INT.Bar, a Quezon City Speakeasy Behind a Photobooth Door

The speakeasy in Quezon City to know is INT.Bar, a bar behind a photobooth door in Cubao Expo with cocktails named after films. Expect under ₱500 a head. It takes reservations, and it runs movie nights on Tuesdays and DJ sets at weekends.

Finding the door

The address is Cubao Expo on Gen. Romulo Ave, and the bar is behind a photobooth door. That is the whole trick.

The useful landmark is EXT.Cafe. The café and the bar are two sides of one space: the café is the daytime side, and the bar takes over later. Find the café and you are in the right place. If the door is not obvious, ask the staff. Being let in on a secret is the point of a hidden bar, and nobody loses face by asking.

Hours, and the handover from café to bar

The space is open daily from 9 AM to 12:30 AM. The café side runs by day and the bar side takes over later, so a 5 PM arrival may find coffee, not cocktails.

For a date, treat the bar as a second or third stop and arrive after dinner, around 9 PM, when a late bar is certain to be a bar. For an earlier drink, check the bar's page for when it opens.

There is no closed day, which is unusual in this compound. Several neighbours shut on Mondays, so on a Monday this is one of the few doors still open, along with Cubao X Brewery.

Which night to pick

• Tuesday: movie night. A film gives a second or third date something to react to together, and it takes the pressure off conversation.
• The weekend: DJ sets. Go for the music, and do the getting-to-know-you part over dinner first.
• Any other night: the better choice when the point is talking.

Check the bar's own page for that week's film or DJ before promising either to a date.

What it costs

Expect under ₱500 a head. For scale, the café side's coffee was ₱180 in 2024, so two rounds each should still land inside that. Ask to see the menu before ordering if the night has a ceiling.

Booking

The bar takes reservations, and so does the café. For two people on a quiet night, walking in is a reasonable gamble. For a Tuesday film, a weekend, or more than four people, book ahead.

A night built around a Quezon City speakeasy

Everything else is about a 2-minute walk away, because it is all inside the same compound.

Dinner first. Best of Luck has Hong Kong-style Chinese plates costing under ₱500 a head, which keeps the whole night cheap. Habanero Kitchen Bar has oyster sisig and habanero cocktails at ₱500 to ₱1,500 a head. Both are closed on Mondays. Bellini's, the Italian kitchen, is open daily but closes at 9:30 PM, which lines up neatly with a 9:30 PM move to the bar.

An in-between stop. Good Vibrations Records is a vinyl shop with a listening room, open until 10:30 PM and closed on Mondays. The convex mirror by the entrance is where people line up for a mirror selfie. Closer still, the film poster wall outside the café is papered floor to ceiling in black-and-white posters. Find your favourite film on it before a Tuesday screening and the conversation starts itself.

If one of you is not drinking. The café side is easy without alcohol, and The Brewman Coffee pours espresso drinks until 11 PM from Tuesday to Sunday.

A late bite. Ichiban Takoyaki is open until midnight from Monday to Thursday and 1 AM on Fridays and Saturdays, so on a weeknight eat before the last round, not after it.

For a bar-only night, this is the last stop of the four-stop Cubao Expo bar crawl. For the rooftop and the hotel bars, see bars in Cubao by type. People who choose a night by its secret entrance are the Hidden-Door Hunter in the night-out planner's archetypes, and the Cubao date night guide covers the rest of the area.