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A staple of the Italian community Club MAO on Dongping Lu packs in the clubbers every weekend for their themed parties. Expects lots of heavy thump-thump-thump Euro electro and the models that frequently come with that style of club. This one stays open real late with the dance floor packed until 7am. It's usually free entrance for ladies with men left with a cover charge and a free drink for their troubles.
I went to MAO last night and had a great time! However, I oredred two glasses of red wine and the rim of both glasses were smothered in lipstick all the way around. Attempting not to be picky i tried to wipe it off with a napkin, the lipstick was so thinck I couldnt get it off. I politley asked for two clean glasses and had the same problem again, I was so grossed out that I left immediatly. If you go to MAO, dont order drinks and definitly check your glass!!
i like the club ,i went there 3 times with my friends and had a lot of fun~~~~~~~~~
there are a lot of pretty Models (although i dont like them cuz i am a girl.)but i think most guys will like hahahahaha~~~~~~~~~~~~~
and there i learn an italian word "brava"
so i should say MAO is brava!
Seems that some people like to write very long story's with less content, but however MAO is not a club, bar, or whatever - as written in their logo its just MAO - Music/Art/Oasis
Music - who likes it, its OK
Art - never saw there something beside some wanna be models who sometimes coloured like paintings
Oasis - 100% not - this means usually a place to relax but if you have to discuss with a strange barkeeper who ignores you when you order the drinks and most time you have to order several times before you get anything.
I would not say that this is a place to relax and have fun.
Spend your time and energy somewhere else to have fun - not here.
When I came back to Shanghai, last summer, after 2 years in Shenzhen, I got some information about the nightlife, sure that (as we are in China) everything have been changed from the 2005, when I moved to live in this city.
So, I discovered that Mural was not anymore the only one to offer open bar (for the record Mural Bar created the original open bar formula in Shanghai), the first and best Italian Aperitif (@ Prego) was still the first (of course) but not anymore the best, some big club get in the business, like Attica or G+, some other gave up, like the previous very popular VIP Room and so on.
As "gossip addicted" I got deep informations about the places and the people. Like in 2005 Mint was well known as "the french place", in 2007 the nickname of MAO was "the italian place".
According to the gossip, MAO was a bar where you can find almost all the italian community in Shanghai, every night, or something like that. I don't know, really, if this was true or not, because I didn't go there. I believe in gossip and I'm not used to be in the places crowded by italian people... I hate competition ;-)
So, I can not talk about MAO six month ago. But I know the recently situation of the club.
And I want to underline the word "club" because this place is not a lounge, is not a bar, is not a "table, Chivas and dice"'s venue. It's mainly a Dance Club.
What make a place a "Dance Club"?
In my opinion the dance floor. You can visit all the places in Shanghai and have a look around. The space dedicated to the dance floor can tell you what kind of venue you are in.
The most are organized for the typical chinese entertainment, that means 20% of the space for services, 5% of the space for the dance floor, 75% for tables, including small tables on the dance floor, for the classic "table, Chivas and dice" night out.
Many are concentrated on the socialization (read: drink expensive and meet cute girls, don't care if "on business" or not).
Some place (very few) keep at least 30% of the space "free", to invite people to dance.
In my opinion there are only two or three real "dance places" in Shanghai, right now: Attica, Bonbon and MAO. I can not find others, in my mind. All the others consider the dance floor just space stolen to the lucrative tables and music as a commodity. Most of them use just the DJ just a way to attract people to drink, hiring famous names that have nothing to say to the crowd of people don't understand their music.
The real philosophy in this city (country) is: "if people waste time dancing, they don't use that time drinking!". What pity.
Note that I used the concept of "dance place" and not "dance club".
What make a place become a "Club"?
Usually "club" means some kind of membership, a group of people with common interest that join a real or virtual community to share it.
In the western countries already long time ago the huge places stop to name themselves "club", because when you are so big, you need so many people that you can not be sure anymore, they have a common interest. In Europe a venue loose the concept of "club" when the capacity is over 1.000 people.
So, I think we can say that the definition "dance club" is appropriate for MAO. Not only for the small size and the big space dedicated to the dance floor, but for what you can find in front of you when you get in: people dancing.
As I said before, I can not talk about the venue six month ago. I don't know if true or not that was the "italian place".
What I see now is a real dance club, where many people (recently is really crowded, especially on saturday's night) just dance a lot, till very late in the morning, 6 or 7 a.m. The mix I think is about 70% foreigners (with less than 10-15% italians, for the records) and 30% chinese. Many models join the party every night, especially russian. Almost every chinese there speak good english. In the week end is very common to find there a good representative of the Gay community, and this I think make the venue more and more "club". It's very hard for prostitutes find business there so, very rare they show up.
Of course you can find everything you find in a dance club. Like queue to leave the coat or somebody drunk. You can see or meet these people just because they are not seating on a table sleeping or playing dice, that's what happen in all the other places. In a "table's club" everything happen at the table, like in a KTV inside a private room. In a dance club, everything happen on the dance floor.
I suggest you to go down, to the corner, find the DVD seller and look for the movie "Studio 54". What you can see in 90 minutes is how the nightclubbing born. If you can feel the mood that place made exactly 30 years ago, in the summer '78, well, I think you can understand the mood in MAO club in 2008.
Music, dance, experiments and high mood. The real clubbing.
Of course, as a passionate of nightclubbing with 20 years of this kind of experience on the shoulders, this is just a personal opinion ;-)
just can agree with mbiwald. I was there the second time and if you see that the barkeeper starts to punch guests, even they have a security team who should usually take care, you should be also careful if you go to toilet, because it might happen that some drunken Mexican students, who are not men enough and need help from their friends, means two against one, punch you only because you touch them while you try to go to pee, which is quiet usual in this much to small toilet there.
