Ching-A-Lings

This small club is a great place to chill out with mates before a big night out. The location is well hidden just a door which lead upstairs to two areas of indoor seating and a great outdoor rooftop courtyard to have a smoke. The bar is small and you can’t really get a crowd around it this coupled with fast bar staff makes for quick service on drinks with little wait time. I really enjoyed the atmosphere it had music you can dance to and still be able to talk in the club great combination.

Never have I ever … meandered down Oxford Street, been greeted by a distinctly lesbian lady standing outside of a random staircase, stumbled up the staircase, and found anything OTHER than a drag show or strip show.
Oh, Ching-​A-​Lings, where have you been all my life! Unassumingly hidden in the trashiest precinct of Oxford, never-​did-​I-​ever expect to find a small, single floor hip-​hop bar that deals $ 8 drinks and delicious music.
Went here for the first time on Friday night and at 23:30 the party was just getting started! While there are a few tables, it’s more of a stand up and shake it type of place and the dj’s old-​school soul music sure did make me groove.
A refreshing and fun Oxford hip-​hop hangout with an up-​beat vibe sure to make you shake your tail feather.

This is a cool place. Been twice now, once on a weeknight and most recently on a Friday night.
Small unassuming bar, hidden on Oxford Street. You would walk past it if you didn’t know where the entrance was — in fact you have probably walked past it on a drunken night on Oxford.
They have ginormous beer bottles for about $ 10. I ordered a $ 14 mojito, which is not bad. It was served in a short glass though, which was weird. My friends wanted Southern Comfort and Diet Coke, but they only had regular coke and they said it ended up tasting a bit gross.
My mojito tasted good, but I put it down and before I was even done, some worker took it away! That is the one reason its getting 3 starts instead of 4. It’s like let people finisih their drink! Or at least ask if we’re finished.

I think what I like most about Ching-​a-​Lings is that they are sneakily hidden away with that that mod feel — but not in a stuck-​up, exclusive, you’ll never get a table, must wait 30 mins to order a drink type of place.
I think most of their cocktails are in the $ 12 – 14 range and they have jugs of Sangria and Pimms for $ 20. I wouldn’t say their cocktails are anything special actually, but plenty of other options to drink. It’s more about the venue and the music.

I followed Sydney Unilocaler Den B’s suggestion of Ching-​a-​lings as an alternative to the more obvious Darlinghurst area pubs I’d already visited, and timed my visit to catch Thursday gin and juice night.
No problem at all finding the sneaky door (keep your eyes peeled for the Solarium signs), then I found myself wondering what the hell was going on — there was NOBODY in the bar. Just a couple of a guys behind the bar fiddling with the tools of their trade. I ordered up a $ 5 gin and apple, then took a stroll around the space checking out the odd collection of album covers and peeking out over Oxford street.
Then I realized what was going on — everyone was outside on the patio! I made my way out back and located a seat way in the back and settled in for a very chill couple rounds of gin and juice.
The crowd was an continuously recycling mix of what appeared to be folks from the neighborhood, and by the time I decided to pack it in to find some food, the bar inside was finally starting to get going, and the guys working the bar were incredibly efficient yet laid back, taking care of business and making it seem easy.
Ching-​a-​lings is definitely going on the must-​revisit list for a future trip.

Always a good night to be had at ching-​a-​lings.
Strong spirits, longneck Coopers green, DJs spinning the tunes, what’s there not to like?
Thank goodness there weren’t spazzo-​dancing English tourists there last night when I visited, we did watch some poor Aussie bloke pissed off his nut try and pick up Swedish tourists though — fun for the whole family!
Very low key, relaxed attitude — reminds me of a mini Fitzroy (yes that’s in Melbourne, people) — type bar

Come late and come ready to party. Ching-​a-​lings is good fun; it boasts a great open-​air deck out the back and serves Coopers in long-​necks. It’s got a basic, gritty interior, which turns from laidback drinking den to hectic dancefloor as the hours pass and the drinks go down. The DJs spin a good mix of music, so good in fact that trying to get from the front bar to the toilets down the back might just prove impossible. (Unless you’re exceptionally skilled at a shimmy.) Don’t get all dramatic about the unisex toilets, just grin and bear it. Relax and Ching-​a-​lings will provide.

Wow, this place rocks. There surely comes a time in everyone’s life when things aren’t looking too good, and your night has gone to dust, and you just want to go home, and someone in the group says, ‘Let’s go to Pocket bar’ and you go but there’s a line outside and then the same person says, ‘There’s somewhere else’ and suddenly there begins one of the coolest, most rocking nights you’ve had like, ever.
Ching-​a-​lings is invisible if you don’t know where to look so you need the address — 133 Oxford St — and you need to look for a glass door with a metal white frame. And you need to leave your inhibitions and your prejudices and your diet at the door. To clarify: there is a DJ (two when I was there, one after the other) and whether you do it all the time or you never do it, you will do it here (dance, that is). You will also be astounded by the dancing skills of English tourists who mistakenly think that the tight, dark space is justification enough to dance like a moron and hit your arm every few seconds. And thirdly, there’s no diet coke here, folks.
There’s also a limited bar menu. But if you like old-​school hip-​hop and R&B you need to come here.

Finding ching-​a-​lings wasn’t as easy as expected, even after looking at google maps and the map on their website. A hole in the wall, a set of stairs, an open door and some old black and white solarium posters, which friends had told us were the way to tell you’re at the right place, indicated we may have just found this good vibed place that people had been talking about. Rocking up at 7:30 on a thursday night, we were the first ones there, but were assured by the bar-​tender that there were usually more people there at that time. Lucky for us, she also told us that Thursdays were $ 5 gin and juice nights, pick your juice; cloudy apple, pineapple, orange or tonic (cloudy apple is definitely the best), slap in some juice mixed in with a few old school and new school hip hop tracks, and relax in the fairy lit courtyard at the back complete with deck seating and big umbrellas (which were a big plus as it was raining) or the raw, gutted down apartment feel in the bar area. The crowd gets going from about 9pm, chilled, friendly, dressed down-​but still fresh, which suits the place that has a very welcoming feel, a nice change from the big, dress yourself up to the nines, wait in line until the door bitch has checked you out, club/​pub venues in sydney. Each night of the week has a particular theme or special and the place is open everyday night of the week except mondays. Definitely check out this place if you want somewhere where you can have a drink without that pretentious vibe and be yourself while kicking back to some good tunes.