LK Metro Bars and the Soi Buakhao Nightlife Area: An Honest Guide

LK Metro Bars: What It Is and Where It Leads

LK Metro is a short, bright lane of bars in Central Pattaya that runs between Soi Buakhao and Soi Diana. It is compact, it is easy to find, and it is best understood as the middle of a triangle: Soi Buakhao's beer bars on one side, Las Vegas Beer Garden's ten bars and live stage on Soi Diana on the other, and LK Metro's go-go bars and small bars in between. You can walk from any corner of that triangle to any other in a few minutes, which is the whole reason the area works.

That's the direct answer. The rest of this is what each part is like, how the night usually goes, and where the air-conditioned hall with a band in it is when you need it.

LK Metro Itself

Honestly, LK Metro is small. You can walk its length in a minute and see everything it has: a row of go-go bars with the doors open and the music spilling out, a handful of open-fronted beer bars with stools on the lane, a couple of places with a live band on a good night, and a hotel or two whose guests never have to leave. The lights are bright, the lane is narrow, and after nine it is busy in a way that feels bigger than it is.

The beer bars here are what they are anywhere in Pattaya: a counter, a fridge, a fan, a television, staff who will talk to you if you want to talk. The go-go bars are the reason the lane has a name. If that is not your night, walk through; nobody minds, and the lane is the shortcut between the other two corners of the triangle anyway.

Here's the thing about LK Metro: it is a place to pass through with a stop, not a place to spend the evening. Most people who search for it are really looking for the area around it.

Soi Buakhao: Two Minutes One Way

Out of one end of LK Metro you are on Soi Buakhao, the long street where Pattaya's expats eat and drink. Restaurants doing proper dinners, beer bars with regulars who have sat on the same stool for years, Tree Town's cluster of open-air bars and food stalls, and traffic. It is the local end of the triangle. Cheap to sit in, easy to talk in, and at its best between about seven and ten before the night moves on.

We have written a full guide to the Soi Buakhao bars and nightlife area. Use it for the early part of the night.

Soi Diana: Two Minutes the Other Way

Out of the other end of LK Metro you are on Soi Diana, and you will hear where to go next before you see it. Las Vegas Beer Garden is an open courtyard with ten bars along one walkway and a stage at the far end. The band plays Tuesday to Sunday, 9 PM–1 AM and a DJ plays Monday. The whole hall is air-conditioned. There is no cover charge, no dress code, and no reason not to walk the full length before you sit.

The bars are not interchangeable. The entrance bars, Pocket Kings and Palace Bar, get the band at background volume and the whole crowd walking past. The middle bars, Full House and Viva, are where you feel the bass start. The back bars, Black Jack on the left and KQ Bar on the right, are at the stage itself: a drummer a few metres away, a singer close enough to hear between songs. Pick by what you want the night to be. The which-bar guide lays the choice out bar by bar.

Compared to LK Metro, the difference is that Las Vegas Beer Garden is one big room with a band rather than a lane of small ones with speakers. If you came for a night out, that is the corner of the triangle where it happens.

The Heat, and the One Place That Solved It

Almost everything in this triangle is open-air. Every beer bar on Soi Buakhao, every stall in Tree Town and every bar on LK Metro is open to the Pattaya night, which between March and May sits in the thirties at midnight and in the rainy season is thick enough to feel on your arms. A fan moves the air. It does not cool it.

Las Vegas Beer Garden is the exception, and the name hides it. It is one indoor hall, air-conditioned from the door to the stage, and it runs cold enough that regulars mention it in reviews. You step in off Soi Diana, the cold lands on your face, and the band is at the far end. Inside, the bar to head for is KQ Bar, the last on the right beside the stage: the seats that run along the stage's edge, the only Guinness on draft in the complex, and staff who leave you alone. When people in this triangle search for a bar with aircon near them, this hall is what they are looking for. The air-conditioned bars guide covers the rest of town; for real Guinness, there is a page on where to find it in Pattaya.

How the Night Usually Goes

Early evening. Dinner on Soi Buakhao, or food at Tree Town if you want noise with it. The street is filling up and the light is going soft.

Eight to ten. A stool on LK Metro or a beer bar on the street. Watch the lane get busy. Talk to whoever is next to you. This is the cheap, easy, local hour.

Ten onward. Walk through LK Metro to Soi Diana and follow the music into Las Vegas Beer Garden. The band is into its second set. Sit at the back on the left if you want the band in front of you. Cross to KQ Bar when you want the Guinness or the seat beside the stage.

Late. The triangle runs until around three. The hotels are inside the same few streets, so nobody needs a taxi.

Things Worth Knowing

Monday is DJ night at Las Vegas Beer Garden, the quietest of the week and the easiest for a table. Tuesday to Sunday is the house band.

High season, from November to February, the whole triangle is busy every night and the good seats by the stage go before nine. Low season, a Wednesday in July can feel like a private show.

Cash. Most small bars in the area do not take cards.

If someone is working hard to pull you into a bar, it is because the bar is empty. The full ones do not need to.

Unlike Walking Street

Walking Street is the famous one and it is worth seeing once, but it is a mile of people trying to sell you the next bar, and it costs more for everything. Beach Road is pleasant before dark and thins out after it. The LK Metro, Soi Buakhao and Soi Diana triangle is where people who know Pattaya spend their ordinary nights: variety without the chaos, a live band without a cover charge, and one cold, air-conditioned hall for when the night needs it.

Start on LK Metro if you need bearings. End at the stage.

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Las Vegas Beer Garden is on Soi Diana, two minutes' walk from LK Metro and a few minutes from Soi Buakhao. Open daily 6 PM to 3 AM, live band Tuesday–Sunday, 9 PM–1 AM, no cover charge. See the complex layout and the visitor guide for the practical questions.