If you ask for the manager - he is just disappears and nobody will take the responsibility until the police is here. Even than he was not able to show face. I'm here in SHA now a some of years but this is the most worse club I've ever been here.
In walking distance from Zapatas.
Friday Night, 01 March 08, 2:30 am.
100 RMB entry, left after 20 minutes, most disappointing experiences.
2 Fights within 10 minutes I entered the place. Bar staff throwing broken glasses over the counter at a customer.
(I am not kidding).
70% Guys, mostly (ugly) Expats who think they are ueber cool. Half the people completely wasted and on drugs.
Pseudo model chicks (western) that nobody needs.
I was really up-set last nite it was almost 4am and they were still charging 100rmb for men and 50 for women one drink inclusive which is fine, when the appropiate time is given, are they becoming a "dragon club" look alike "policies"???? Continue with your nonsense policies as with most clubs in Shanghai u will seize to exist another year..don't take advantage ....I been here long enough to know an "opportunist" when i see one and your one.
There is no such thing as 50% of any drinks at MAO on Tuesday nights! I would know cus I went last night and the bartenders had no idea what I was talking about. In addtion, their so called "club policies" are totally LAME which seriously puts me off visiting this place again.
Let me care to explain: 4 friends and I eagerly entered the bar at 12am to chill out and take advantage of the apparent 50% off drinks. The atmosphere last night was to say the least EMPTY as a bowl of coco pops & milk for brekkie(and I sure do like my pops & milk), unless you want to include the 2 girls sitting at the bar in comparison to the 15ppl waiting-staff. So we chose a table out of the many that were available and got ready to order until the waiter said that they had no drinks menu (what? they did last time I went), there was no 50% off and we had to spend a minimum of RMB800 to sit at the tables or else we'd have to move over to the bar. A bit much to spend on a weeknight and we had no intention of staying long enough to finish a bottle of whisky. Ermm...did I mention that this place was literally EMPTY!?
The waiter seemed quite apologetic with his "bu hao yi si" crap, but still no success with our negotiating efforts (makes me wonder what the bosses are like). We left to Zapatas which ended up being great fun, Shishas are good...
So instead of them earning at least RMB400 they got nothing, for what? Saving face? There's NO BUSINESS on WEEKNIGHTS you derr-brains!!! Where's the LOGIC?
On the positive side, it's a nicely decorated place and the weekends are not too bad.
best in shanghai! finally - a place that plays earsmashing electro and minimal with an extensive, creative, and deliciously yummy cocktail menu! great design - can't wait to see when the outside is finished. everyone at mao - patrons and staff alike - is always smiling and with good reason!
Went there last night and tought:AAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!Finally !!!!!A real club with cool DJ,gay guys,cool looking people,style,difference and genuine happy atmosphere,gentle staff too!!!Just a little too much agressive coke head but hey ...That's night life,wild and full of surprises !I'll go back again for sure!
i love mao because its funl and of course mr james one of the owner and DC the GM. Got an sms from DC i went door charge blah blah you can get a table if you pay 1500Rmb great. i am working in F&B industry i will never kick peoplein a table if you can spend money right. Especially the GM gave you the table.
Unfortunately i was kick out with there PR girl quote and quote Assunta i will never do that to a loyal customer aren't you? paying guest is always treated like a king who bring people and introduce mao ( the happening place?)
club in shanghai is a big competition why people made a mistake dumb and deaf service, not service oriented.......good luck to them.
in shanghai one day your in one day your out. hope they won't do that again to their regular guest.
Who said MAO is great?! Italian bartenders are so cool even don't smile.As to the cashier,the Chinese lady is arrogant. The music there you can dancing?!Just swinging in the air and some ugly women were roaming on the floor.The decoration looks like VIP Room.
been there a few of times... very nice cozy interior with a few great touches, nice loungy music, friendly crowd. on the down side, service is bad, cocktails very watery, and events are pushy, pretentious and unimaginative.
been there a few times and always had a good time. although relatively small its never been annoyingly packed...let's hope the doorstaff continues to make sure it stays that way. So many doorstaffs could learn here that overpacking does not make good business sense. You might cash in on a couple of nights but then suddenly the crowds will dwindle. No one likes to feel like cattle.
The garden is spectacular. Such a gem, but could do more. Throw some chairs, tables, beanbags, something out there to sit on. Or get a big sculpture out there for all of us to gawk at and pretend we know anything about 'art' after our 5th coctail.
Music is great too. One of the few places you can actually hear a good mix of minimal house, electro, and the more off-beat funky stuff without relying on the generic stuff you can hear at Attica, Bar rouge, or any other countless place.
Bartenders. These Italian guys could easily pull a snobbish attitude but they don't. Even overworked, they still act friendly and seem genuinely happy to see you. The non-italian staff needs to be a bit more speedy though. Took me 10 minutes once to get 2 coctails.
I have to say the Marketing of MAO is terrible annoying and unprofessional.
Getting 6 SPAM SMS every week from different senders, plus sending Emails to biz and private accounts after noticing them of stopping, is really frustrating.
MAO please stop it!!
thanks
hey, swang by Mao's last saturday to get my hair done by the beautiful Tony&Guy Team.
The result was well cool.
Somehow expected it to be a bigger venue but liked the interior.
Special nod to the unisex bathroom sinks which leave you guessing and the organ pipes over the bar. Smooth n cleva.
Ordered 2 Jacobs Creek Sparkling Wines ,my favorite as taste like champagne and is form OZ.
But got 2 cold classes of chilled? red Fonterra Wine.
MMMmmmmm MMMaaaooo.... MMMadness :)
