done up place. Just didn't like it though, might have been because of the crowd there - there's an older crowd at Velvet, as they have in place an over-23 rule for this club (only managed to get in in the first place because the bouncers are lax on that particular rule on Wednesday nights). Anyway, getting tickets into Velvet grant you access to Zouk as well, and I'm fairly sure it's the same price or just slightly more expensive.

Moving on, Phuture. This is a highly popular section with the younger crowd, and tickets for Phuture are hard to come by - they sell out fast, and I was told that some people actually come down as early as 8pm to get the tickets. Managed to get in the few times I was at the club - twice via Zouk after the bouncers manning the entrance left at around 3am and once because my friend had earlier reserved a table at Phuture. As one would expect, it gets really congested in there, you'll find people dancing all over the place and there's really not much room to move about. Found it to be a really awesome place, lots of cool people, and a generally hip place to hang out. Fyi, the times I was there they were playing hip-hop music, and also, tickets to Phuture grant you access to Zouk too.

And finally, Zouk. It's the biggest of the four sections and is particularly lively and enjoyable on Wednesday nights when they have their weekly "Mambo night" - they play a lot of classic songs, from the 70s-90s, tracks such as "Grease Lightning", "Love in the First Degree" & "Mambo No. 5". Best part about Mambo nights are the dance moves that accompany the different songs, e.g. hand movements that complements the lyrics of the songs. As for the other nights (i.e. Fridays & Saturdays) they play mainly house & trance music. The club gets quite a number of top international DJs as well, and I was told that they get to strut their stuff at Zouk section. Before I forget, tickets to Zouk do NOT give you access to any where else in the complex, so probably a better idea to get either Phuture's or Velvet's tickets so to have more options and be able to jump from one section to another to find the right type of crowd/atmosphere/music.

Now, on the whole, I would definitely recommend checking the place out on Wednesdays for the Mambo nights. It's a really popular night in Singapore and it's great cause it attracts a younger and hip crowd and an unique experience in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, it's great on weekends as well - expect lots of people on Wednesdays, Fridays & Saturdays.

And a good deal, like I mentioned a couple of paragraphs earlier, would be to get tickets to Phuture or Velvet so that you get the chance to hop around a bit between the different sections. It's about 25SGD for a ticket, and it comes with two free drinks. Drinks inside are pretty expensive inside though - it's always a good idea to share a jug (~ 60SGD) or even a bottle of Vodka/Chivas/etc (~ 220SGD) between friends.

As for how to get there, just get into any taxi and tell the driver "Zouk", he'd definitely know how to get you there. If you want to save a bit of cash, could get the MRT trains to the nearest station, which I believe is "Clarke Quay" and then get a cab from there.

In any case, do check out Zouk if you're ever in Singapore. It's THE club to go in Singapore. 

Advantages: Hip crowd; Mambo nights on Wednesdays; The best club in Singapore

Disadvantages: Tickets to Phuture sell out really quickly; Can get really congested