St. Regis Bar

(Last updated: October 5, 2023)

Located in the Londoner Macao, the St. Regis Bar offers live jazz performances two or three times daily, depending on the day of the week. Afternoon sets always start at 2:30 pm, while evening shows have different start times of 6:30 pm/7:00 pm, 8:30 pm and 9:00 pm/9:30 pm. I checked out the 8:30 pm show on August 1st, 2023, when Eugene and Elisa hit the stage.

No offense intended toward those two, because their songs would definitely appeal to certain audiences, but I was bored as a brick and left after a beer. It wasn’t even their fault, rather the place they were in that sucked all the soul out of their performance.

Think of the best concert you ever went to in your life, then imagine how much it would have stunk, had everyone there been into their phone up to their eyeballs. It was clear that most people were there to eat first, then social media next, which led to a disgustingly dry listening environment. I mean, morgues certainly have more life!

With a totally disinterested crowd busy doing other things, I felt no connection to anything or anyone, and couldn’t wait to get out of there. It also didn’t help that I knew none of the songs, with most of them Chinese numbers or slow Disney show tunes that were too boring to be any good.

Another huge issue was with the sound. Like my friends on the mainland said more than 20 years ago, China is a country where your senses need defences. The volume on the singers mike was ratcheted up way too high, which made her sound far less competent than she actually was.

When everything that comes at you is already too loud and then she takes it up a notch, it just becomes that much more unbearable. Although she had a strong voice, there was little range, nuance, or subtlety in the notes she hit, mostly because everything was coming to us already at volume level 8, when it should have been closer to a 5.

The cherry on top? The St. Regis might be the most expensive bar in Macau, with no drink available for under $100! Usually I say beer is base but it sure tasted good that night, since a bottle of Asahi only set me back $113, compared to over $200 for a glass of wine.  They also served complimentary lotus chips, peanuts with chili, and potato chips, which could be re-filled as many times as you wanted. 

It’s sad to say but the free snacks were definitely the best part of the entire evening!

Best to sum up this supreme snoozefest in this way: loud music, loud boring music, disinterested patrons listening to loud boring music, disinterested patrons forced to put on borrowed pants listening to loud boring music (yes, there’s a dress code for men too), all the while spending way too much money.

Ladies and gentlemen, the live music at the St. Regis is all yours!