I would stumble out of clubs looking like a hot mess during the heydays of my post-college drinking sprees, and one of the usual spots that my friends and I would go to is Imperial Ice Bar. At first, I really loved this spot because of the fact that they don't charge cover. At some bars, you will have to pay a consumable cover charge of around P500. They also played great music. Their unique selling point, however, is the ice room at the back, which is a small sub-zero chamber where you can sit around for a few minutes and enjoy cocktails and the ice sculptures. They fit you with a coat and a cute Russian-style fur hat so that you don't catch a cold inside.
It's all fun and games until someone knocks over an ice sculpture. That's exactly what happened when I celebrated my birthday there about two years ago. I wasn't even THAT drunk but I slipped on the wet floor and had to lean on a slab of ice that was supposed to be a tabletop. I sent the slab crashing to the floor, and the bouncers rushed in to give me a mouthful before even checking if I was okay after the slight fall. My friends came to my defense, saying it was an accident, so they actually didn't end up charging me for the stupid ice thingy. However, when we settled our bill that same night, mysterious charges appeared on our tab. We had to argue about being charged for bottles of liquor that we didn't order. We were also forced to pay for the lid of a plastic ice bucket that melted and shriveled up because someone from our table apparently thought it was an ash tray. It was just one misfortune after the other, so we decided to leave early.
We never came back. read more