My job involves traveling and I was in Chennai some time back for work. Over the weekend my girl and I decided to visit club "Pasha"
as it was the one of the recommended night clubs on an expatriate
community website. Given below is my total experience in dealing with their service:
Saturday afternoon, I called up the hotel and asked to be connected to "Pasha",
was connected to "The Leather Bar" without any explanation by the
operator. Asked about the general club rules, timings, entry fee, cover
etc. Told the person I am new in city and wanted something special for
me and my girlfriend that evening. In response the following was
repeated to me "The party is from 8 to 12 and you need to pay 1000
rupees for entry"(I had already been told the fee and timing once. I
wanted something more. Maybe a VIP section or a reserved table, if
possible. I was willing to pay extra. But I guess expecting such
services is out of the question)
I reached the Hotel at 8:30 PM and asked the guard if there was an
ATM nearby(not knowing Tamil I asked in English). He was too busy
doing nothing and ignored my question. I soon realized there is one
right across the hotel.
I went in and some hotel employee(in uniform) was standing with a
group of young boys and girls. He was too busy hugging the barbie dolls to realize we were lost. I had to ask them about the entrance to the club as
there was no clear signage. The entry to the club makes you feel like
you are going some dingy pick up joint. It just does not have a nice
clean feel to it.
Once in, we could not find any place to sit on the ground floor so
we went to the mezzanine. We did not find the seating very convenient
to be honest but that could be our personal opinion. The overall decor
is very dated. It almost makes you feel guilty for partying
there.
The DJ was very average. In fact it felt like some CD was playing
and the DJ was away. The lights and laser were not anything to write
home about. The dance floor area is a joke anyway.
There was
just one man at the bar counter on the mezzanine and he was obviously
overworked so I never had a second beer.(By the way. only Kingfisher
available! Why even put the names of other Beers on the menu?) Asking
for a drink and waiting for it and then going to the counter to remind
him was just too much. The chips served along with beer were sub
standard.(Felt like those banana chips served at local shops). Please
don’t serve anything along with. It’s better than those chips.
At 11 we decided to go down and have a dance. As we went down we soon realized
the floor was just full of people. Soon both of us found ourselves in a
sea of people from all sides. It was a suffocating feeling, felt almost like I was in a rooster coop. I don’t
think this club has a cap on the number of people to be allowed in a
given night. This is not professional on their part. They could jack up the entry fee in my opinion but at least provide people a
decent clubbing experience.
Finally
we realized many of the people dancing around us were hotel employees
and had come in to celebrate the birthday of their boss(presumably).
He was in the club too waving at all of them from the stairs. How is
this supposed to be professional behavior. When me and my girl were
struggling for breadth on their dance floor due to overcrowding, their employee was shoving more people into the club just because it’s his
birthday! Is this expected of a hotel that brands itself as a 5 star
boutique hotel.
The only reason I did
not rush out of this club the very moment I had stepped in was because
being a non Tamil, Chennai is not easy for me. I had my return cab
booked for 12 and I did not want to change the booking, because I may end up with no cab.
I sent this feedback to the hotel management. To be fair they did call me back and apologized and came by to my office to give me a bottle of wine. I must say they did all they could to appease me, but you can’t wash away the damages with a bottle of wine as I get very little precious time to be with my girl.
All said and done, when in Chennai I am not wasting my time and money on this club. Just not up to the mark. In fact nowhere near it.